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Do you feel like your teeth are beyond repair? You’ve come to the right place. When you’ve suffered a serious trauma or have left teeth untreated for a long period of time, you might feel like giving up hope on your smile. But the reality is, getting a full-mouth reconstruction can leave your teeth looking as good as new!
Here at Water Tower Dental Care, we work hard to offer one of the best full-mouth reconstruction services in Chicago. You’ll never feel the need to hide your teeth again!

What Are Some of the Risks that Come with Damaged Teeth?

Whether your teeth have been broken due to injury or decayed thanks to years of hygienic neglect, dental damage can cause a variety of issues.
First, there’s the most obvious: psychological problems. “Bad teeth” have been found to reduce self-esteem and cause depression. According to research conducted by ICM Research, 31% of people surveyed said that having bad teeth made them less confident in public. Another 15% said their bad teeth made them feel depressed and 10% reported that they don’t speak as much because of their teeth. If you can’t be yourself because of your teeth, you definitely want to seek help.
Having bad teeth doesn’t only affect your social life and psychological well-being. It can also be detrimental to your physical health. Everything in your mouth is connected one way or another. If you leave a cavity untreated, it will get bigger and bigger, causing a lot of pain and eventually leading to tooth loss. Gum disease will also result in tooth loss if it’s not treated. And it doesn’t stop there.
If you lose one tooth, it affects all of your other teeth and the bone that supports your teeth. Without the stimulation from your lost tooth, your bone will begin to decrease in width, which in turn leads to your gum tissue decreasing. These changes make it difficult to chew and speak.
[caption id="attachment_2477" align="alignleft" width="608"] Before and after getting full-mouth reconstruction at Water Tower Dental Care.[/caption]

What Does Full-Mouth Reconstruction Involve?

Hopefully you now see how important it is to get your teeth treated as soon as possible if you have severe dental damage. Dr. Aneszko and Dr. Stino take compromised mouths very seriously. Full-mouth reconstruction can restore the appearance and functionality of even the most damaged mouths.
Every full-mouth reconstruction is made up of a series of treatments. In order to find out the right full-mouth reconstruction plan for you, our dentists will discuss your concerns and goals and evaluate your needs. From there, we may suggest several general, cosmetic, and restorative dentistry treatments. Here are a few treatments we commonly use when performing full-mouth reconstruction:

• Dental implants to replace missing teeth and prevent bone loss.
• Dental crowns for rebuilding cracked, broken or misshaped teeth.
• Porcelain veneers for covering discoloration and crooked or oddly shaped teeth.
• Enamel remineralization for those who have experienced enamel erosion.
• Gum disease treatment therapy to reverse gum disease and restore your gums to good health.

If you’re ready to stop hiding your teeth and start having a smile you’re proud of, contact us about getting full-mouth reconstruction in Chicago. We’re experts at full-mouth reconstruction. Just check out before and after pictures our patients who have received the treatment here! We would be honored to give you your pearly whites back.

Teeth are called pearly whites for a reason. They should be white - not see-through. Along with affecting your appearance, translucent teeth can also signal that something more serious is going on with your teeth. Teeth typically begin to appear translucent when enamel is thinning.

Causes of Translucent Teeth

Wonder why your teeth are becoming ghost-like? It could be a result of acid erosion. If you’re not taking proper care of your teeth, acids in your food and drinks can begin to eat away at your enamel. Very acidic foods include soda, pickles, red wine, tomatoes, and citrus fruits.
Translucent teeth due to thinning enamel isn’t always your fault. Several conditions can cause this issue as well. If you have severe enamel hypoplasia, your enamel will lose minerals and your teeth will appear translucent. This condition is a side effect of both genetic and environmental factors, and occurs when your teeth are developing. Celiac disease can also lead to issues with the development of your enamel. Finally, conditions like bulimia, morning sickness and acid reflux (GERD) can cause acids to erode your tooth enamel.
As you can see, enamel erosion or thinning can be caused by a wide variety of factors. It’s best to visit your dentist to figure out exactly why you’re experiencing translucent teeth so that you can halt the thinning as soon as possible.

How to Fix Translucent Teeth

Once your enamel is gone, it can’t regrow naturally. However, there are some ways the doctor can remineralize your teeth and make them appear whiter and brighter again.

• Enamel Remineralization: During enamel remineralization, your doctor will open up the “pores” in your teeth and penetrate the tooth with calcium phosphate, sodium fluoride and Recaldent. This combination of ingredients will act like enamel by improving the appearance, strength and sensitivity of the tooth. Not only will your teeth be whiter, but they will also be more resistant to acid erosion and decay, will be less sensitive and have less white spots, or none at all. You can see a picture of one of our patient’s teeth before and after enamel remineralization to the right.
• Veneers: If you want to purely improve the appearance of your teeth, veneers will take the translucency out of your smile. Veneers are simply placed on top of your teeth to cover up the translucent color. You can either choose to receive either traditional porcelain veneers or time-saving minimal prep veneers, depending on your needs and budget.

Steps to Prevent this Problem

While you can’t prevent enamel hypoplasia or celiac disease, you can prevent acid erosion from foods or from conditions like bulimia, acid reflux and morning sickness. Immediately after you eat acidic foods, throw up or experience acid reflux, it’s important that you wash your mouth out with water. Do not brush your teeth right away. Since acids make your enamel more vulnerable, brushing immediately could do more harm to your enamel. Wait at least 30 minutes before you brush, and use mouthwash to ensure you wash all of the acids away.
Worried about your translucent teeth? Don’t be afraid to call Chicago’s #1 dentistry, Water Tower Dental Care. We’ll be happy to discuss what may be happening to your teeth and put together a treatment plan for you. You’ll be on the path to a healthy set of pearly whites in no time!

