101 West College Street, Suite 3
Troy, MO 63379
Natural-looking tooth-colored fillings are made of composite resin and fill cavities just like traditional silver amalgam fillings. Mary Berk, D.D.S., can match your new composite fillings to the exact color of your teeth so they are virtually invisible. Troy Dental Care, a Troy, MO area practice, has seen tooth-colored fillings become more popular over the years. Dr. Berk can remove your old amalgam fillings and replace them with beautifully white, tooth-colored fillings.
Dr. Mary Berk at her Troy area dental implants practice offers extensive experience restoring your dental implant crown.
Our dedicated team uses state-of-the-art materials and techniques for stability and longevity. You'll enjoy the comfort and confidence of natural-looking teeth.
Dr. Mary Berk is a popular Troy area children's dentist known for her easy going and friendly approach. Our caring team is dedicated to your child's dental health.
We're happy to answer all of your questions. We want you and your children to feel comfortable, whether we're treating your toddler's baby teeth or your teenager's permanent teeth.
Second opinions are readily given by Mary Berk, D.D.S., at her practice in the Troy, MO area. Dr. Berk wants you to be able to make an informed decision about your oral health needs. Dr. Berk believes that if a treatment plan is sound, particularly one that is major and/or expensive, it should hold up to scrutiny by other dental professionals.
A negative self image can be detrimental to many facets of your life. Troy area dentist Dr. Mary Berk understands the positive life-changing power that a healthy and beautiful smile can bring to you. Here at Troy Dental Care, we don't want you to be embarrassed any longer. Why not take your smile - and even your life - to a new level of self-confidence and beauty?
Lavitt, Dan L D.D.S.
1316 Old 63 S # 103
Columbia, MO, 65201-6092
jonsmithD.D.S.
4637 Liberty ST
Kansas City , MO, 64112
Unsell, Mickey L D.D.S.
1218 Ne Windsor Dr
Lees Summit, MO, 64086-5594
West End Endodontics
4625 Lindell Blvd
St Louis, MO, 63108-3725
Problems with the way your teeth fit together occur in many different ways. Some bite problems cause discomfort or even pain, and that pain can masquerade as problems that you would not readily associate with your teeth. Some bite problems can cause major damage to your teeth without producing any obvious discomfort.
There are some pretty simple ways that anyone can detect TMJ when a problem with the bite is causing or at least contributing to pain or discomfort.
The clench test: With your mouth empty so there is nothing between your teeth to bite on, close your teeth together and squeeze hard. If clenching your teeth together causes any sign of discomfort in any tooth, you have a disharmony in your bite.
Teeth that are sensitive to cold often get that way from the extra pounding they take if any part of that tooth strikes before the rest of the teeth contact during closure. Use the clench test to see if the extra sensitivity is related to an uneven bite. Squeeze hard. If you can make any tooth hurt by empty mouth clenching, the bite is probably the main reason for the sensitivity. This is a good way to find out if a new filling or crown is "high." If it hurts when you clench, it is probably not in perfect harmony with a correct bite. You should be able to bite hard and grind your teeth together in all directions without feeling discomfort in any tooth if your bite is perfect. The exception to this is if you have advanced periodontal disease, you may have several teeth that can't accept firm biting, but even then, you should not normally feel pain in a single tooth when biting.
If biting hard causes pain or discomfort in the jaw joint, (you may feel it just in front of your ear), you can suspect a possible relationship between your bite and a temporomandibular joint (TMJ) problem. It may be associated with a structural disorder in your TMJ, but more often the pain is coming from certain muscles that move your jaw joints to accommodate a bite that is not in harmony with your TMJs. Your dentist should be able to diagnose the exact source of the pain.
Look for severe wear on your teeth, as this is another sign that your bite is not in harmony. If you have worn all the enamel off the biting edges of your teeth, you will see a darker colored surface. This is dentin and it will wear down seven times faster than the much harder enamel that you've already worn through. So ask your dentist to evaluate what is causing so much wear. This wear can be especially damaging when it is on your front teeth, so if you notice your lower front teeth have worn down to dentin, have your bite checked. Better yet, don't wait till all the enamel is gone. Schedule a visit to your dentist office. Correcting your bite may stop or at least slow down the wear process.
By Peter E. Dawson, DDS
According to the American Cancer Society, about 30,000 new cases of mouth cancer are diagnosed annually in the U.S. About half of those who have oral cancer die within five years. Early detection can make a dramatic difference in treating the cancer at curable stages and reducing oral cancer deaths.
Early detection capabilities recently have been enhanced by a new computer-assisted mouth cancer screening tool. A nationwide study of 945 patients ranging in ages from 18 to 83 was conducted by dentists at 35 U.S. academic dental care sites.
Brush biopsy specimens were obtained from oral lesions as part of the extensive research, testing the accuracy of computer-assisted diagnostic equipment. The brush biopsy caused little or no bleeding and no anesthetic was required. The computer-assisted image analysis was used to identify suspicious cells in the samples.
The computer analysis properly identified every case of pre-cancerous and cancerous lesions as confirmed by lab tests from their traditional tissue evaluations. Additionally, it also correctly identified some lesions that were benign in appearance, but were actually found to be pre-cancerous or cancerous. Had it not been for this new diagnostic equipment, these lesions would have escaped detection and the patient would not have received any additional oral cancer testing.
"Early evaluation of oral pre-cancerous lesions can have a dramatic impact on oral cancer mortality rates," says Dr. James J. Sciubba, DMD, PhD, professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology at State University of New York at Stony Brook, who also serves as a spokesperson for the study. Early-stage mouth cancers are not easily detectable by visual inspection and may be overlooked.
The oral cancer scanner provides dentists a new evaluation tool that can lead to a significant reduction in cancer deaths. An estimated 8,100 people will die from mouth cancer this year. This new dentistry tool has shown remarkable merit as a reliable dental health device. By providing an accurate diagnosis, it has become a crucial weapon in the fight against oral cancer.
By Brian J. Gray, DDS, MAGD, FICO
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