FAQ

DENTOLOGY offers life-time warranty for breaking/chipping on implant crowns and 10-year limited implant body warranty. Very rarely other dentists can guarantee crowns from breaking and/or chipping for life.

Dr. Andrews starts every treatment with thorough diagnostics and case planning. He uses neuromuscular approach to achieve equilibrium between muscles, joints and teeth. This allows to avoid excessive pressure and stress on implant bridges from chewing and bruxism (grinding and clenching). Most cases require only one surgery to remove failed teeth, place bone grafts/preform sinus lift where needed, and place implants.

Dr. Andrews uses advanced digital treatment planning. He is one of the most advanced CAD/CAM dentists in the world. He uses advanced intraoral digital 3D scanning technology with 10-micron precision (0.0004 inch) which produces a perfect replica for tooth restoration and implant placements. All of his implant restorations are made model-less while utilizing Virtual Prosthodontics.

Designing all cases himself, Dr. Andrews retains 100% control over shape, proportions, emergence profile, materials and shade of dental restorations. All cases are finished and quality check at DENTOLOGY in-house dental lab under direct doctor’s supervision.

An estimated 99% of dentists still use intra-oral impressions and stone models to restore and design teeth and dental implants. This old school technique yields 40-micron precision (0.0016 inch) at its best.

Most dentist send their implant cases to dental laboratories for fabrication. They rely on dental technicians to make implant crowns and bridges. This dependency on technicians causes other dentists to lose control over design, materials, and quality of the final restorations.

Unfortunately, 95% of dental technicians simply do not have the appropriate training in dentistry. This could result in inadequately contoured crowns, poorly fitting implant restorations, inability to obtain aesthetic appeal with high performance function, and potentially causing implant failure.

Most dentists try to find an easy and quick way to treat complicated cases (for example, using the All-On-4 technique). They also use extra-long (ZYGOMA) implants to obtain more bone support. Placing ZYGOMA extra-long implants endangers well-being of patients due to its invasive nature and increased risk of complications.

Dr. Andrews places implants immediately after extracting teeth. Dr. Andrews uses no less than 6-7 mm wide implant diameter for molars. As a result, implants are much stronger and NEVER fracture. DENTOLOGY patients have only one surgery to replace their failing teeth with dental implants.

Most other dentists do not place implants immediately after extractions. Most dentists wait 4-6 months and their patients loose bone volume (width). Then, they use small diameter implants (3-5 mm diameter) to replace molar teeth. As a result of inadequate load from chewing, clenching and grinding, implant fatigues and fractures. Other dentists’ patients usually go through 3-4 surgeries to replace their failing teeth with dental implants.

Dr. Andrews uses advanced minimally invasive surgical techniques to create bone where he needs it for wide diameter implants. His wide molar implants have 300-400% more contact surface with bone and loose less bone over time.

Other Dentists do not know how to create enough bone width on narrow bone ridges for wide implants. They place whatever they are able on such a small site. Narrow implants cause bone loss over time and ultimately fracture.

The long-term success for dental implants depends on multiple factors, the most important one being post-implant care. Another factor for implant success is the quality and quantity of bone. The more bone available, the denser the bone, the greater the chance of long-term success. If a patient smokes it has been shown that they are statistically two and a half times more likely to have an implant fail than a non-smoker. Another factor responsible for implant failure is bad bite. Biting forces are extreme, especially during clenching and grinding at night (bruxism). Bruxism can also destroy healthy natural teeth through wear, cracking and breaking. Dental Implants, due to direct integration with the bone, demand thorough articulation with opposite teeth, as well as protection with a night guard to be a good long-term (10 years+) implant.

Dental Zirconia is Zirconium dioxide (ZrO2). It is a compound of the element zirconium occurring in nature and has already been used for 10-15 years in prosthetic dentistry. Compared to regular dental porcelain, Zirconia has incredible bending strength, high resistance and is fully bio-compatible. Zirconia as a pure oxide does not occur in nature. It has been given the nickname “ceramic steel”, and the scientific term is zirconia dioxide. This bio-material is widely used in medicine and dentistry because of its mechanical strength as well as its chemical and dimensional stability and elastic modulus similar to stainless steel.

A unique characteristic of zirconia is its ability to stop crack growth, which is termed “transformation toughening”. White is a basic color of Zirconia. Its biotechnological characteristics enable the production of bio-compatible, high-quality and aesthetic dental and implant reconstructions. Prettau Zirconia displays incredible density and smoothness. Thus, it does not cause any wear on natural dentition. By contrast, regular porcelain crown or veneer will cause wear on natural dentition, due to its highly porous structure which acts like sandpaper.

We do not offer teeth replacement with Zirconia implants at DENTOLOGY, only our crowns are made from Zirconia.

Zirconia Implants do not have scientific evidence supporting long-term success rate in teeth replacement; Zirconia is not FDA approved for Implant bodies.

Dr. Andrews uses titanium implants. Oftentimes, people are concerned with titanium material for implants but long known to be the best bio-compatible material for dental implants.

