The Stow Dental Group Blog | Dr. Mark Iati

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Teeth in a Day

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:26:00 +0000

Many people who need dental implants fret about the lengthy healing time before they can have their permanent crown or crowns placed. Sometimes, several months are necessary and, not always can a temporary crown be placed while the bone heals and grows around the implant.

Due to advances in technology, not only can the time be reduced, but the number of implants needed to support multiple teeth is fewer than it was before. Due to a process called All-on-4™, patients can have their implants and teeth placed in the same day. Rather than needing six to eight implants on the upper and lower jaw, our Teeth in a Day patients now only need four.

This process allows us to restore a complete arch of teeth is a single visit. For those who already have dentures, this process will provide them with security and aesthetics that were previously a much more involved and costly endeavor.
All-on-4 teeth are anchored into placed and are only removed by your dentist. You can now have the comfort and security of your natural teeth back in just ONE day. Only certain dentists and surgeons are trained in this procedure, so please research and ask questions of your dentist to make sure you achieve the outcome you are looking for.

Other benefits of All-on-4 include, avoiding the sinus surgery sometimes needed in those whose bone loss is significant, thus reducing the added cost and healing time associated with this procedure.

Dental implants can last years if properly cared for. Proper brushing and flossing habits, and coming in to Stow Dental Group every six months for your general dental check-up and cleaning help assure this.

If you have been told that it will take months for your dental implants to heal, or would like more information about the Teeth in a Day process please contact the experienced general and cosmetic dentists at Stow Dental Group for an initial consultation. We serve the Stow and Akron-Canton, Ohio area.

Dental Hygiene and the New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:34:00 +0000

As 2009 draws to a close, you may be reflecting on the turns your life has taken in the past year and thinking about ways to make improvements in the upcoming year. While New Year’s resolutions are quite common, all too often, people fail to follow through with these resolutions once a busy and hectic life begins to get in the way.

Perhaps the best way to ensure that you follow through with a New Year's resolution is to commit to an attainable goal that has concrete meaning in your life. A perfect example would be a resolution to focus on maintaining proper dental health.

Besides the obvious benefit of ensuring healthy teeth and gums, maintaining proper dental health also plays an important role in your overall general health. If your body is constantly fighting off infections in your teeth and gums, it can adversely affect its ability to fight infections, viruses, and bacteria elsewhere in your body.

The first step to taking care of your dental health is to brush and floss regularly. By regularly, we recommend at least twice a day, although there is no harm in increasing your brushing and flossing regimen beyond this level. Furthermore, reducing your intake of sweets can also help prevent the development of cavities.

While regular brushing and flossing will greatly improve your dental hygiene, it is not enough to prevent the build-up of plaque and tartar on your teeth, which ultimately lead to tooth decay and gum disease. It is important to visit our Ohio family dentists twice a year for regular check-ups. This will ensure that your teeth and gums stay healthy, and if any problems do arise, regular check-ups will enable us to treat the problem before it becomes serious.

Stow Dental Group offers family dentistry services for people of all ages. We recognize that different stages of life present different dental needs. Therefore, we offer a variety of services that will treat the entire spectrum of dental health issues affecting different members of your family.

The easiest way to ensure a healthy smile throughout your life is to maintain proper dental hygiene and go for regular dental check-ups twice a year. This is certainly an attainable New Year's resolution. We hope it makes your list.

Please contact our Stow family dentists today to schedule your next check-up. Stow Dental Group serves patients in Stow and Akron-Canton, Ohio.

Dentures

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:19:00 +0000

Stow and Akron-Canton, Ohio

Dentures are one excellent treatment option to replace missing teeth. Recent advances in cosmetic dentistry technology have vastly improved dentures, making them much more comfortable and functional than they were years ago. The Ohio cosmetic dentists at Stow Dental Group can fit you with dentures that will closely resemble the appearance of your natural teeth so that you can maintain a beautiful smile or enhance your previous one.

