Restorative Dentistry
Cavities, worn and broken, and missing teeth can negatively impact your comfort, confidence, and overall quality of life.
Tooth sensitivity, jaw pain, trouble eating, and reluctance to smile can all come from having teeth that aren’t as healthy as they could be. And just as there are many different reasons your teeth might be causing you pain or discomfort, there are many ways to treat them as well. At Nashville Restorative Dentistry, we’ll discuss all your treatment options so that you’re empowered to choose what’s best for you and understand the plan every step of the way.
Restorative Dentistry Services in Nashville, TN
Learn more about the restorative dentistry services Dr. Jones and Dr. Estes offer patients in Nashville, Brentwood, Franklin, and Cool Springs.
White Fillings
Restore cavities, repair chipped teeth, and replace unattractive old fillings with tooth-colored composite resins that are indistinguishable from the natural tooth. We use BPA-free composites and never use any metal, so you don’t need to worry about materials like mercury found in outdated amalgam fillings.
Crowns, In/Onlays, and Bridges
Ceramic restorations fit over or into natural teeth and are used to strengthen fractured teeth or repair bad cavities and broken teeth. They can be made to look exactly like your natural teeth or dramatically alter and improve their color, shape, or position. We always use metal-free ceramic and zirconia crowns, providing you with the most aesthetically pleasing and safest materials. The majority of our crowns are finished in just one appointment using our in-office CEREC technology. This method prevents the inconvenience of wearing a temporary restorations and returning for a second appointment to get the permanent.
Dentures
Dentures are natural looking removable replacements for your missing teeth. Dentures are the most economical way to replace all or most of your teeth, but they can still provide a stunning improvement of your smile and ability to eat. Implants can also be utilized to help stabilize dentures, increasing your confidence and ability to smile and chew with security.
Root Canals
This procedure can treat infected or painful teeth, allowing you to preserve your natural tooth and avoid an extraction and potential replacement. This is accomplished by removing infected or inflamed nerve tissue from inside the root of the tooth. We utilize ozone gas during our root canal procedures to enhance your treatment outcome. As with all other treatment options, we will discuss the pros and cons of a root canal with you and assist you in deciding if it is in line with your health goals.
White Fillings
Natural-looking composite resin fillings are superior to outdated silver amalgam fillings in every way.
- A more biocompatible and conservative treatment choice
- BPA and mercury free
- Blends in with your natural enamel
Mercury amalgam metal fillings should be a thing of the past. This outdated material you may be familiar with contains mercury, the most potent neurotoxin known to man.
At Nashville Restorative Dentistry, we only use tooth-colored white fillings. These composite resins are made from metal free modern materials and applied with the latest in dental techniques. We've even taken it a step further and chosen resins which are BPA free. White fillings look like your natural teeth, but that’s not where the benefits end. They also create significantly less fracturing of teeth compared to amalgam fillings, they don’t create dark staining of teeth or gums, and they provide a superior seal to the tooth compared to old amalgam fillings.
Crowns, In/Onlays, Bridges
These ceramic restorations can be used to fix a variety of issues: strengthening broken or fractured teeth, improving the look of discolored or misshapen teeth, and replacing missing teeth.
- Crowns not only improve the appearance of your teeth, they can strengthen them as well.
- Nashville Restorative Dentistry only uses all ceramic options (e.max and zirconia), no metals
- In most cases, we can provide the permanent crown or in/onlay in a single visit using our CEREC technology - preventing the inconvenience of a temporary crown and the need to return for a second appointment
Our treatment goal is to provide the most conservative treatment available. Sometimes, the existing damage or risk to a tooth requires more invasive options to achieve the best long-term result. Crowns are one of the most common dental procedures because they can be used for a variety of needs: like fixing a cavity that is too big for a filling, strengthening a broken or fractured tooth, or altering the appearance of a poorly colored or shaped tooth. Bridges are a long term alternative option to a dental implant for replacing some missing teeth. Bridges connect crowns on teeth on both sides of a missing tooth to replace what's missing.
Dentures
An economical option to replace all of your teeth and recreate the smile you used to have or the one you've always wanted.
- Regain the confidence that comes with a beautiful smile and the ability to chew without pain or worry
- Dental implants can be used in several ways to stabilize and secure dentures
- No more dealing with loose dentures when you’re talking or eating. Fear no food and dig in.
If you're missing a significant number of teeth or your current teeth are not healthy enough to last for the long term, sometimes a denture can be your best option to replace everything at once. A healthy looking smile can be created to look like you did in your past or transform your appearance with the smile you've always dreamed about.
A digital scan of your mouth and a detailed impression along with photographs is the first step. Next, we try in a prototype to allow you confirm that everything looks perfect - the color, shape, and position of the teeth. Once you've confirmed it is what you want, the final denture is created using an artistic process that creates a beautiful set of teeth and gums that are indistinguishable from a natural smile.
If you want the increased stability and confidence that implants can provide your dentures, there are several options available. As few as two implants can be used on the bottom jaw to provide a button like attachment to the denture that prevents it from moving around or lifting up. If you don't want to be able to remove the dentures at all, 4-6 implants can be placed in each jaw allowing for the attachment of a hybrid denture prosthesis that can only be removed in the dental office.
You can read more about dental implants on our Implants Service page and check out Before and After images of different types of denture cases we've completed in our Smile Gallery.
Root Canals
Procedure that allows you to prevent extracting a painful or infected tooth.
- Advanced 3D CT imagery is used to better diagnose and plan treatment
- Ozone is used in our root canal treatment process to optimize healing
- Nitrous oxide (laughing gas) or conscious sedation are available to ease any anxiety you may have
Root canals are one of the procedures we receive the most questions about. We promise to listen to your concerns and dignify them with the honest answers you deserve.
There are two reasons a tooth could need a root canal: a tooth is alive but the nerve is irreversibly inflamed and painful or a tooth is dead and an abscess infection has developed in the bone around the tooth root. The root canal procedure removes the inflamed or infected nerve tissue from inside the root of the tooth and replaces it with a filling material. The goal is to allow you to keep your natural tooth and eliminate the pain or infection that was present.
The concern with root canals is the inability of the procedure to completely eliminate all the bacteria inside the millions of microscopic tubules in the tooth root. If continued bacterial activity or infection continues, it could potentially contribute to other systemic ailments or reduce your immune systems' effectiveness. We commonly see root canals on 3D CT scans that have not completely healed or have become reinfected over time.
If you decide that a root canal is not a procedure you wish to have, removing the tooth is the other option available to treat the infection or pain that's present. When extracting a tooth we make sure to completely remove the roots, any abscesses present, as well as the periodontal ligament. We also infiltrate ozone gas into the socket and routinely place PRF into the socket to help you heal quickly and reduce post op pain. We'll talk through all the tooth replacement options available to you. These include a dental implant (titanium or zirconia), a bridge, or a removable partial denture.