Category: Holistic Dental News

Perhaps you’re already convinced that we’re the best dental clinic for you. Or perhaps you’re not. Either way, we believe we can help any dental patient look, feel and function better – and that includes you. If you need an extraction, implant or dental surgery and are concerned about pain or slow healing, we can offer you something innovative and remarkable: PRF therapy.

Read on and you’ll learn more about how PRF – that is, Platelet Rich Fibrin – is making life better for dental patients who choose Brighton Dental in San Diego and Dr. Paige Woods.

PRF Makes Things Better

PRF is a natural, biocompatible, non-allergenic product that’s made from your own blood – so you won’t have a negative reaction to it. We draw a small amount of blood, spin it in a centrifuge into its components and bring out the fibrin – which is a substance that that’s already in your body to aid in healing. By refining your blood in this way, we create a concentrated fibrin product that we can put exactly where it’s needed.

How can PRF be used? At Brighton Dental, we have successfully used PRF therapy to:

• Promote rapid healing of extractions
• Help with osseointegration and soft tissue healing around dental implants
• Speed recovery from reconstructive work, and
• Assist with integration and success of bone grafts.

And our PRF unit doesn’t use bovine thrombin or chemical additives of any kind.

Learn What Everyone’s Talking About

You may have already heard about PRF therapy because it’s being discussed with regard to complex medical procedures, cosmetic enhancements and a wide range of medical, dental and plastic surgery procedures. Platelet rich fibrin therapy improves healing, supports the immune system and can help you heal quicker and better with fewer post-operative complications.

But what is fibrin? As you may know, your blood is actually clear. The red color comes from red blood cells. Blood also contains platelets, small cells that stop bleeding and promote healing. A French surgeon discovered that patients can recover quicker from surgeries when platelet-rich fibrin – a naturally occurring fibrous mesh – is applied directly to a surgical site.

The body would eventually get these healing components to the site anyway, but refining it from your blood and placing it directly at the site speeds up the process and therefore speeds healing. Plus, much more of the fibrin can be added in this way than the body would eventually use on its own to heal the site.

PRF therapy also includes growth factors from your own body – the so-called signaling molecules that help cells know what work needs to be done in a certain area. Both hard and soft tissue responds to this kind direct help in getting the right molecules to a surgical site, extraction site or dental implant.

Nothing’s More Biocompatible

We spend a lot of time making sure the materials we use in and on your mouth are biocompatible, and nothing is more biocompatible than something made from your own body – from a small sample of your own blood in the case of PRF. There’s nothing added, no chemicals needs and no worries because a centrifuge does all the work. What could be simpler or better?

At Brighton Dental, scores of San Diego dental patients and people from everywhere turn to us for holistic, biocompatible, sensible and gentle dental work – because they trust us. PRF is another trusted way of doing dental work better than ever before, and we fully embrace it at this San Diego dental practice. To learn more about PRF therapy, contact us now at 619-359-6569 to schedule your consultation.

Thanks to new technology in use by Dr. Paige Woods and the holistic dental team at Brighton Dental, we can now see a clearer image of your teeth than ever before and examine your mouth slice by slice – just like with a medical CT scan but at a fraction of the cost and with very little radiation.

When a traditional x-ray doesn’t tell the whole story, we can now use Cone Beam 3D Imaging – also called Cone Beam Computed Tomography or simply CBCT – to see a clear picture in amazing detail. That means we can be even more certain of the options we offer to you. And you can be more confident in our ability to help you without pain, hassles or wasting your time.

Want to learn more about what we can see during the 15-second scan? Keep reading.

Details, Details, Details

With CBCT, we can see your mouth and the nearby structures in your head in 3D and in incredible detail. While the scan takes only seconds, we can see your teeth in cross-section, see spacing issues of concern better than before and even note how your jaw, sinuses and nerve bundles interact with your teeth.

Traditional bite-wing x-rays are great, but what we can see is limited. Panoramic radiographs give us a more complete picture, but both show only 2 dimensions – that is, a flat image. Cone Beam 3D Imaging adds a revolutionary new dimension to what we can see while showing details in clarity greater than we had available in the past. For the first time, we can see distortion-free 3D details of spatial relationships related to the teeth, jaw and other head and face structures.

Plus, we can see cross-sections of any teeth we choose, something never possible before. If you think of a combination of the overall picture provided by a panoramic dental x-ray with the detail and dimension available from a medical CT scan, then you’re starting to understand this new 3D imaging machine at Brighton Dental in San Diego.