Causes of Tooth Loss

Tooth loss can be caused by:

Periodontal disease (gum disease)
Tooth decay
Injury to the mouth

It is very important to replace missing teeth. Failure to do so can cause remaining teeth to shift in your mouth, impacting their alignment. Missing teeth can also prevent you from chewing properly, and they may lead to a sagging facial appearance that makes you look older than you are.

IMPLANT RETAINED DENTURES
Using implants under full or partial dentures is absolutely the most secure way to hold your dentures in place. Depending on each situation, your Stow Dental Group doctor will discuss and advise a consultation in order to decide where and how many implants will be needed to fully restore your function and appearance to years younger.

Full Dentures

Full dentures, also called complete dentures, are used to replace an entire set of natural teeth. If you are missing all of your upper or lower teeth, full dentures may be the most efficient and cost effective way to replace them. Your dentures will be custom fabricated over the course of several visits to our Ohio cosmetic dentists. Of course your input is always important in every step of the process.

If one or more teeth need to be extracted, it will take approximately six to eight weeks for your gums to heal. At this time, you will be fit for your set of dentures. While this may seem like a long time to wait for your dentures, failing to do so will only lead to potential complications and further dental work down the road. Temporary dentures can be constructed during the healing phase so that one never needs to go without teeth. These can also act as an excellent back up pair after the final dentures are constructed.

Partial Dentures

If you are only missing a few teeth, then you may be a candidate for partial dentures. Partial dentures, also called removable dental bridges, fill the gap between several missing teeth. Partial dentures are very versatile and are custom fited to the unique specifications of each mouth.

Removable partial dentures attach to your adjacent natural teeth using metal or tooth colored clasps. A porcelain crown is generally attached to provide additional strength and support to the denture.

If you only need to replace one or two teeth, dental implants may be a better option for you. At your initial consultation, our experienced Ohio implant dentists will advise you as to the best option to suit your needs.

The Stow Dental Group Difference

The Ohio cosmetic dentists at The Stow Dental Group use the most advanced techniques and technology to ensure that you receive the highest quality denture work possible. We custom design every set of dentures to address the unique qualities of your mouth. We pride ourselves on crafting every smile to enhance your surrounding facial features. The result is highly customized, quality denture work that yields aesthetically pleasing results. We are not dentures in a day…we are quality that shows in your smile!

If you need to replace missing teeth, please contact our Ohio cosmetic dentists today to schedule your initial consultation. Stow Dental Group serves patients in Arkon-Canton and Stow, Ohio.

Invisalign

noreply@blogger.com (Tiffany) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:29:00 +0000

Becoming more popular, especially amongst teens and adults, the days of metal braces may be on the wane with Invisalign. If you have crooked or misaligned teeth and want to fix them, but don’t want to deal with traditional braces, Invisalign might be the answer you've been looking for. These are virtually invisible when worn.

The Invisalign aligners fit over the top and bottom teeth, much like a mouth guard might. As your teeth straighten, you will get a different set of aligners about every six weeks. Changing aligners does not always require you to make an appointment with the dentist, and you can simply come down to the office to pick up your next series. However, one of the major benefits of Invisalign is that the aligners can be removed for special events or when eating.

While the Invisalign course of treatment varies from individual to individual, you can expect to see major improvements in less than a year. Compare this to the one to two years you might have to wear traditional braces.

While there is some pressure when wearing the aligners, there is no pain. Most of the discomfort will come during the time you change to a new aligner, but this will soon pass as you become used to the new series of aligners. Usually within 3 days.

If you are interested in Invisalign dental aligners and are in the Stow or Akron-Canton, Ohio area, please contact the experienced orthodontists at Stow Dental Group for an initial consultation.

E4D One visit ceramic crowns

noreply@blogger.com (Erica) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:31:00 +0000

One thing many people dread about tooth restoration procedures, like getting a crown, is that it takes more than one visit to the dentist. No one wants to wait around with a temporary crown while the permanent is being made in a lab. With the E4D system used at Stow Dental Group, there is no waiting for the crown.

