General Overview

Restore your smile’s fullness and strength.

A healthy, beautiful smile helps you experience your best overall well-being, which is why missing, cracked, broken, or decayed teeth can feel so personally disrupting. Chewing your favorite foods might feel daunting now, while changes to your smile’s appearance might make you feel less confident when laughing or speaking.

Though facing or experiencing dental damage can feel challenging, you can reclaim your smile’s function and appearance with high-quality restorative dentistry.

Restorative Dentistry at Metro East Dental Care

Restorative dentistry is the branch of dental care that focuses on rebuilding a person’s smile in conjunction with any necessary general dentistry treatments for tooth decay, gum disease, or grinding and clenching teeth.

Whether you’re seeking to repair minor damage or replace one or more missing teeth, Dr. May and the Metro East Dental Care team value your unique smile and needs and are here to help you understand your options for making your smile feel healthy and whole again with our restorative dentistry services.

• Crowns and Onlays to repair broken, damaged, or severely decayed teeth
• Bridges to replace a single missing tooth
• Implant Restorations to replace one or more missing teeth
• Implant-Supported Dentures to replace an entire arch of missing teeth

Whether you need one or more restorative dentistry services, Dr. May will work with you to craft a treatment plan centered around your individual goals and needs. To learn more about your options for reclaiming your smile’s health and beauty with restorative dentistry, contact our office today to schedule an appointment.

Implant Restoration

Rebuild your smile with a dental implant restoration.

A dental implant is a small titanium post that’s surgically placed into the jawbone to replace the root of one or more missing teeth.

Titanium is considered the most biocompatible metal, which means the tissues of your body will generally respond well to its ongoing presence. In the case of dental implants, your body responds to the presence of titanium with a process called osseointegration. In the weeks and months following implant placement, your bone tissue will fuse to your dental implant, integrating it into the strength of its structure.

Once your dental implants have integrated into your bone structure, Dr. May will place an abutment (attachment piece) on each implant that will support a beautiful custom crown, bridge, or denture. Your prosthetic tooth or teeth will seamlessly blend with any remaining natural teeth and complement your mouth and facial features.

If necessary, you may undergo a bone graft or a sinus lift before implant placement to prepare and strengthen your jawbone to successfully receive and support your implant.

Types of Dental Implant Restorations

• Implant-supported crown: Made of lifelike porcelain or durable metal alloys, an implant-supported crown is used to replace a single tooth on a single dental implant.
• Implant-supported bridge: Used to replace two or more adjacent teeth, an implant-supported bridge is a series of dental crowns that are supported on one to two dental implants.
• Implant-supported dentures: Available as a removable or fixed restoration, implant-supported dentures are a set of lifelike prosthetic teeth that are supported by two to eight dental implants to replace an entire arch of teeth.

Whether you’re seeking to replace one or more missing teeth, Dr. May will thoroughly evaluate your teeth, gums, and jawbone with advanced dental imaging technology and design a custom treatment plan to help you make your smile goals a long-lasting and sustainable reality.

Implant-Supported Dentures

Enjoy a full smile again with implant-supported dentures.

Implant-supported dentures are a set of fixed or removable prosthetic teeth that are used to replace an entire arch of upper or lower teeth.

Like conventional dentures, implant-supported dentures are custom-made to restore your smile’s fullness, beauty, and function. The denture’s acrylic base is designed to match the color and texture of your gum tissue, with porcelain or acrylic prosthetic teeth that are shaped and shaded to be indistinguishable from your natural teeth.

The Difference Between Conventional Dentures and Implant-Supported Dentures

The key differences between conventional dentures and implant-supported dentures can be understood by how each denture is supported and held in place.

Conventional dentures sit on top of your jawbone ridges. To resist the downward pull of gravity and withstand the force of chewing, conventional dentures rely on suction or the use of special dental adhesives.

The support for implant-supported dentures lies beneath the surface. Implant-supported dentures are stabilized by two to eight dental implants, which are surgically placed in the jawbone to act as substitute tooth roots. By closely mirroring the structure of natural teeth, implant-supported dentures offer many unique, desirable, and long-lasting benefits.

Benefits of Implant-Supported Dentures

• Stable fit: Because they’re anchored into your jawbone, implant-supported dentures won’t shift out of place while you chew or speak.
• Natural appearance: Implant-supported dentures are meticulously designed to look, feel, and function as close to natural teeth as possible.
• Better bone health: Jawbone deterioration is one of the most undesirable side effects of tooth loss, as it makes it difficult to support a conventional denture and causes the mouth to look hollow or sunken. By mimicking the structure of natural teeth, implant-supported dentures can prevent jawbone shrinkage and allow you to maintain fullness in your mouth and face.
• Low-maintenance: A dental implant restoration can last for decades with simple actions, like daily cleaning, routine dental visits, smoking abstinence, and healthy lifestyle habits.