This is the most important
part of your treatment plan. Your comprehensive exam will include: medical and dental history review, radiographs, assessment
of your periodontal health, and assessment of your temporomandibular joints, an intraoral exam of your teeth and soft tissues,
often photography, and a thorough discussion with you of all findings. Treatment
plan options will be discussed, your questions will be answered, and a treatment plan will be developed. If referrals are necessary, Dr. Jaksa has the experience to know who the most competent specialists in the
area are.
CLEANINGS, X-RAYS, PREVENTIVE CARE
Prevention of dental problems
is our goal. Lake Area Dental is staffed with a team of highly competent and personable
dental hygienists and dental assistants that will help you maintain you dental health with patient education and regular dental
cleanings.
Your dental hygiene, diet,
and habits are critical to maintaining good dental health. Our staff will educate
you so that you can maintain optimum dental health and will place you on a dental recall schedule that fits your specific
needs.
Patients with periodontal
disease requiring more extensive treatment to preserve their dental health are also welcome and treated in our office by our
experienced staff.
When considering cosmetic dentistry, the doctor you select is critical.
Dr. Jaksa has the experience and skills to give you the result you want. He will address not only the teeth, but function
(your bite), and soft tissue architecture (where the gum tissues are) also. He will use photography and mounted models of
your teeth to treatment plan your restoration. You will be educated and involved.
Crowns
are most often used to restore teeth when a tooth is fractured, or when there is insufficient tooth structure left to restore
the tooth with a filling.
There
are different types of porcelain crowns available including porcelain to metal, porcelain to zirconia, and all porcelain. Dr. Jaksa will advise you which material is best for your situation. All porcelain crowns are the most esthetic
and best used on anterior (front) teeth. These are not the treatment of choice for posterior (back) teeth due to strength
issues.
Porcelain
fused to metal crowns have excellent strength, and for many years were the profession’s standard for use anywhere in
the mouth. We now have better esthetic choices, and these crowns, if used, are most often used on posterior teeth. The metal understructure should always be a gold alloy.
Porcelain
to zirconia crowns (Lava™) are the new favorite. This crown offers excellent
fit, strength, and esthetics.
It is technology
from 3M™ - ESPE™. The crown has a zirconia coping which fits to the
tooth. This is important for strength and fit. Lava
crowns were introduced several years ago, and Dr. Jaksa was involved since their inception.
In the United States and internationally, it is now becoming “the choice”
when it comes to crowns.
Crowns are considered long term
restorations if meticulously and correctly placed. The margin between the restoration
or crown and the tooth must have a perfect seal. Crowns with poor fitting margins
or seals will have a shortened life due to bacterial leakage and recurrent decay. Dr. Jaksa’s standard of care of these restorations
is that they not only are esthetic, but must fit perfectly.
Porcelain veneers are thin porcelain restorations best placed on anterior
teeth to improve esthetics. They can result in excellent esthetics and durability
if used in the correct situation and properly placed.
A bridge is a restoration to replace a missing tooth or teeth. We now have a new choice
in dental materials called porcelain to zirconia which has greatly improved esthetics. It is permanently attached to the prepared
teeth and if properly placed can offer beautiful esthetics and durability. The restoration can be completed in two appointments.
White fillings are the most common way to restore teeth. The advent
and development of these products has occurred during Dr. Jaksa’s career. He has been involved since their inception.
With the many available material choices, Dr. Jaksa has the education and clinical experience to choose the best materials
available in the market for your restorations. He has the clinical skills and competency to restore your teeth with a
natural, cosmetic, meticulously fitting restoration.
When to change old fillings
Over time, fillings need replacement. The interface where the filling meets the
tooth starts to breakdown resulting in microleakage of bacteria. This bacteria causes new dental caries (decay).
How long a filling lasts depends on the filling material used, size of the filling, how well the filling was placed, and patient
factors such as dental hygiene, diet and bite.
Diagnosing decay under old fillings is somewhat subjective. The decay is often not apparent on
the patient's radiographs (x-rays), because the filling may block out the decay. The clinical goal of the dentist
should be to change old fillings when they first begin to fail. This preserves the tooth structure and may prevent larger
and more expensive dentistry in the future. Dentists vary greatly in their ability to diagnose failing dentistry. Dr. Jaksa's
25 plus years of experience gives him the ability to be highly skilled at diagnosing when to change old fillings.
| Old Fillings |
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| Decay Under Old Fillings |
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| Decay Removed |
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| New White Fillings |
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Bonding is a technique used to add tooth colored material to the tooth. It
can be used to fill tooth gaps, change tooth shapes, or repair chips. It is a technique used often at Lake Area Dental with
beautiful cosmetic dentistry results.