E4D is the latest upgrade to the CAD/CAM system, which has allowed dentists to create and mill crowns in one visit. This allows the patient to get back to their busy schedule and keep them from worrying about how they will keep their temporary from falling off.

E4D Process

Using a laser scanning device over the area to get the crown, a digital impression is taken to make a 3D model of the tooth
The 3D map is fed into the chair side computer that uses CAD/CAM software so that the dentist, can adjust and determine the parameters of the restorations
The design is sent to the E4D milling center where the restoration is created. While the restoration is being made, the dentist can continue to focus on other areas that may need attention saving valuable time.

This is an accurate and quick way to get you smiling again with crowns that look and feel like your natural teeth. The technology has advanced to the point where even veneers can now be made in one visit. With the addition of a porcelain furnace, we can customize your restoration right at the chair side, just like the lab would do.

As with all dental work, every situation is different and this technology is not always the best way or even a feasible alternative for a laboratory fabricated crown. It is up to you and your doctor to decide which type of crown is best for your situation!

If you are in need of crown work or would like to know more about the E4D, please contact the experienced reconstructive dentists at Stow Dental Group in Stow, Ohio.

Schick Wireless X-Rays Now Available at Stow Dental Group

noreply@blogger.com (Evan Langsted) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:09:00 +0000

Part of going to the dentist to have your teeth cleaned includes yearly x-rays. The images taken of your mouth and teeth allow us to see areas both above and below the gum line. This allows us to diagnose decay, periodontal disease and abnormalities of the bone. For years the way these radiograph photos were taken involved the patient wearing a lead-lined vest and a large camera or x-ray head pointed at the mouth while the patient was asked to “bite down.”

Staying on the cutting edge of technology, the Stow Dental Group in Stow, Ohio has begun to use the Schick wireless x-ray device. This digital camera technology is used by very few in the state of Ohio and is the first wireless instant dental x-ray system available in the world.

By using the Schick wireless system, our team is able to take high quality digital pictures of our patients’ teeth in a way that is comfortable to them, as well as giving us further mobility without sacrificing clarity. The sensor comes in two sizes to accommodate all patient types.

Rather than having to endure the old style films, the Schick wireless x-ray system allows the Stow Dental Group liscened radiologists to place the sensor in your mouth comfortably. The sensor is attached to a holder, and the whole thing acts as a radio frequency device. The images are taken and viewed within seconds.

Benefits
Freedom of movement and the ease of placing the Schick sensor are just two of the benefits. Other benefits that help us to give you the quality oral care you deserve are:

Faster and more accurate diagnoses
Ability to manipulate images for size and contrast as well as emailing quickly to dental specialists
As much as 80% less radiation than using traditional film x-rays
No harsh chemicals

Through the use of Schick wireless digital radiography, your general dental appointments are a little faster and safer. For more information on this or any other technology we use, or to set up an appointment, please contact the experienced cosmetic and family dentists at the Stow Dental Group today.

Smile Reminder Service

noreply@blogger.com (Evan Langsted) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 22:02:00 +0000

The more the world gets busy, the more our lives do, too. As a result of trying to keep up, we sometimes forget things. Even those things, or especially those things, that have been scheduled for months. While Stow Dental Group has always called to remind patients of upcoming appointments, technology has allowed us to employ several other ways to contact you.

Stow Dental has implemented the “Smile Reminder” service in order to keep you and your family’s oral health and cosmetic needs from dropping off the radar. This service allows us to confirm, remind, or even schedule appointments through email, text message, paging, and more. Smile Reminder also allows us to send out newsletters to those who wish to receive them.

Stow Dental’s patients also benefit from Smile Reminder through the ability of updating their patient profiles. By adding new insurance information, pay bills, update addresses, and more, you don’t have to take a significant amount of time out of your busy schedule to keep your smile healthy and beautiful.

For more information about Smile Reminder, or to set up an appointment, please contact Stow Dental Group in Canton, Ohio today.

