February 2022

5 ways cosmetic dentistry could be your best restorative option 62a207908b1bb

5 Ways Cosmetic Dentistry Could Be Your Best Restorative Option

Cosmetic Dental Care

Restoring Smiles With Cosmetic Dental Care

Cosmetic dentistry and restorative dentistry are two separate aspects of dental care, but there is often overlap when it comes to smile makeovers. In a functional smile restoration, your dentist may include cosmetic procedures to help you achieve a pain-free, beautiful smile.

Here are five examples of how cosmetic dentistry treatments can help you restore your smile.

1. Cosmetic Dentistry Can Bring Balance to the Gums

Smile makeovers often focus on the health and appearance of the teeth, but the gums are another important factor to consider. An attractive smile is one that has a beautiful balance between the teeth and the gums.

Gums may look unbalanced naturally, meaning you were born with a gummy smile, or they may become unbalanced because of an oral health issue. Gum disease is the primary cause behind a change in gum contour, and it often leads to gum recession.

If your smile makeover focuses on restoring oral health after gum disease, you may need laser gum reshaping as well. This will not only bring balance to your smile but will also protect your future oral health by ensuring your teeth have adequate gum coverage.

2. Protect Exposed Tooth Roots

Gum disease, harsh brushing habits, bruxism, and genetics can all cause gum recession and, in turn, root exposure. Exposed tooth roots can not only impact the balance of your smile but also cause sensitivity and increase your risk of decay.

While a gummy smile may be a strictly cosmetic issue, recession and root exposure can negatively impact your oral health. That being said, laser gum contouring and gum grafting  are common treatments for exposed roots.

Your dentist will be able to perform a soft-tissue graft to replace lost tissue. They will also shape the gums to look attractive and curved where they meet the teeth.

3. Cosmetic Dentistry Can Replace Missing Teeth

Missing teeth are both a cosmetic and functional oral health issue. Gaps in your smile detract from your appearance, make you feel self-conscious, and even change the shape of your face. Over time, more serious issues can occur. Your jawbone begins to shrink since there aren’t any tooth roots present to help stimulate its growth. Muscles in your face, primarily the cheeks and jaw, begin to sag. You may even experience further tooth loss because of your missing teeth. For these reasons, it’s important to replace each missing tooth as soon as possible.

Dental implants and implant-supported dentures are superior choices as they most closely mimic natural teeth. However, more affordable options, such as dental bridges, can be a valuable alternative depending on your needs.

4. Repair Chipped Teeth

Chipped teeth are another common issue that’s often viewed as cosmetic in nature. While superficial chips may not immediately impact your teeth, that doesn’t mean they should be ignored.

Chips and other superficial damage can still cause trouble long term. Damaged enamel is more vulnerable to decay because bacteria and food debris cling more easily to these rougher spots. Not to mention, sharp edges left by chipped enamel can harm your tongue or cheek.

Your dentist can repair superficial chips, enamel abrasions, and other minor flaws with a number of options. An onlay, inlay, or filling may be enough, but if you want a full smile makeover, dental bonding and veneers are great choices to consider.

5. Cosmetic Dentistry Can Relieve TMJ Pain

Did you know that Botox can be a highly effective treatment option for dental-related issues? Some dentists, such as Dr. Bentz, offer cosmetic Botox in their offices. While Botox is famous for reducing fine lines and wrinkles, it’s also a useful therapeutic option for patients who experience chronic migraines, headaches, and temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain caused by a TMJ disorder.

If you experience discomfort or tenderness in your jaw, cheeks, neck, or upper back, your dentist can evaluate you for a TMJ disorder. Botox is often used to help alleviate the symptoms of TMJ disorders by relaxing the muscles around the TMJ that may be constricting and causing the pain.

If you suspect you may be experiencing TMJ pain or you’ve already been diagnosed and are interested in learning more about Botox therapy, Dr. Bentz can help.

Smile Makeovers at Bentz Dental Implant & Prosthodontic Center

Many smile makeovers use both cosmetic and restorative dentistry procedures to achieve a balanced, healthy smile. An experienced dentist like Dr. Bentz will customize your treatment plan to your individual needs, ensuring your final result meets the result you envisioned for your new smile.

The first step in every smile makeover is a consultation. You can book one today by calling our East Norriton office or requesting an evaluation online.

