Bernstein Dental Care: Blog

During the summer, people tend to be more active outdoors and may be at greater risk for dental injuries. While nobody ever plans to get a tooth knocked out, we at Bernstein Dental Care thought it would be a good idea to remind our patients of what steps they can take during a dental emergency to have the best chance of preserving their teeth. When a tooth is knocked out entirely, we call that a “dental avulsion.” The tooth should be lifted by its crown, never its root. There are American Dental Association-approved tooth transport containers that will hopefully be available in a nearby first aid kit, but if not, the tooth should be rinsed with a saline solution. It should then be reinserted into the empty socket, with care to ensure it is facing the right way. If this is too uncomfortable, it may be held in the cheek or in a glass of milk or saltwater, but the patient should have facial lacerations attended to first. We can determine whether a tooth is salvageable. It may not be if th...

If a tooth starts to decay or weaken, a crown will be needed to keep the tooth healthy. As we age, our teeth begin to naturally decay, crack, and discolor. Dr. Paul R. Bernstein, D.D.S. can help. At Bernstein Dental Care LLC of Brooklyn, NY., we offer dental crowns and other dental services. If you are in need of a dental crown, don’t hesitate to contact us.   The majority of crowns are made from porcelain, due to the natural look and feel of the crown. Gold crowns and porcelain fused to metal crowns are also available. The porcelain crowns are practically unnoticeable once placed. There’s no need to feel self-conscious or worry about a dental crown negatively affecting your smile.   The crowning process takes between 2-3 visits with Dr. Bernstein. The first visit will partake of the tooth being reshaped. This is done by filing down the enamel for placement. A local anesthetic is used to prevent pain or discomfort. Upon finishing, a mold or impression will be made of the tooth and surr...

If you break a tooth, you can count on Bernstein Dental Care in Bay Ridge for restorations. We are experienced providers of implant-supported crowns, but we work hard to save natural teeth. Although nobody plans to chip or crack a crown, there are some steps we hope our patients will remember to take in order to make a successful restoration likelier. In ordinary circumstances, it is the molars that are most vulnerable to breaking. They have a large surface to distribute bite force across, but some things are still too hard for them and break their cusps or cause them to split down the middle. Our other teeth cannot handle nearly as much force and are likely to break or tilt if they are used for chewing. When a tooth breaks, patients should rinse their mouths with salt water. They should cover the broken tooth with sugar-free chewing gum or if they have any nearby, orthodontic wax. The smallest cracks, which are called craze lines, are a cosmetic issue and may be covered with veneers. ...

Do you have a tooth that is badly chipped or decayed? We at Bernstein Dental Care in Bay Ridge can fix it. When a tooth is damaged, its natural crown can be reduced in size and be covered in a prosthetic cap that looks identical to any other tooth. But in some cases, only a partial crown is necessary. Partial crowns are also known as inlays or onlays. The difference is their size. When a large portion of enamel is decayed, we’ll remove it using a high-tech drill that emits water to prevent heat damage. We’ll also determine through imaging tests whether the patient’s pulp is infected and needs a root canal. When all the infected material is removed, we can make an impression of the patient’s mouth that will be used as the basis for milling a partial crown. The patient walks out of the office wearing a temporary crown on the affected tooth. A few weeks later, they will return to have the permanent artificial crown cemented in. We differentiate between an inlay, which nestles between the ...

When patients need new dental bridges, they can count on Dr. Paul Bernstein to supply them with a variety of options. Located in Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge neighborhood, Dr. Bernstein is an experienced provider of replacement teeth, and given the variety of our patients’ circumstances, we want them to know about the advantages of different bridges. A dental bridge is a series of artificial crowns linked together. The traditional bridge had one crown suspended between two others, which were placed on top of reshaped natural teeth. The benefit of this type of bridge is that it retained the natural tooth roots, which are already stabilizing the jaw bone. The downside is that it required the reshaping or removal of teeth in the row which may have been healthy in order to repair their neighbors. It was best used on people with widespread decay. Modern dental bridges come in the form of removable dentures. They can be made with gaps for healthy natural teeth, but need to be reshaped if the natural...