Zoom!™ Teeth Whitening

noreply@blogger.com (Evan Langsted) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:37:00 +0000

Are you a person with a crazy-busy schedule? If so, we have good news for you as far as tooth whitening is concerned: A Zoom! teeth whitening treatment takes only an hour or so. The “or so” part refers to preparation and follow-up done before and after the actual treatment.

When you are comfortable in our chair, we will apply a protective gel to the soft tissue in your mouth – lips, gums, some cheek tissue. Then the whitening gel is applied to your teeth and an activating light directed towards them. You can wear headphones and listen to music, or just doze off and catch up on a little sleep.

During the one hour of actual treatment time we will apply the whitening gel three times for 20 minutes each. That is because the whitening agent slows down after that amount of time. If at any point your teeth start to feel sensitive, we can stop treatment and apply a desensitizing gel. Most people do not have this problem, but we know that some teeth are extra sensitive and we do not want you to be feeling uncomfortable.

Your results will be transformative for your smile. It is quite fascinating what a large difference bright white teeth make to a person’s facial appearance. Many people immediately feel more confident about smiling, and of course, a person with a ready smile tends to elicit smiles from others. That can also boost one’s self-confidence

The Zoom! system includes a follow-up kit to take home with you. We will show you how to use it. You can use it right away if you think your teeth could become even whiter, or you can keep it for later touch-ups.

Please see our pages on Teeth Whitening and Cosmetic Dentistry for more information.

Our dentists and our supporting staff are all believers in patient education. If you would like to schedule an initial consultation at the Stow Dental Group to learn more about the best way to whiten your teeth, please call or email our cosmetic dentistry office today.

Tooth Bonding

noreply@blogger.com (Evan Langsted) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:09:00 +0000

Not many people know about dental bonding. It is a quick and easy way to fix a multitude of small problems and can be an alternative to porcelain veneers.

The term “dental bonding” refers to two things:
• The white putty-like dental substance
• The procedure which uses this substance

If you have any small chips or shallow cracks in your teeth, or any stains that have not responded to tooth whitening, tooth bonding can correct those defects. Your dentist would apply small amounts of bonding incrementally to the problem areas. The bonding will fill the chip or crack and cover the staining and then your cosmetic dentist will use a curing light to harden the bonding.

Now it is permanently part of the tooth. Tooth bonding comes in an array of shades and your cosmetic dentist will choose one to most closely match your natural tooth color.

In a similar way, bonding can fill a small gap between your front teeth and correct minor crookedness or misalignment. The secret is in your dentist’s skill.

Besides all these cosmetic uses, tooth bonding is also used for white fillings, as an alternative to porcelain inlays and onlays. As a filling material it is more often called “dental composite”. Again the bonding is applied to the cleaned cavity area and then hardened with the special curing light. Your dentist will always check your bite to make sure your upper and lower teeth are coming together comfortably.

If you would like to learn more about tooth bonding and how it might help your individual smile, please contact our cosmetic dentistry office today for a personal consultation.

noreply@blogger.com (LesaH) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:27:00 +0000

Family Dentistry

Good dental health begins early in life and at the Stow Dental Group we will help you to teach your children good lifetime dental habits. We are also happy to help adults improve their dental care. We encourage you use our office as a comprehensive dental center for your entire family.

Stow Dental Group has a long history in the community and when a specialist is needed we can refer you to the best providers in the Stow and Akron areas. Regular check-up visits are a central part of lifetime dental health. One of our highly-trained dental hygienists can give you a professional cleaning, including a check for any early gum disease. By catching problems early we can treat them quickly and more effectively. This can save you much expense and time spent in a dental chair later on.

Daily brushing and flossing is also at the center of long-term dental health. There is good brushing technique and bad brushing technique. We use an excellent product called Cool Blue®. It is a mouth rinse which makes plaque look blue so that a child can see where it is still on the teeth after brushing. This gives feedback and helps improve brushing technique.

If you or anyone in your family needs some dental care, please do not delay. We offer orthodontic work and the best age for this is as the child’s main growth spurt is approaching. For females that is around eleven years and for males around thirteen years. When orthodontic work is well-timed, the child’s face can mature to adulthood with the teeth well-aligned.

