Not that long ago, a trip to the dentist could take up a fair bit of your time and was seldom a pleasant experience. Perhaps an x-ray would come out blurry and need to be re-taken or the dentist would accidentally chip off a bit of an adjacent tooth while using an unwieldy drill to prepare another for a filling and then have to repair the one he or she inadvertently damaged.
Today’s dentist office barely resembles the ones of past. Thanks to modern dental technology, Dr. William Schlesinger’s Upper North Side patients spend far less time in the dentist chair and also benefit from better diagnostics, leading to more effective treatment. You will be assured of a comfortable, complication-free experience when you visit Dr. Schlesinger.
Back in the day, the typical dental patient would not have been able to even imagine a tiny camera placed in the mouth in order to get an image taken of their teeth. Today, intra-oral cameras are used routinely. They can magnify your teeth up to twenty-five times their size – just imagine how decay, bad fillings, plaque and worn teeth look when magnified to that extent.
These images help Dr. Schlesinger to get a fully accurate picture of your mouth, so he can recommend the best possible course of treatment. Images taken using intra-oral cameras are also frequently used to prove to your insurance company that a specific treatment is necessary. This is very inexpensive technology. If you like, you can even have images printed off so that you can show your friends the amazing landscape that is your mouth! You could even post them to Facebook, if you’re tired of sharing selfies or pictures of your pets.
In order to maintain the best possible oral health, it is important to identify cavities in their early stages. Sometimes, decay can take hold very quickly and not only damage one tooth, but spread to adjacent teeth. Chances are that you will have difficulty identifying even moderate cavities, let alone cavities that are just beginning to develop. Dr. William Schlesinger uses the DIAGNOdent® laser cavity detection system to identify cavities that may not be easily seen, so that they can be caught early on and then filled before they take hold.
Dr. Schlesinger is a highly skilled dentist, but even he can miss a cavity by simply looking for it with the naked eye. Some cavities, in fact, will not even show up on an x-ray. DIAGNOdent never misses a cavity and that means that they can be treated before they need large fillings or worse, an extraction.
Going back to the not-so-good old days, it was really not so long ago that taking dental x-rays was a time-consuming procedure. You needed to sit in the chair, have a huge, uncomfortable unit placed in your mouth, have the images taken and then wait while they were developed. If the image was blurry or the dentist failed to get the right angle, you had to repeat the procedure. It was not uncommon for patients to become totally frustrated and tell the dentist, “Just do whatever you think you need to do without the x-rays.” And of course, that meant frequently patients did not get the best possible treatment.
Today, dental x-rays are taken digitally. The mouthpiece is not uncomfortable and the process hardly ever has to be repeated. The x-rays are taken, processed on the computer and deliver an amazingly accurate image. This means that x-rays are far less expensive than they used to be, time spent in the chair is minimal and you get more effective treatment.
Today, everything is digital. The x-rays are taken, processed immediately on the computer and there is hardly ever any need to repeat the procedure. As well, modern dental x-rays deliver a considerably lower level of radiation and the imaging is incredibly accurate. This means that you spend considerably less time in the chair, you save money and you get better treatment.
Increasingly, CT scans are becoming the standard for identifying where to place stents and dental implants. Using this technology, your dentist is able to form a more accurate plan for treatment and your time spent in the dentist chair is reduced.
The Cone Beam CT provides a full, three-dimensional image of your mouth, allowing for a thorough analysis of your tooth orientation and bone structure. It gives your dentist a far better picture of what is going on in your mouth than he would get with a traditional, two-dimensional x-ray. The images delivered are comparable to those that you would get with a medical CT scan, but with much lower radiation. Additionally, you do not have to be placed in an uncomfortable “tunnel” to have the scan done. Instead, you will relax in your dentist chair the same way that you would for any other procedure.
In addition to helping your dentist determine where to place stents and implants, CBCT Cone Beam scans can identify problems with the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), locate tumors and identify impacted teeth.
Rotary endodontics is simply the process of using electrically powered tools instead of manual files when doing a root canal. It is a more reliable, faster method because the electric tools make use of flexible nickel titanium tips that can get deep into the root of the tooth without damaging the canal.
Dr. William Schlesinger uses rotary endodontics because not only is the procedure more efficient and faster, there is less risk of complications due to the flexibility of the tip. Patients find the procedure more comfortable and less stressful. It is important to note that rotary endodontics may not be appropriate for every root canal procedure. However, most patients are well-suited to this method. Despite the fact that root canal treatment is a routine, pain-free procedure, since it is done using a local anesthetic, patients who are apprehensive about dental treatments in general often fear getting a root canal in particular. Rotary endodontics are highly recommended for apprehensive patients because the loud noise that goes hand-in-hand with manual filing is eliminated.
If you are like most people, there are a couple of things that trouble you about dental treatments. No one loves the idea of the needle, but surprisingly, what patients seem to fear most is the drill. It does not even have to be in your mouth – apprehensive patients uniformly report that the worst thing about a trip to the dentist is just the sound of the drill starting up. For some patients, just that sound is enough to make them get out of the chair and forego the treatment they need.
Dr. William Schlesinger uses electric hand pieces. Even the most apprehensive patients typically have no problem with them because they are considerably less noisy than ordinary drills. In addition to easing your fear, electric hand pieces have the added benefit of enabling Dr. Schlesinger to conduct your treatment with a higher level of precision. Decayed areas can be excised more precisely, resulting in less of your tooth being removed. This allows your fillings to adhere more effectively.
How common do you suppose migraine headaches are? You might be surprised to learn that nearly 30,000,000 Americans experience migraines and for a good number, they recur with disturbing regularity.
The NTI-TSS® is a dental appliance (a night guard) that fits over your front teeth and works to keep your back teeth and canines apart. In this way, the night-time grinding and clenching that can cause migraine headaches is eliminated. The device is FDA-approved, and in clinical trials has been shown to reduce migraine headaches by 77% in 82% of users.
Other night guards can often cause a gag reflex in patients. That usually means that they are reluctant to wear a night guard, and of course they get no relief from their migraine headaches. Because the NTI-SS is smaller than a traditional night guard and fits only over the front teeth, patients find it very comfortable. Accordingly, they wear it and get relief. If you have migraine headaches, Dr. William Schlesinger can fit you with an NTI-SS device.
One of the biggest challenges you and your dentist can face during oral surgery, or implant placement, is damage to the jawbone and tissues due to tooth loss. If you lack sufficient support in your jaw, dental implants can be difficult to stabilize and you can take a long time to heal. So, is there a solution?
There is. It’s therapy that is made from your own blood. L-PRF™ (leukocyte-platelet rich fibrin) promotes bone growth and healing from your own body. With this procedure, Dr. Schlesinger takes a sample of your blood and then places it in a tube – it is really no different than the blood draw for those routine tests your doctor orders from time to time. Then, your blood is placed in a tube and delivered to the IntraSpin™ system where it is separated and the important cells are concentrated to create your own L-PRF that is placed directly into the surgical site in order to promote healing.