Category Archives: Dental Practices

Which Dental Procedures Are Not Available From The NHS?

Posted on by

While many services, such as crowns, root canals and fillings are available on the NHS, many other services are not. The majority of these procedures fall under the realm of ‘cosmetic dentistry’; dental work to improve the appearance or comfort of your teeth and gums rather than an essential service for their health. Cosmetic dentistry includes procedures like dental implants, veneers and teeth whitening that are all available from your dentist. Read on to find out more about these additional services that your dentist can provide.

Dental Implants

A dental implant is the most permanent and long term solution to replace a lost or broken tooth, and is considered a significant improvement on the typical denture solution. Consisting of a titanium rod, a support collar and a crown, implants can be used to replace both single teeth and multiple adjacent teeth within a single fixture.

Initially the titanium rod is inserted into a prepared socket in the bone until it becomes fixed (a process known as osseointegration) before the support collar and crown are attached later on.

Once the dental implant is in place and is fully integrated within the jaw bone it will function exactly as a normal tooth would.

Veneers

Veneers can be used for several reasons in cosmetic dentistry; either to cover up stained or cracked teeth, or to correct the size of inter-dental gaps. They provide an excellent finish to the external surface of teeth and comfortably hide from view any aspect of your teeth that you’d rather not see.

The procedure for veneers can vary slightly but typically involves shaving away a layer of tooth equal in thickness to the veneer that will then be applied. The veneer is then fixed in place on the shaved surface of the tooth using dental cement.

Teeth Whitening

Teeth whitening is an extremely popular dental procedure, probably because it can quickly lead to a significant improvement in teeth appearance. Teeth whitening is particularly popular among those with dark or stained teeth but can be taken advantage of anyone who would like to brighten their smile.

The procedure involves the application of a bleaching gel, followed by a specialised light source to accelerate the whitening.

Other Procedures

In addition to the services detailed above, private dental care offers the chance to take advantage of the latest and best advancements in oral care, with high quality treatments available for standard procedures like bridgework root canals and tooth restoration.

 

Booking Dental Appointments Just Got Easier!

Posted on by

Getting an appointment with a doctor or a dentist, particularly in the UK for an NHS appointment, can be a bit of a nightmare. Some clinics are booked up weeks in advance, leaving most people to rely on calling early to try and get an emergency dental appointment or a visit to the doctor’s surgery.

Emergency appointments are almost a waste of time for people with regular working hours, as you really have no idea when you’ll be seen and might struggle to get the time off work. Fortunately, some medical practices are finally taking advantage of the internet to help make patients’ lives easier.

Some dental practices, like www.white.co.uk in Southampton,  are now using online appointment booking software to allow patients to manage their own appointments. Some of these services allow patients to register with the clinic and book appointments at times that suit them, and some of the more advanced software actually sends reminders to patients automatically to remind them about their appointment.

These programs make things much easier for patients and clinics, as it removes a lot of the administration work typically involved in managing appointments.

Historically, practices would need to take calls to schedule appointments, add them to the system, manually send out reminders to patients, and manage any cancellations. By using an automated system, everyone’s life is made a little bit easier and allows medical professionals to do what they’re there to do – treat patients.

As more medical and dental practices incorporate this kind of software, making an appointment with your doctor or dentist will become so much easier. Welcome to the future!

 

Dental Fx

Posted on by

Dental fx is based in Bearsden Glasgow and was founded by Dr Stephen Jacobs in 2006. Although dealing in all aspects of dentistry, Stephen has a special interest in implants and has been placing implants for over twenty years. Dental fx is a teaching centre for dentists and nurses interested in learning more about dental implants and to this end Stephen runs a number of courses throughout the year. The Basic Restorative Course in Implant Dentistry, Advanced Restorative Course in Implant Dentistry, and a Sinus Course are all run by Stephen. The Scottish Dental Implant Course, a year course run at Dental fx by Stephen and Clive Schmulion is currently in its fifth year and is always fully subscribed to. Our head nurse Louise is the first (and only, to date) nurse in Scotland to have gained the Certificate in Dental Implant Nursing from Kings College London and runs a very popular Nurses course for dental nurses interested in implant nursing.

We are also a referral centre for CT scanning and most referrals can be accommodated on a same day basis. Contact louise@dentalfx.co.uk for more information regarding appointments

All the staff at Dental fx are well experienced and qualified in their own fields and regularly attend courses to keep up to date with the changing face of dentistry.

 

Please contact us for more information regarding any of the courses by emailing our course co-ordinator at Susie@dentalfx.co.uk