We also offer many procedures for adults including neuromuscular dentistry. If you have chronic headaches which seem to have no explanation, you may be suffering from misaligned jaw joints, known as Temporomandibular Joint Syndrome (TMD). Our dentists can diagnose that and develop an effective treatment plan for you.

To arrange for a consultation for yourself or anyone in your family, please call or email our family dentistry office today.

noreply@blogger.com (LesaH) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:58:00 +0000

BriteSmile® Tooth Whitening

If you have been wondering how to improve your smile but not wanting to go through anything long and complicated, BriteSmile could be a good solution. It is a one-hour in-office procedure. It can whiten your teeth by as much as 14 shades, with the average one-hour result being eight shades brighter. It depends on where you are starting from and how your individual teeth respond.

Anyone over the age of 14 is probably a good candidate for BriteSmile tooth whitening. If you have been wearing braces and are now finished with that and have straight, well-aligned teeth, BriteSmile is a good way of removing the stains possibly left by the metal of the braces.

BriteSmile is safe and effective and gives long-lasting results. You can maintain your dramatic results best by mostly avoiding food and drink which has strong pigmentation. Common examples are coffee, red wine, black tea, blueberries and blackberries. There are also BriteSmile maintenance products such as special toothpaste and mouthwash.

How BriteSmile Works

Once you have consulted with one of our dentists and it has been decided to go ahead with BriteSmile, you will be comfortably settled in the chair. The patented whitening gel is applied to your teeth and a blue BriteSmile light is directed to it. This activates the whitening ingredient, hydrogen peroxide.

While other whitening gels contain as much as 35% hydrogen peroxide or more, the BriteSmile gel contains just ten percent. This reduces any possible discomfort, especially for those with sensitive teeth. As your whitening proceeds, oxygen permeates the tooth enamel, loosening any stains and removing them.

There will be no damage to your tooth enamel or to existing fillings or dental reconstruction work. You will be leaving here with a dramatically brighter smile which will transform your entire face and perhaps also your self confidence.

To learn more about BriteSmile, please call or email our cosmetic dentistry office today for a personal consultation.

Overhaul Your Smile with Porcelain Veneers

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:18:00 +0000

You would be amazed at the impact your smile makes on your life. A bright, warm, welcoming smile will boost your self-confidence and make a great impression on those around you. Many people are afraid to show off their smile due to imperfections in their teeth. But with modern cosmetic dentistry technology, you can revamp your smile in no time.

Porcelain veneers are a great way to achieve the smile you’ve always wanted. They can transform a mouth full of crooked, discolored teeth into a smile fit for the big screen.

Porcelain veneers allow your cosmetic dentist to combine technical skill and artistic flair in creating your custom smile makeover. At Stow Dental Group, our experienced dental team installs veneers regularly, and we customize each job to meet the specific goals of the patient.

Porcelain veneers are made out of a thin, ceramic material that gets bonded to the surface of your teeth. The ceramic material closely mirrors the properties of your natural tooth enamel, so you will not be able to notice the difference between your veneers and your natural teeth.

We use only the highest quality materials in our porcelain veneers. They are extremely durable and stain-resistant. Our patients have been raving about the difference their porcelain veneers have made in their lives. Why wait any longer to have a winning smile?

Please contact Stow Dental Group today to learn more about porcelain veneers in the Cleveland and Akron, Ohio areas.

A New Smile for the New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:16:00 +0000

The holiday season has just come to an end, and most of us are still slowly working off that holiday hangover. It is always difficult to resume your regular routine after weeks of feasting and revelry with family and friends.

The holidays can be a great time to enjoy good food and drink with the people you love. But after all those glasses of wine and the extra cups of coffee to ward off food coma, your teeth may be paying the price.

Many of your favorite holiday treats cause severe staining on your teeth and tarnish your normally dazzling smile. Fortunately, modern tooth whitening procedures can restore your bright smile in no time.

At Stow Dental Group, we only use the most advanced tooth whitening technology to provide you with maximum results and comfort for minimum cost.