If you’re a fan of DIY dental care, you’ve probably heard of using baking soda to clean and whiten your teeth. Before you take on any DIY healthcare you read about online, it’s important to do your research. Using baking soda too regularly could cause irreversible damage to your enamel. However, that doesn’t mean you should never use baking soda on your teeth. Let’s explore if baking soda is actually good for your teeth now.

What is Baking Soda?

In many people’s homes, baking soda doesn’t leave the kitchen. But baking soda actually has a tremendous variety uses. From cleaning your bathroom to making your clothes smell better, it’s pretty amazing to see what baking soda can do.
Technically speaking, baking soda is a salt called sodium bicarbonate. It usually comes in the form of white powder, though it can also be seen as a small crystal. Along with a host of other uses, baking soda has become a popular ingredient for cleaning teeth

Why Do People Use Baking Soda On Their Teeth?

So why would people use a popular baking ingredient on their teeth? Well, baking soda has actually proven to provide some pretty great teeth cleaning benefits. According to the Journal of Clinical Dentistry, those who brushed their teeth with baking soda experienced significantly better plaque removal than those who brushed their teeth without baking soda.
Baking soda has also been found to effectively remove surface stains on teeth, making them look whiter. However, baking soda can only help with surface stains. For more severe stains, you will want to speak to your dentist about professional teeth whitening treatments. Finally, it can also make your breath smell better and it’s incredibly cheap - typically around $1 for a box that will last a while.
How does a simple household product provide all of these benefits? Baking soda is made up of a chemical compound that makes it a mild abrasive. Baking soda’s abrasiveness allows it to clean stains off of your teeth so well. Though the American Dental Association (ADA) has not approved brushing teeth with just baking soda, they have accepted toothpaste with baking soda in it.

How Can Baking Soda Be Bad For Your Teeth?

Just because baking soda has been found to be good for your teeth in some instances doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be cautious with it. Overdoing it with baking soda can cause irreversible damage to your teeth. And, like we mentioned above, the ADA has not approved brushing your teeth with pure baking soda.
Since baking soda is abrasive, you can cause irreversible damage to your teeth’s enamel by eroding it if you continue to use it over time. This erosion can cause your teeth to become sensitive and makes you more vulnerable to cavities.
Baking soda also doesn’t contain fluoride, so you will need to use a regular toothpaste as well to ensure your teeth stay strong and to prevent cavities.
Finally, you will want to avoid using baking soda on your teeth if you wear braces or permanent retainers. Baking soda can soften the glue in braces and permanent retainers. The last thing you want to do is pay for new braces due to baking soda.
While baking soda can be an excellent way to keep your teeth looking and feeling healthy, you need to make sure you’re using it safely. At Water Tower Dental Care, we can recommend safe and effective dental care products that include baking soda to ensure that you are keeping your teeth as healthy as they can be. If you have more severe teeth staining than baking soda can help with, contact us to discuss professional teeth whitening. We can brighten your teeth up to eight shades in about one hour with Zoom! Teeth Whitening!

You can’t always put off seeing the dentist. If you have a simple cavity, it’s easy to wait to see the dentist for a couple of days. A painful cracked tooth is another story. We’re here to help you figure out what you should do if you have a dental emergency in Chicago. The more prepared you are, the quicker you’ll be able to deal with any serious dental issues.

What Are Dental Emergencies?

Just because you experience a little tooth pain or discomfort doesn’t mean you need to drop everything and see the dentist right away. Some dental issues require more immediate attention, whereas others can wait a few days or weeks. Here are some potential teeth problems that may be considered dental emergencies:

• Lost tooth
• Knocked-out tooth
• Loose tooth
• Tooth that’s moved out of alignment
• Chipped tooth that’s in pain
• Fractured or cracked tooth
• Serious tissue injury inside your mouth
• Acute teeth, gum or tissue pain
• Continuous bleeding from tissues inside your mouth
• Infection inside your mouth

What To Do If You’re Experiencing a Dental Emergency in Chicago

If you have a dental emergency in Chicago, you need to see a dentist right away. This is why we Water Tower Dental Care offers 24/7 emergency dental care to our patients on The Magnificent Mile. All you have to do is give us a call and we’ll take care of the rest.  If you call us outside of normal office hours, please listen to the recording on our voicemail and follow the instructions. Emergency calls are answered at all hours of the day, as is emergency dental care.

CEREC One-Visit Crowns

One of the most common dental emergencies at Water Tower Dental Care is a cracked, chipped or fractured tooth. Whether you crack your tooth on food or knock your tooth against something, this type of injury can cause serious pain. A broken tooth can also cause your nerves to be exposed to dangerous bacteria, which can cause dangerous infection.
We can treat this issue quickly and effectively with a CEREC One-Visit Crown, alleviating your pain and providing you with a full tooth again. Using our CEREC technology, we can perfectly fit, craft and place your crown, inlay or onlay in just one hour. It’s the perfect solution to a painful dental emergency.
Experiencing a dental emergency? Call us right now. If you’re calling during us during our off-hours, please follow the simple instructions in the recording you hear. We provide emergency dental care in Chicago 24 hours a day, seven days a week.