How Cone Beam 3D Imaging Works

Using a special CBCT machine, Cone Beam 3D Imaging allows us to send totally safe, very low-power x-rays to the specific area we want see, the mouth. This radiation is sent in a divergent cone pattern that fans out, not in a single narrow column. The data is received by a sensor attached to a computer. Using special algorithms designed just for this system, the computer generates a unique 3D image that we can see on a monitor. We can rotate this image, seeing all sides of your teeth and related structures. And we can look at individual slices to see problems within teeth.

Using all this information, we can make an accurate diagnosis – which leads to an excellent treatment plan and the best possible outcome for you. There’s no other way we can see a cross-section of a tooth or a 3D image of your mouth.

Easy For Everyone

Perhaps the best thing about Cone Beam 3D Imaging is how easy it is. It only takes 15 seconds and is performed much like a panoramic x-ray. You just have to remove all metal, including hairpins, hearing aids and removable bridges.

Dental insurance usually doesn’t cover this kind of scan, but it’s much more affordable than a medical CT scan. We’ll make the process easy for you and file paperwork with your insurance company if necessary.

When used in situations where traditional 2D x-rays don’t show all we need to see, this remarkable new type of 3D imagining lets us see your oral and dental health in a new way – so we can help you in the best ways possible. Isn’t technology amazing?

Some dental experts argue that when you mix toxic mercury with silver and other ingredients, it becomes a completely safe and stable dental restoration material. For decades, this material – called amalgam – has been used in fillings. Now, this Civil War era restoration material is shunned by many dentists, but lots of people still have dangerous mercury in their mouths – and it needs to be removed, as an experiment on the Dr. Oz show proves.

Mercury is a neurotoxin, and that’s why mercury-containing fillings are banned in some countries. In the United States, however, mercury amalgam is still allowed. But it shouldn’t be.

For dental patients unlucky enough to have silver-colored fillings, they could be the source of untold health problems. The solution is to remove these fillings and replace them with composite material or other restorations – something Dr. Paige Woods at Brighton Dental San Diego does for her patients under strict protocols designed to prevent additional harm.

Dr. Oz Steps In Where The ADA Won’t

Aside from damaging your own health with mercury-containing fillings, you’re releasing mercury into the atmosphere every time you brush, chew, grind your teeth or consume acidic beverages if you have silver fillings. Atmospheric mercury becomes methylmercury that contaminates fish. And consider how much mercury is released by dentists who still use amalgam in large quantities or dispose of old amalgam improperly.

Still, the American Dental Association advocates the use of dental amalgams, failing to acknowledge the problems or risks. In a recent survey, researchers found that as many as half of American dentists still use mercury amalgam.

On the Dr. Oz television program, Dr. Mehmet Oz participated in an experiment that proves the harmfulness of mercury fillings. Working with his hands inside a closed container with special air filtration and wearing heavy gloves, Dr. Oz used an ordinary toothbrush to brush for only a few seconds on some amalgam installed in a mouth replica. This quick brushing released 61 micrograms of mercury. If the mouth had been real, that mercury vapor could have crossed the blood-brain barrier and caused its neurological effects.

Take a look at the video. The experiment begins about 2 minutes in:

And people with mercury amalgam fillings brush, crew, grind and consume carbonated beverages every day. Interestingly, most of those who tried to refute the findings of the experiment admit that mercury vapor is released daily from amalgam, they just dispute how much harm it causes patients. But why not use dental composite – just as strong and better looking – instead?

While mercury vapor won’t instantly kill you, imagine the cumulative effect over time of having a neurotoxin installed in your body. You may question the credentials of Dr. Oz to perform dentistry experiments, but remember that the demonstration for his television show was based on laboratory demos. The International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology is among organizations that have made similar findings.

Put An End To A Personal Health Disaster

The Dr. Oz video very effectively demonstrates the dangers of having amalgam fillings. You can eliminate the release of colorless, odorless, tasteless and poisonous vapors into your body and into the environment by having Dr. Paige Woods replace your amalgam fillings with composite. Amalgam filling removal is one of the primary reasons people from across Southern California turn to Brighton Dental San Diego.

Stop the potential damage to your health and benefit from beautiful, tooth-colored composite fillings and other cosmetically pleasing restorations when you turn to Brighton and Dr. Woods.

Amalgam filling material is shipped to dental offices as hazardous material. It’s disposed of as hazardous waste. So why would anyone think it’s safe to have in your mouth? Call (619) 359-6569 to schedule your appointment.