The most effective graft material is your own natural bone, then freeze dried human bone, followed by processed animal bone, and lastly, mineral bone substitute. To increase effectiveness of the bone grafting, Dr. Andrews uses PRF (platelet-rich fibrin) and has seen remarkable results with it. PRF is a growth factors saturated blood clot made from your own blood. Prior to the surgery our phlebotomist will draw 20-40ml of your blood and prepare a PRF to be placed into the surgical site later. PRF is a recent innovation in dentistry, a suspension of Concentrated Growth Factors (CGF), found in platelets of the patient’s blood. These growth factors are involved in wound healing and promote tissue regeneration. Use of PRF promotes healing, decreases risk of infection, decreases post-operative discomfort and pain.

The safest, and most desirable source of bone grafting material comes from your own body. Drilling jawbone for implant placement naturally produces bone shavings. These shavings are cleanly collected by Dr. Andrews and used as grafting materials. In the cases of larger grafts, surgical procedures have been developed to harvest additional bone from other places in your body. Also completely sterile, although the least effective, are mineral bone substitutes. Most popular mineral graft materials do not remain in the body, but are naturally absorbed by the body and replaced by healthy bone. Consider receiving human donor bone or animal bone elements to be the same as receiving blood from the blood bank, with a similar level of risk. The processing techniques used to prepare the freeze-dried bone and the animal bone elements results in graft materials which have proven to be extremely safe. Also Dr. Andrews uses only materials from a reputable, well managed national tissue bank in the U.S. There is, theoretically, an extremely small chance that infectious disease could be transmitted through either of these materials.

As with any procedure, there are risks involved; these include reactions to medicine, bleeding and infections. Infection is reported to occur in less than 1% of cases and is curable with antibiotics. Overall, patients with a preexisting illness are at a higher risk of getting an infection as opposed to those who are overall healthy. To reduce and prevent any possible risks during bone grafting, Dr. Andrews uses PRF for all his bone grafts surgeries. Being a natural blood clot itself, PRF stops any bleeding. Since PRF has plenty of your white blood cells – lymphocytes and leukocytes – it dramatically reduces risk of infections. Presence of concentrated platelets, packed with growth factors, stimulates regeneration, promotes faster healing and reduces post-surgical discomfort.

Patients that presents with fractured fillings, caries around amalgam, broken teeth around amalgam fillings, and loss of marginal adaptation are candidates for amalgam removal.

A referral letter from a medical professional (MD) is required.

We do not provide any testing at our locations.

The cost for safe removal of amalgam is not covered by dental insurance and includes an additional $100 surcharge per tooth with a minimal charge of $250 that will not be covered by any plan.

We use several effective measures to prevent amalgam mercury vapors and amalgam particles getting inside the digestive system or being inhaled. Among those are:

• High-power, high-volume air suction system as alternative to oxygen mask

• Isolation of teeth with a rubber dam (membrane)

• Covering exposed hair and skin with liquid tight barrier

There is very limited time dedicated to this aspect of Dentistry in Dentists’ curriculum. Muscles and joints typically get a cursory once-over. As dentists go into practice, it is not uncommon to hear them say that they have done procedures ‘by the book’ and yet have less than satisfactory results. Or, that a case is so complex they refer the case out rather than treat it themselves.

TNeuromuscular dentists commonly report that taking muscle and joint status into consideration aids them in optimizing treatment, minimizing the times that they are ‘surprised’ by less than ideal outcomes, and gives them the added insight needed to treat complex cases.

Neuromuscular Dentistry begins with true relaxation of muscles through the use of TENS. TENS is a widely used term, but as used in Neuromuscular Dentistry it is more properly called ultra-low frequency electrical muscle stimulation. This safe, battery operated device delivers a mild electrical stimulus to the muscles via neural pathways. The stimulus induces involuntary contraction of muscles controlled by the facial (7th) and masticatory (5th) cranial nerves.

Muscles of the face and neck are often ‘programmed’ (propriocepted) to control head and mandibular posture in a way that accommodates occlusion (bite), even though that particular occlusion may be less than ideal. Dr. Andrews relaxes these often tense muscles to find their true resting state and establishes occlusion at that position. It is extremely difficult to voluntarily overcome this proprioception, so ‘TENS’ is used.

The state of teeth and joints cause surrounding muscles to accommodate. Evaluation of the hard tissue alone does not provide insight to the true status of the occlusal system. This is why Dr. Andrews uses objective, scientifically documented methods in comprehensive evaluation of occlusion. Through the use of jaw tracking, electromyography and joint sound recording, a complete analysis of the function (or dysfunction) of masticatory system is accomplished.

ESG is most commonly called ‘sonography’ and sometimes ‘joint vibration analysis’. It utilizes computer-based vibration sensitive transducer technology that quickly and non-invasively records joint sounds and vibrations originating from the temporomandibular (TM) joints. The patient wears a lightweight headset that positions two sensors over the joints. Dr. Andrews instructs the patient to open and close their mouth, and in just a few minutes valuable information about joint function is captured for analysis.

Bone transmission of sound is so rapid that unilateral study of joint sound with a stethoscope may not even discern which side the sound is coming from. Further, sounds studied in this manner are subjective and not documented. Data captured by means of sonography not only records joint sounds from both TM joints simultaneously, the information can be played back at will. Dr. Andrews can analyze this recorded information in a number of ways that may yield additional insight regarding joint status and joint function. The test can be used as a very quick assessment of joint status and to document patient’s response to neuromuscular treatment.