5 ways to show your love some love on valentines day and beyond 62a20794cf824

5 Ways to Show Your Love Some Love on Valentine’s Day and Beyond

Local Interest

Valentine’s Day Gifts Ideas for Your Special Someone

Whether it’s Valentine’s Day, an anniversary, or you just want to show the person you love how much you care, going on a date or giving a gift is a great way to celebrate.

If you’re looking to plan something special for your significant other this Valentine’s Day, here are a few gift ideas along with local spots to book your date!

1. A Relaxing One-hour Massage

Everyone can benefit from a relaxing massage by a talented, experienced masseuse! Massage is a wonderful Valentine’s Day gift for that person in your life who is always busy or feeling stressed and overwhelmed. It’s a great way to unwind physically and mentally, and a one-hour session is long enough to really drift off and feel the mental and health benefits of massage.

You can book a solo massage for just your partner or a couples’ massage so you can both experience total relaxation and stress relief together. Some highly rated locations for massage in or close to East Norriton include:

2. A Fun Mani-Pedi Session

A complete manicure and pedicure session can be a lot of fun and a great way of showing someone you care. It’s perfect Valentine’s Day gift for someone who loves getting their nails done, but also a great idea for someone who works with their hands or often has sore feet. A mani-pedi combo isn’t just for women either! Hardworking men who tend to neglect their hands or feet can also benefit from a scrub and tidy around their nails.

A few great places for booking a manicure and pedicure in East Norriton include:

3. A Day of Pampering at a Spa

A day at a spa is the ultimate gift to make your significant other feel pampered, relaxed, and appreciated. There are a lot of options available at most spas, including massage, facials, aromatherapy, facial and body waxing, body treatments, and hair treatments. Many places also offer manicures and pedicures too! A spa is a great choice if you’re having a hard time choosing whether your partner would prefer a massage, a mani-pedi, or a trip to a hair salon. With a spa day, they can experience it all.

Many of the same massage therapy locations mentioned earlier also provide additional spa services. Reviewers recommend Heavenly Spa, Hand & Stone Massage Therapy, and The M Medical Spa.

4. Book a Teeth Whitening Session

If you know your partner well and they’ve expressed that they wish their smile was brighter or “better,” then a unique gift idea is to buy them a professional teeth whitening session. An in-office teeth whitening session is a very spa-like experience and yields immediate, bright white results after about an hour. During the whitening session, your partner just needs to sit back, relax, and perhaps listen to some music or an audiobook with earbuds.

Bentz Dental Implant & Prosthodontic Center can help you purchase and book a teeth whitening session for your sweetheart. You might even see if you can book one during the same time so you can both have stunning new smiles to show off!

5. Visit a Local Winery or Brewery

Going on a dinner date for Valentine’s Day is a tried and true way of showing your partner you love them, but a fun twist is to instead visit a local winery, brewery, or distillery. Not only is this a great way to support our local businesses, but it also can introduce you both to new drinks you normally wouldn’t try or purchase from a store. Many local wineries and breweries also offer tastings, complete with delicious appetizers to enjoy between sips.

A few locations in and around East Norriton include:

Is your smile ready for the big date?

Having fresh breath and a great smile is a must for a memorable date! If it’s been close to or over six months since your last checkup, right now is a great time to book an appointment.

Dr. Bentz will take a look at your smile and see if there are any signs of trouble. Afterward, one of our experienced and gentle dental hygienists will deep clean your teeth to remove any stubborn plaque, leaving your smile perfectly polished. This is a great time to also schedule any elective care you might be interested in, perhaps your own teeth whitening session or a cosmetic dentistry consultation.

To schedule your appointment, give our office a call or request one online.

start now to develop a dental retirement plan 62a2079b469da

Start Now to Develop a Dental Retirement Plan

General Dentistry

Get the best dental care, even after retirement.

Retirement is an exciting milestone. No matter how much you love your job, it’s exciting to gain more time to spend with family and friends and invest in yourself and activities you enjoy. You’ll have more time than ever to catch up on your reading list, rediscover your love of painting, and maybe even travel! As you near retirement, you’re likely starting to think about different areas of life that need to be planned out to ensure everything goes as smoothly as possible.

One of the areas that often gets overlooked is planning for your dental care during retirement. Medicare doesn’t cover dentistry, so it’s important to plan in advance to make sure you have access to the best dental care even once retirement begins—without breaking your budget! We know it can be hard to plan or know where to start, but you don’t have to do it alone! We’ve put together a guide to help you get started.

You can plan for post-retirement care in stages.

