If you have dental insurance, your insurance company provides you with a certain dental benefits each year. In case you're not very familiar with insurance vocabulary, you can think of an insurance benefit as a dental service that the insurance company pays all or most of the cost of. Most dental plans cover the most common preventive services at 100%, meaning the insurance company pays 100% of the cost & you pay nothing.

Humans have been using toothbrushes to remove food from teeth for thousands of years. Early toothbrushes were sticks with frayed ends, & later brushes were made from bone, wood or ivory & animal hairs. We have come a long way since then, & toothbrushes today are very effective at removing food & plaque & keeping your teeth & gums clean to prevent tooth decay.

The temporomandibular joints are the joints on either side of your head that connect your jaw to your skull & allow you to open & close your mouth, chew, & speak. Because it can move in many different directions, these joints are some of the most complex in your body.

The choice between clear braces or metal braces is becoming an age-old debate at the orthodontist's office or the dentist's office. For many patients who wish to straighten their teeth, the choice comes down to balancing the affect of orthodontics on your appearance, it's impact on your budget, & the expected or desired outcome for your particular case.

Any dentist will tell you that dental care is important, but what we might not explain is exactly WHY dental care is important. Though you see a different doctor for your physical health than you do for your oral health, much of what your dentist does is connected to your overall health.

Why not start getting your kids' smiles in shape this summer? Kids, & often moms & dads, have a little more free time during the summer, so it's a great time to get a jumpstart on necessary orthodontic treatment.

As dentists we know we sometimes speak a slightly different, more clinical, language than our patients. We try not to be mysterious, but sometimes what’s common knowledge to us could be confusing to our patients. One common thing that patients want to know is the meaning of the different letters you see after our names: either DDS or DMD. So what’s the difference? Is one better than the other?

Wisdom teeth are the name for your third permanent molars, which typically appear from age 17-25. It is thought the name "wisdom teeth" comes from the fact that they appear long after all your other permanent teeth, when you a much older & wiser. Most people have four wisdom teeth, one in each quadrant of the mouth (upper left, upper right, lower left, lower right).

Just like a post you place when building a fence, a dental post is intended to keep something stable and in place—in this case, a tooth.

Dental crowns, or caps, are one of the most common restorative dental procedures that dentists perform. If you've been told you need a crown, there's no reason to worry. Dental crowns allow us to restore your smile both functionally & aesthetically, & modern techniques mean we can complete the procedure faster than in the past.