Our highly-trained cosmetic dentists use the Opalescence Xtra Boost tooth whitening system. Opalescence provides our patients with superior tooth whitening that doesn’t require the use of a laser or light to activate the whitening gel. This reduces the sensitivity commonly associated with other professional-strength tooth whitening systems.

The entire process can be completed in one short visit, and it will whiten your teeth by as many as 7 or 8 shades.

We can also send you home with the Opalescence at-home touch-up kit. Use it for a few days following your in-office treatment to ensure maximum results.

Please contact Stow Dental Group today to schedule your tooth whitening session. We serve patients in the Cleveland and Akron, Ohio areas.

noreply@blogger.com (LesaH) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:37:00 +0000

Lumineers, the good, the bad and the ugly

noreply@blogger.com (stow dental) — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 19:41:00 +0000

Over the past several years the general public has been bombarded with ads and infomercials regrading dental products. Never before has the public had such a wide aray of materials to choose from in search of the perfect smile. Some of these ads however can be VERY misleading. Lets take one example. Lumineers. These are a type of porcelian veneer that has been around for a very long time. This is not a new invention just a remarketing of the same product. The idea behind Lumineers is that they are very thin and therefore can be placed over the top or fronts of your existing teeth without drilling or reducing any tooth structure. They state that there is no grinding, no shot and therefore no pain involved. Now initally that may make sense, however in 95% of the cases that is not true. The creation of truely well done cosmetic dentistry requires dealing with many inherent dental problems such as rotations of teeth, malalignments and inadequate length and poor color. If your teeth were nice and straight in the first place why would you need veneers? Good question. We don't think it should be your first choice. If your teeth are truely in need of veneers then you may have issues that will require some removal of tooth structure and addition of tooth structure in other areas. The addition of porcelain over non prepared tooth structure can lead to bulky, lifeless and poorly contoured teeth, this is not healthy for the surrounding gum tissue.Do not be fooled by something that sounds to good to be true. Look at the picture of a Lumineer case at the end of this blog ( not done by us) and then look at some of our before and after pictures and they will speak for themselves. Please research, ask questions and seek second opinions if you do not feel comfortable. Check the qualifications of your dentist, make sure they are members of the AACD or like organization which focuses on continuing eduction in esthetics. Remember it is your body, treat it right.

Medical misson

noreply@blogger.com (stow dental) — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 23:49:00 +0000

Fot the past 3 years in janurary I have traveled to Honduras as part of a medical mission from Holy Family Church. The 8 day trip included dentists, physicians, nurses and interperters to help with the flow of information. Becuase we were working in the jungle without electricity and running water I was limited to removing decayed and painful teeth. With only a light on my forehead and my trusted assistant, Fr. Mike Ausperk, my partner and I were able to remove over 250 teeth.

The poverty in Honduras in imense and the need to help these people is great. Words can't really explain what it is like there so the following pictures may help explain the situation. Enjoy.

posted by Dr. Iati

Cold and Flu season

noreply@blogger.com (stow dental) — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 23:40:00 +0000

Did you know that it is possible to reinfect yourself or OTHERS with the Rhino virus that is responsible for causing the common cold from your TOOTHBRUSH. If you are recently getting over a cold the doctors of Stow Dental Group recommend that you either throw your toothbrush away and get a new one or STERILE your current brush.

How do we recommend you sterile it? Use your dishwasher. Studies have shown that running your toothbrush in the dishwasher can reduce bacteria by 90% and still not harm your brush. Just as we are taught to wash our hands often during the cold and flu season, it is also wise to wash your toothbrush. Hope this helps.

posted by Dr. Iati

Welcome to our Blog!

noreply@blogger.com (Stow Dental Group) — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 18:16:00 +0000

Please check back frequently for the latest updates regarding Cosmetic Dentistry, Porcelain Veneers, Teeth Whitening, and other aspects of our dental practice.

Welcome

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew F) — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 21:39:00 +0000

Welcome to the Stow Dental Group blog.