It’s important to put a long-term dental care plan in place for your retirement. Just like with any other aspect of your retirement, you want to make sure you’re able to get the best care possible with the least amount of trouble or concern when you need it! Thankfully, you can start thinking about your retirement dental care plan early and in stages, starting about 10 years out. Here’s a breakdown of the major steps you’ll likely want to take during the planning process.

10 Years Before Retirement

When you’re about 10 years out from retirement, it’s a good time to start planning for the future. It’s also a good time to ask your dentist about procedures you may need in the future that you can elect to have now. After all, at this point, you still have dental insurance through your employer, so it’s ideal to do everything you can now. Getting these procedures sooner also allows you to reap the benefits of them longer and potentially saves you money in the long run by taking care of issues before they have time to become bigger, more expensive fixes. Along these lines, it’s important to ensure you’re getting a checkup with Dr. Bentz every six months. This helps prevent any oral health surprises, which also prevents unexpected costs. Saving money is always a plus, but it’s especially important when you’re trying to save up for retirement.

5 Years Before Retirement

Once you reach the five-year mark in your countdown to retirement, you should start putting together a spending plan for your dental care. Do some research to get an idea of what dental care costs, and set aside a specific portion of your retirement savings for dental work to replace your Health Savings Account. Although you don’t have to make any decisions yet, it’s also a good time to start looking into what dental insurance options are out there for retirees, what different plans cover, and how much the type of plans you’re interested in cost. Once you know that, you can add the cost of independent dental insurance into your budget as well if you’re interested in purchasing it.

1 Year Before Retirement

Hitting the one-year mark before retirement is when the countdown really begins! Once you’re a year out, it’s a good idea to use up your Flexible Spending Account. You probably won’t get this money back when you retire, so you’re going to want to get as much benefit from it as possible! Ask Dr. Bentz one last time if there are any dental procedures you can do now while you still have access to your employer’s dental insurance and money sources like an HSA for FSA. It’s also smart to have a conversation with Dr. Bentz about your care after retirement. He might be able to provide some helpful insights and information that you’ve missed in your research. Dentists have a ton of professional insights, after all, so it’s a great idea to take advantage of this!

What financial resources are available for you?

Even without your employer-provided dental insurance, there are plenty of ways to afford your dental care in retirement. Which method is right for you will depend on your budget, lifestyle, and oral and overall health history, but there should be an option out there that works well for you. Aside from dental insurance, most dentists offer payment plans. These plans are incredibly helpful for many people because they allow you to split up the cost of your treatment into more manageable payments that fit into your budget. Most dental offices will also accept credit card payments, which makes it easier to pay off the cost of your treatment in more bite-sized chunks.

Additionally, some dentists offer discounts or membership plans in place of insurance. Like dental insurance, discount plans involve a yearly fee that you’ll typically pay up front. Once you pay this fee, you’ll have access to perks like two free dental checkups a year, a free yearly X-ray, and discounts on a range of other treatments. This helps make regular dental care affordable no matter your budget while also helping to cover the cost of any treatments that do come up after you’ve retired. If you’re unsure what your dentist offers, don’t be afraid to ask! We’re always willing to sit down and discuss what financing options we offer for you and what may work best for your post-retirement plans.

Plan ahead for your dental care.

Retirement is an exciting, enjoyable part of life—and it should also be a healthy one! Planning for your dental care after you’ve retired is an essential part of ensuring that your oral and overall health stay in great shape well after you’ve retired. After all, bad oral health isn’t a natural consequence of getting older! If you have any questions, would like to get started with the planning process, or want to know what procedures you should look into before you retire, feel free to schedule a consultation with Dr. Bentz at any time.

how dr bentz helps patients with dental emergencies 62a2079f90f48

How Dr. Bentz Helps Patients With Dental Emergencies

Emergency Dental Care

Recovering From Dental Trauma

Picture this scenario.

You’re out with family or friends at a local park, enjoying the sun and warm weather. You’re playing a casual game of basketball, soccer, or maybe flag football. Everyone is having a blast and the game is going great when suddenly you and another person collide. Instantly you fall back on the ground, feeling dazed and winded.

You instinctively reach up to touch your face and in a split second realize something is wrong. As soon as you go to speak and your tongue moves, you realize your mouth is injured… and even worse, you can tell that one of your teeth is loose or has come out of its socket.

You instantly feel panic and dread with thoughts of, “I’m going to lose my tooth” or “I’ve ruined my smile” flooding your mind. Not only is your mouth in pain, but you’re also emotionally charged and overwhelmed.

