Dental Blog for Charlotte NC Dentist

How to Reduce or Prevent Tooth Cavities

As a follow-up to my recent blockbuster article (viewed nearly 3,000 times just in Feb. 2014 in 50 countries around the world - WOW!), Can Cavities be Cured, I'd like to talk about how you can decrease your risk of getting cavities, since I think we can all agree (holistics and conventional medicine followers alike) that prevention is by far the best. The thing is, there are so many choices, how in the world do you choose!? What Toothbrush Should You Use? Back in dental school (UNC Chapel Hill School of Dentistry '98), I still remember one of our professors giving us the following information: A properly used manual toothbrush can do as good a job as an electric toothbrush; the problem is that most people don't use a manual toothbrush properly. In all of my almost 16 years of experience in full-time, private practice dentistry, I have found this statement to be perfectly on target. The simple fact is, no matter how many times a dentist or hygienist reviews the proper way to brush, most people don't do it that way. Why? One simple reason - although this is my opinion only, not something that's been studied AFAIK - when you're in a rush to brush in the morning or before bed, you grab the brush and start scrubbing away and get the teeth done as fast as possible before running out the door or going to bed. Am I right? Of course I am! So what do I recommend? Why do I recommend the Sonicare Electric Toothbrush? Let's count the reasons: An automatic timer with a beep every 30 seconds so you brush for 2 minutes A pressure sensor to automatically [...]

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By Charles Payet| 2017-06-09T20:33:17-04:00 February 12th, 2014|Taking Care of Your Teeth|0 Comments

Feb. 2014 Snow Closings Again

Yes indeed, our Charlotte family dentist office is closed again due to snow on Wednesday, Feb. 12th and will probably be closed for the remainder of the week (Feb. 13th and 14th). We do apologize for the inconvenience, but seeing as it really isn’t very safe to be driving, and the weather forecast says this storm won’t quit until sometime on Thursday, so we have to be safe. As the police are recommending, PLEASE stay off the roads unless it is a genuine emergency. I had to go out this morning, before it really got bad, and even then it was already getting slick. Here’s a shot of Matthews-Pineville Rd./NC Highway 51 near Calvary Church to give you an idea of how the roads looked around noon today: […]

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By Charles Payet| 2017-06-09T20:33:19-04:00 February 12th, 2014|ANNOUNCEMENTS|0 Comments

Office Closure for Snow

Well, thanks to the icy road conditions this morning here in Charlotte, our office will be closed for at least the morning of Wednesday, January 29th. We may open this afternoon if it's safe for our employees and us to drive in, but we will be updating our website, Facebook, and G00gle+ pages as we make those decisions. We do apologize for any inconvenience, and we'll be in touch as soon as we're able to reach everyone to reschedule. Have fun with the little snow that we got, and be safe if you do have to drive today. It seems the main roads are fairly clear, but neighborhoods and secondary roads could well have icy patches.

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By Charles Payet| 2015-08-09T17:35:04-04:00 January 29th, 2014|ANNOUNCEMENTS|0 Comments

Treating Severe Migraines is So Satisfying

While it's not a huge part of our Charlotte family dental practice, treating migraine sufferers is one of the most satisfying things we do, especially when those patients have seen multiple medical specialists, had every scan known to medicine, tried every current and experimental medication...without any relief. This is the story of one of our most recent and dramatic successes, made even more gratifying because he's a distant relative of mine. Bob Suffered from Non-Stop Headaches for Over 3 Years While Bob and I are distant relatives, we never even knew of each other. A cousin from New Jersey on my Dad's side of the family contacted me through Facebook, asking if we could help, and of course I said we'd give it a try. During Bob's initial consultation in March 2013, we talked for a solid 90 minutes about his headache history, the specialists he's seen, the medications he's tried, and how basically nothing helped. Given all that, I was hesitant to promise much, but when all other doctors have failed, that's often a sign they've missed the dental connection. In a number of ways, Bob's case is one of the most unusual that I've ever treated, so let me list a few of the details: His headaches did not start until he was about 77 years old He distinctly remembers that the pain started on a Thursday afternoon while playing golf Because of a severe injury when he was much younger, he has a metal place in his face that prevented taking an MRIs. Once his headaches did start, they were almost non-stop; he was taking 20+ Tylenols per day with only short periods of relief None of the prescription medications that he [...]