Although there isn’t a magic wand that a dentist can simply wave and magically transform your teeth into white, straight, healthy teeth, there is something called a Dental Wand that can do something pretty incredible! The scientific name for it is the CompuDent and Single Tooth Anesthesia System, but many dentists have taken to calling it the Dental Wand because of the way that it looks, and the clever way that it can completely transform a dental appointment with just a small amount of movement! It is a special computer that can inject dental liquids in a completely controlled manner – far more controlled than a dentist would be able to do by hand. The stream is slow and steady, so the patient can completely relax knowing that there aren’t going to be any sudden spurts or gushes going into their mouth.

So why is this any better? Well, whenever you come into contact with a needle – whether you are getting blood taken, getting your ears pierced, or having a flu jab – the pain that you feel isn’t actually the needle, it is the reaction that your body makes when something new is forced into your body really quickly. It reacts thinking that it is being attacked, and so if we were able to inject something steadily and slowly then there would not be any pain. That is where the Dental Wand comes in: its clever control means that truly painless dentistry is right there before you – and the designers have even made sure that it does not look frightening by making it look more like a pen than a syringe.

Dentists up and down the country are now preferring to use the Dental Wand over any other method, and their patients love it too. Just wave the magic wand!

When your teeth need a particular dental restoration treatment such as an implant or a bridge, there needs to be a certain amount of bone required for this to be successful. In cases where that amount of bone simply does not exist, your dentist will discuss with you the possibility of a bone graft procedure, which will help the restoration treatment to be successful. Although there are many reasons why a person may not have sufficient bone – gum disease, a previous tooth extraction, a sports injury, an infection – there is only one treatment option, and that is a bone graft. This is often a very successful treatment, and it will naturally lead to the success of the primary treatment plan. So what are the side effects of a successful bone graft?

Firstly, you will experience greater jaw stabilization. This means that your jaw will be stronger, and better supported in the areas where it was previously weak, helping you to do basic things like chew meat and bite down on an apple much easier. Secondly, you will experience greater preservation. With more bone in the jaw you are much less likely to lose teeth in the future, and it will help to keep the teeth that are healthy in place.

Your dentist will examine you to see whether you are a good fit for receiving a bone graft, and any nearby problems such as infection or gum disease will need to be treated and healed before you take the bone graft any further. Once the bone graft treatment is over, you will be given special medicine that you will need to take to reduce the swelling and discomfort, and it will also fight infection too. Before you know it, you can have your dental restoration treatment and leave your dentist with a perfectly healthy and beautiful looking set of teeth.

We love our patients and would like to show our appreciation with a party! You, your friends and family are all welcome to join us on Thursday 5/11 at 5pm, next door to Brighton at the San Diego Brewing Company.. the beer is on us!

Hope to see you there,

Dr. Woods & The Brighton Dental Team

Amalgam Filling

It feels as though with every new generation, we learn even more about the human body and all of the strange things that past generations have done to it! It is almost possible to laugh sometimes at the crazy things that doctors and medical staff did to people hundreds of years ago, absolutely convinced that they were doing the right thing, even though it could actually have been causing them even more pain than necessary – and potentially not in any way curing the problem at all. One of the things that our generation is having to deal with on almost a yearly basis is the fact that dentists in our pasts thought that it was absolutely fine to use mercury within tooth fillings. Now that we understand that mercury really is not good for the body, but in fact can be highly poisonous, many people are going back to their dentists and asking them to take their mercury fillings out. But is this a good idea if you are pregnant?

The main concern here is that absolutely everything that we ingest will find its way into our placenta and then straight into our babies, so many people worry that if they do ask their dentist to remove their mercury filling – also known as a silver filling – then they will automatically ingest some as it is taken out, and that could poison their baby, leaving them with real damage. It is completely understandable why people panic about this, but the thing that you need to remember is that when it comes to your mercury filling, you will be in one of two situations. You will either have a completely intact mercury filling, or you will have a leaking mercury filling. What you should do if you are pregnant and considering talking to your dentist depends on the state of your filling.

If your mercury filling is already leaking, then it is definitely time to have it removed. Your dentist can use a dam (like a special mouth guard, only it prevents anything from going down your throat) to make sure that you do not ingest any of the mercury or silver as they are taking it out, and as it has already been leaking into your body, it is definitely a case of the sooner the better. Wasting time in this situation is definitely not a good idea. On the other hand, if your mercury filling is completely intact and is not leaking at all, then at this point there really isn’t a good reason for your dentist to get involved. It would be much better for you to wait until you are no longer pregnant or breastfeeding, so that your dentist does not have to worry about working on you and you don’t have to worry about any spilling out. As always when it comes to being pregnant, only you at the end of the day can make this decision.

To have Dr. Paige Woods assess whether your amalgam fillings should be removed now or later, call (619) 359-6569