Advanced Dental Services & Technology – Rowley, MA
Modern, Down-to-Earth
Dental Care
Dr. St. Clair believes that most dental problems are preventable. However, he also believes, as a restorative dentist, that technology can help provide high quality, efficient, and more conservative treatment. Laser cavity detection and digital x-rays have been a part of our dental office for over a decade. CAD/CAM technology, along with digital scanning, has also been incorporated to allow conservative impression-less dental restorations. Digital scanning is also used to aid in the fabrication of custom oral appliances to treat sleep apnea and TMJ problems.
How Dental Technology Makes Our Dentistry Better
- Highly Accurate, Safe Diagnostics
- Advanced Solutions for Finding and Treating Cavities
- Earlier, More Effective Treatments
Dental X-Rays
Dental X-rays are essential for diagnosis. We use a combination of digital and traditional equipment to provide you with safe diagnostic images. Dental X-rays provide us information we cannot see by simply looking in your mouth. We require yearly bitewing (back teeth) X-rays and a full series (FMX) every 3-5 years based on the needs of the patient. This is the standard of care. To learn more about dental X-rays, please click below to read newspaper columns written by Dr. St. Clair.
Dental X-ray Column #1 Dental X-ray Column #2 Dental X-ray Column #3
Laser Cavity Detection
Research has shown that dentists can miss up to 50% of cavities. This is not due to carelessness, but rather the way decay forms in teeth.
Dentists were taught to diagnose cavities by checking for soft spots in teeth with a small pick or by looking at an X-ray. Thanks to fluoride, sometimes people’s enamel can be very hard or dense, thereby making decay hard to detect with the hand or eye. Decay going undetected can lead to more invasive restorative procedures and expense. This is one of the reasons we have mixed opinions on sealants on teeth. Sealants can leak and decay can go undetected, even with the laser, because it cannot penetrate through the sealant material.
The Solution: Early Detection & Early Treatment
The Diagnodent Laser works on the principle that healthy tooth structure reflects light differently from diseased tooth structure (cavities). The examination is completely painless. The light wand is placed on the chewing surface of the tooth and the instrument registers a number that correlates with the density of the tooth structure and the probability of decay. The instrument is 99% accurate.
Click here to read a newspaper article Dr. St. Clair has written on the Diagnodent.
