Routine care

Dental diagnostics . . .

We use a variety of tools to determine your current state of dental health. They include:

• Magnification. The first line of defense is our eyes, so we wear magnification glasses during your cleaning, exam and treatment.
• Laser. Laser technology allows us to detect decay at the earliest possible time even before we can see it. This means the filling is smaller and your tooth is less compromised.
• Intra oral camera. This wand-like camera allows you to see what we see in your mouth.
• Doppler. We listen to your jaw joint with Doppler technology to detect jaw diseases.
• X-rays. We can only see one-third of your tooth through a visual exam. X-rays help us see the remaining two-thirds below the gum surface. We can determine the health of your root canal structure, bone structure and tooth structure. For most people, we recommend full mouth x-rays (depending on your dental status) every five to ten years and bitewing x-rays (four films taken of just your molars to detect decay and to evaluate bone levels) once a year. We use a digital x-ray system which reduces radiation by 1/3 and provides almost instant diagnostics.