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By Charles Payet| 2017-06-09T20:33:22-04:00 January 22nd, 2014|Patient Testimonials, TMJ Problems, Migraines and Headache Relief|0 Comments

Over 5 Years of Dental Blogging

Wow, I had no idea it had been quite so long, but I discovered tonight that I just recently passed 5 years of dental blogging. Can you believe that? How & Why Did I Start Blogging? Back at the end of 2008, as the USA was in the early stages of the worst economic recession since the Great Depression, my practice was desperately struggling for business. So many Charlotte employers were laying off employees like crazy, and people were understandably choosing their mortgage and grocery payments over dental work, so we needed to find a way to attract more patients. Since we needed a new website but couldn't afford to pay someone to do it, I decided to learn myself, and so began my journey into website design and writing, and I got hooked. So how much has been involved in my blogging over the last 5 years? Here are a few stats: 35 Pages 167 Blog Posts (An average of 2.75 posts per month!) 264 Comments on the blog Over 360 images of all kinds added The blog has been read in over 150 countries around the world (BTW - the dip you see near the right side is when we stopped tracking for a short period after the website redesign was launched :-) ) Blogging is Fun (and Wordpress Makes it Easy) What started off merely as a way to build a good website to attract patients, though, has become a genuine passion. Heck, if it hadn't, I sure wouldn't keep doing it! And besides this dental website/blog, in the last few years, I've started 2 more blogs and built a photography portfolio website, to boot: Now [...]

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By Charles Payet| 2017-06-09T20:33:25-04:00 January 18th, 2014|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Do Teeth With Root Canals Need Crowns?

In "traditional" dentistry, the back teeth (premolars and molars) almost always need crowns to hold them together after a root canal, but for front teeth it all depends on how big the cavity was; since many front teeth still have a lot of healthy tooth left after the root canal, a crown is often not needed on front teeth. However, microscope-enhanced dentistry allows us to save more healthy tooth, so even some back teeth don't need crowns after a root canal. However, you need to make sure and ask your dentist, because if you need a crown and don't get it, the tooth will break and become non-fixable, which ends up being a waste of time and money. A Dental Crown Holds the Tooth Together When a Lot is Missing Very often after a root canal, there's simply not a lot of healthy tooth left over, and this is why many root-canal-treated teeth do need crowns. Here's one example of a tooth we recently fixed with a root canal and a crown. The photo on the left is how the tooth looked after all the decay was cleaned out and smoothed (90% of this was done with our Lightwalker dental laser BTW), and the photo on the right is the "After" picture, once the root canal procedure was done, and after we'd bonded in the porcelain crown made the same day. Dental Microscopes Help Avoid Dental Crowns After Root Canals On the flip side, when the tooth has not been badly destroyed by decay, or not broken or cracked, a dentist with a microscope can do the root canal procedure with only a very small hole. With such a small hole, and most of the [...]

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By Charles Payet| 2017-06-09T20:33:29-04:00 January 11th, 2014|Laser Dentistry|0 Comments

Do Dental Cavities Always Hurt?

One of the most common questions we hear, when we first have to give a patient the bad news that they have 1 or more cavities is, "But doc, how come it doesn't hurt?" It's a common misconception that a cavity will always give you a toothache. Cavities Don't Hurt Until It's BAD Today yielded another perfect example of this analogy. A young lady was diagnosed as having a cavity, not because it hurt, but because I could see the previous silver amalgam dental filling had broken, and because we could see it on the x-ray, as shown. Looking just at the x-ray, you wouldn't suspect how deep the cavity really is. In fact, studies show that cavities are usually 30% WORSE than they appear on x-rays, because the human eye can not perceive the grayscale changes at the level they really are. What Does a Cavity Look Like? If you'll follow the progression of photos below (and BTW -- this work was done by me, not someone else!), you can see where we started with what was a small old filling, then as we progressively and very carefully removed the decay while using 8-12x magnification with a dental operating microscope, to see just how deep the cavity really was. The blue stains are from a solution that we use to help us see where the decay is (it stains the cavity-causing bacteria if there are high enough numbers). Then you can see the finished result: a beautifully natural-looking, tooth-colored composite dental filling. If you are concerned about tooth cavities, Request an Appointment Online or call us at 704–364-7069. We’ll look forward to meeting you soon!