Dental emergencies, like the example above, happens much more often than you might think. Contact sports, vehicle collisions, falls, impacts to the face, and even freak accidents like slipping on an ice cube in your kitchen can all lead to dental emergencies.

Thankfully, dentists like Dr. Bentz can help you recover and heal from dental trauma—and come out on top with a full, beautiful smile. Let’s dive deeper into the above scenario to learn what to do in an emergency and how Dr. Bentz works his magic to help patients restore their smiles.

What to Do During Dental Emergencies

As soon as you realize you’ve hurt your mouth or lost a tooth, take a deep breath to collect yourself, and then take swift action. In cases of dental trauma involving a lost tooth or a tooth that’s become dislodged, time is of the essence. The sooner you can get to a dentist, the better the chances of saving your natural tooth.

If You’ve Lost a Tooth

A knocked-out tooth is an extremely serious situation and you must act quickly.

If your tooth was ejected from your mouth or you reflexively spit it out, pick it up carefully by the crown without touching the roots. If the tooth is clean (i.e. you spit it into your hand), you can attempt to replace the tooth in the socket. However, if there is any resistance, stop. Instead, place the tooth in a clean container with cold milk, cold water, or even spit.

It’s vital to keep the tooth moist at all times and get to an emergency dentist right away.

If You’re Bleeding Orally

If you’re bleeding from the gums after damaging or losing a tooth, or you’ve badly bitten your tongue, you’ll need to get the bleeding under control.

Use gauze from a first aid kit or a clean cloth to put pressure on the area that’s bleeding. Gently biting down on a folded cloth or rolled up gauze is also useful for keeping a dislodged or knocked-out tooth in place in the socket.

If You’ve Dislodged a Tooth

Sometimes a tooth is hit hard enough to loosen it, but not enough to actually cause it to come out.

In this situation, you want to be very careful to not disturb the tooth if at all possible. Try to keep your mouth closed or, if the tooth is very wiggly, bite down very, very gently on a piece of gauze or clean cloth to keep the tooth in place.

If You’ve Broken a Tooth

Teeth can easily crack, chip, or break when slammed together in an accident or fall. While a broken or cracked tooth isn’t typically as serious of a situation as a knocked-out tooth, it does still require urgent care to repair the damage, stop any infection from occurring, and save the tooth.

How Dr. Bentz Restores Damaged Smiles

Dr. Bentz’s practice is where you’ll want to visit if you’ve experienced a dental emergency or traumatic dental injury in the East Norriton, PA, area.

We provide emergency dental care for current and new patients who’ve experienced:

  • Knocked-out or dislodged teeth.
  • Broken or cracked teeth.
  • A foreign object stuck between teeth.
  • Severe toothache.

The first thing Dr. Bentz will do after welcoming you into his office is to get any pain or bleeding under control and thoroughly examine your smile to evaluate what damage might have occurred. With a very gentle touch he’ll numb the area and can also offer light sedation, like nitrous oxide, if you’re feeling nervous or simply need help relaxing.

After Dr. Bentz has looked at your smile, you’ll discuss which treatment options would be best to help you make a full recovery. Dr. Bentz often suggests dental implants to replace missing teeth that need to be extracted or cannot be replaced. If your tooth can be saved, you may need a dental crown for added support or cosmetic care.

It’s completely normal to feel overwhelmed and emotionally drained after experiencing a dental emergency, and you may not feel ready to make a decision about treatment during your emergency appointment. Dr. Bentz wants every patient to know that there is never pressure to pursue treatment until you feel confident in your decision. In this case, Dr. Bentz will provide urgent care to ensure you’re comfortable and recommend you come back the next day or, if safe, a few days later when you’ve had time to consider what is best for your smile.

From there, you can return for another appointment to review treatment options with Dr. Bentz, discuss their pros and cons, ask questions, and make a game plan for restoring your smile.

If you’re currently experiencing a dental emergency, call our office immediately.

You can get in touch with our dental emergencies line by calling our regular office number and following the prompts. Even during non-business hours, your call will be forwarded to an on-call staff member to help. We hope you never have to experience a dental emergency, but we will always be there to help you in the event that you or a loved one need restorative care.

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Our Office Location

2601 Dekalb Pike
East Norriton, PA 19401

Office Hours

Monday 8am - 5:30pm
Tuesday 7:30am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5:30pm
Thursday 8am - 5:30pm
Friday 9am - 3pm

610-272-6949

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