Teague, Texas General & Preventive Dental Care
Keeping your smile whole and healthy is our first priority at Gonzalez Dentistry. Our dedicated dentist and team make general and preventive dental care the focus of treatment plans for all of our patients because taking the time to keep smiles whole and healthy is the best way to ensure a lifetime of healthy smiles. If you’d like to find out more about our dentistry services, contact Gonzalez Dentistry today. We’d be happy to help patients from Teague, Wortham, and other nearby locations.
Checkups & Cleanings
We recommend patients visit our office every six months for checkups and teeth cleanings. During these preventive dentistry appointments, we carefully examine patients’ smiles visually and using advanced diagnostic x-rays and photos. During this diagnostic evaluation, our dentist and team carefully screen for warning signs of common oral health issues including tooth decay, gum disease, teeth grinding, TMJ dysfunction, and oral cancer. Next, one of our skilled hygienists will carefully remove plaque and tartar buildup from even the hardest to access parts of teeth, provide guidance for best practices in at-home hygiene, and make recommendations for oral hygiene products that will maximize your home-care routine. Finally, the dentist will sit down with patients one on one to discuss any oral health issues we find, and create a personalized plan to restore their oral health.
Dental Sealants
One of the fastest and easiest ways to protect your teeth from decay is to literally seal out the plaque and tartar buildup that causes decay. Dental sealants are a quick, comfortable preventive dentistry treatment that creates a barrier between tooth enamel and the acidic and abrasive foods, drinks, and other materials that cause dental wear every day. These sealants can be quickly applied as part of any six-month dental checkup, and with proper daily care, they remain in place protecting smiles for years. The sealant material is applied in liquid form. We paint the clear, plastic coating onto teeth where it seeps into the pits and grooves of patients’ smiles. Once we have coated the teeth, we use a curing light to harden the dental sealants in place.
Nightguards for TMJ/Bruxism Therapy
While temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction and bruxism (the unconscious grinding and clenching of teeth) are two very different oral health conditions with varied causes and effects, patients are often surprised to hear one simple treatment can improve both conditions. Nightguards for the treatment of TMJ dysfunction and bruxism offer dual treatment. For TMJ dysfunction sufferers, the nightguards shift the jaw into its most comfortable resting position, minimizing the amount of unconscious motion and reducing jaw discomfort. For those who suffer from bruxism, nightguards place a physical barrier between rows of teeth preventing chips, cracks, and other wear that occurs due to unconscious grinding and clenching. Over the counter varieties are available and may be minimally effective in treating bruxism, but these retail mouthguards are not suitable as a treatment for TMJ dysfunction.
Fluoride Treatments
Fluoride is a nutrient essential to developing tooth enamel. As teeth are grown below the gum line, the fluoride we ingest in tap water, foods, and supplements is enough to help younger patients develop strong, healthy teeth. However, once teeth erupt from the gum line, topical fluoride is necessary to prevent daily wear from weakening the enamel. For many patients, fluoride in toothpastes and mouth rinses is adequate to fortify and protect the tooth, but for young patients still developing their hygiene routines and older patients who struggle with frequent decay, professional fluoride treatments from Gonzalez Dentistry can help strengthen teeth and prevent decay. We can quickly apply a coat of topical fluoride to teeth as part of any regular dental checkup.
Oral Cancer Screening
Too many patients believe that oral cancer only effects people who use tobacco. Unfortunately, that is simply not the case, and per the Oral Cancer Foundation, the best way to decrease the number of annual deaths related to oral cancer is to diagnose and treat the disease in earlier stages. That’s why our team recommends patients receive oral cancer screenings as part of every six-month checkup. The process is quick and painless, and it may just save lives.
Children’s Dentistry
We welcome patients of all ages at our Teague, TX dental office, and that starts with helping kids achieve and maintain the optimal level of oral health. Our family dentistry practice offers a variety of children’s dentistry options in a comfortable, safe environment to care for patients from the eruption of their very first tooth or before their first birthday. Our skilled dentist and team have experience working with young patients and their unique oral health and behavioral needs.
Athletic Sportsguards
Mouthguards are recommended for any patients who participate in sporting events where their smiles may encounter other players, equipment, or hard surfaces. There are a variety of options available in retail establishments, but because these guards are not made to fit patients’ unique smiles, they are often considered quite uncomfortable. That means, people are less likely to wear them consistently. We offer custom crafted sportsguards that fit comfortably, so players are more likely to wear their guards consistently, and these mouthguards offer superior protection compared with store bought varieties.
Digital X-Rays & Intraoral Camera
Digital x-rays like their traditional counterparts offer the dentist a representation of the underlying structures of patients’ smiles. Unlike traditional radiography, digital x-rays offer higher resolution images, are immediately available for view on chairside monitors, and can be instantly transferred to dental labs, specialists, and insurance providers whenever necessary. Intraoral photography offers us high quality images of the visible parts of teeth that we can use to work with patients to develop their personalized treatment plan.
Digital Impression System
Traditional impressions are captured by having patients bite into a putty-like material. While these impressions are still effective for treatment planning, their digital counterparts offer a faster, more comfortable means for capturing the overall shape and size of the bite as well as precisely imprinting the pits and grooves of patients’ smiles for more accurate treatment planning in a variety of restorative procedures including dental crowns, fixed bridges, and Invisalign orthodontics. These impressions are available immediately for dental labs to begin crafting custom restorations.