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By Charles Payet| 2017-06-09T20:33:32-04:00 January 11th, 2014|Cavities, Family dentistry|0 Comments

Stay Tuned for Weather Updates This Week!

If you've been following the weather over the last couple days here in the Charlotte area, you know that the middle of the week is looking pretty grim. With rain predicted on Monday, Jan. 6th, 2014, and then temperatures dropping into the single digits on Monday night heading into Tuesday morning, it's going to be ugly. Check out this Google+ post by Brad Panovich, the weather forecaster for NBC Charlotte affiliate WCNC-TV: Brad Panovich2 hours ago Check out the difference between Monday morning 7:00 am and Tuesday morning! Yikes! #ncwx #scwx #arcticblast 9 2 Powered by socialditto We'll be doing our best to keep everyone up-to-date on whether the office will be open or closed on Tuesday and Wednesday, depending on how long this cold spell lasts and how well the city is able to respond. More than anything, we strongly encourage everyone to be safe and sensible - unless you have chains for your tires, NO ONE should be out driving on real ice. Having grown up in Wilminton, Delaware, I learned to drive in bad weather, and if there's one thing that's clear - ice is just too dangerous to drive on except for emergency situations. Please check back here for updates as necessary. And BE SAFE! Here's another (potentially very useful since we don't get super-cold weather like this very often) post by Brad about Wind Chill Factor and How Long it Takes to Get Frostbite: Brad Panovich11 hours ago Get to know these numbers and the time it takes to get frostbite. Be safe & stay warm! #coldOMG 12 2 Powered by socialditto

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By Charles Payet| 2017-06-09T20:33:34-04:00 January 5th, 2014|ANNOUNCEMENTS|0 Comments

Everyday Family Dentistry in Charlotte

As much as I like talking about some of the more “exotic” technologies that we have in our Charlotte dental office, such as Laser Dentistry, Cosmetic Dentistry, Six Month Braces, etc., our daily schedule is filled with what dentists usually call “Bread-and-Butter” dentistry. Things like the cases shown below, and as always – these are our patients and my photos, all originals! Tooth-Colored Fillings to Fix Big Cavities on Front Teeth For this young lady, given how big these cavities are, most dentists would have recommended porcelain crowns to fix them, and there would certainly be nothing wrong with that (see my recent post on Why Dentists Tell You Different Things), but we still have a lot of work to do on her back teeth, and so budget was a concern. Yes, we do recognize that dentistry is expensive, and I promise – we do our best to give you options that work financially as well as clinically – when possible. Sometimes we can, sometimes not. But anyway, we did get to use a lot of our technology for this young lady, including our Lightwalker dental laser to remove all the cavities, and the dental microscope for superb vision so I removed only what was necessary and no more. With no further ado: […]

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By Charles Payet| 2017-06-09T20:33:36-04:00 December 22nd, 2013|Family dentistry|0 Comments

Digital Dentistry is Awesome!

Truly, the wave of the future in dentistry is DIGITAL, and not just in computers in the rooms. Digital dentistry is expanding into every aspect of modern dental care, and I love being part of it! Here’s just one example from this week: Digital Dental Impressions – NO GOO and Much Faster When you need crowns in our Charlotte dental office, most of the time we make them right here during your appointment with the CEREC CAD/CAM system. However, there are times that we still need to use a lab, and one of the main reasons for this is when we need the strongest possible materials, such as zirconia. Zirconia is a ceramic material with unbelievable strength and hardness, even when pretty thin (we’re talking 1 millimeter thin). […]

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By Charles Payet| 2017-06-09T20:33:39-04:00 December 17th, 2013|Cosmetic dentistry, Porcelain Crowns|0 Comments