For your convenience, Lake Area Dental offers an at home bleaching system designed to produce
excellent results in one to three weeks. After taking impressions of your teeth, we manufacture a custom fitted mouth
tray for each arch to hold the bleach. In this do-it-yourself whitening plan, you will wear the trays two hours during
the day or while sleeping. Your teeth will gradually lighten, leaving you with a dazzling smile. Dr. Jaksa feels
this is the safest, most efficient, and cost effective method available.
Implant dentistry is a very exciting area in dentistry. Missing teeth
to totally edentulous mouths (all teeth missing) can now be restored to optimal dental health with outstanding esthetics and
function. A dental implant is a titanium coated device placed in the bone which then can have restorative dentistry placed
over it. Implants can be difficult and complex in nature. Selection of a competent implant dentist will lead to optimum
results. With over 20 years experience in implant dentistry, Dr. Jaksa has the clinical skills and education to treatment
plan and restore your mouth with excellence.
MALOCCLUSION TREATMENT – BITE PROBLEMS
Dr. Jaksa has had extensive continuing education and clinical experience in this most important
area of dentistry, and is highly respected by his peers in this essential subject.
Excellence in all dentistry starts with a comprehensive understanding of how the biting system
works.
There are three components to the biting system: The teeth, the temporomandibular
joint (TMJ), and the biting or masticatory muscles. If a patient has a bite problem where the teeth contact incorrectly,
any component of the biting system can eventually break down. Problems such as sensitive teeth, cracked or loose teeth,
recession and notches in teeth, excessive wear on teeth, bone loss around teeth, facial muscle pain, temporal headaches clicks,
pops, coarseness, pain or locking in the TMJ area, limited opening, deviation on opening, and ringing of the ears are most
often, if not always, caused by a “bite problem”. Dr. Jaksa will assess your bite problem and establish
a treatment plan to solve the problem. You will thoroughly understand your bite after consultation with Dr. Jaksa. This
is one reason why you should choose him to be your doctor. It is essential to understand these principles in all areas
of dentistry including and especially cosmetic dentistry, adult general dentistry, children’s dentistry and patients
with TMJ problems.
TMJ TREATMENT AND SPLINTS
Perhaps the most important part of your initial comprehensive exam involves
examination and discussion of the health of your temporomandibular joints (TMJ). Your TMJs are the hinges for your biting
or mastilatory system which includes the right and left TMJs, your biting muscles, and your teeth.
TMJs can be damaged from trauma or dental malocclusion (a bad bite). TMJ
problems can be progressive in nature, and may include clicks, pops or noises in the joint area, locking of the mouth open
or closed, limited mouth opening, pain in the TMJ area, ringing in the ears, temporal headaches, bite muscle pain and associated
problems with the teeth to include dental pain, cracked teeth, mobile teeth, bone loss around teeth, recession and abfractions
(wearing away of enamel) of teeth.
Treatment involves joint health assessment (TMJ exam) and appropriate treatment
related to diagnosis. MRIs are used in some cases to find the extent of joint damage. Splints are used to establish the
“perfect bite” to assess joint health and stability. Splints are assessed monthly to establish if the patient
is pain free with a stable non-changing bite. Medications are used in some cases to reduce inflammation and reduce muscle
activity. Other treatments involve restoring the bite to ideal function, and/or skeletal or TMJ surgery.
In all TMJ treatment, our ultimate goal is to restore the bite to optimal
bite or occlusion. Ideally, this follows two principles. The first principle is to have the teeth contact perfectly
even with the TMJs in their correct anatomical position. The second principle is called anterior guidance. This is the
front teeth (ideally the canines) touching in all lateral tooth movements to prevent the back teeth from touching. This
goal can be accomplished by different methods depending on the patient’s bite. Treatment can vary from minimal
adjusting on the teeth (occlusal equilibration), to restorative dentistry, to orthodontics, to skeletal surgery, to TMJ surgery
to full mouth reconstruction. Understanding these principles is the basis of all our dentistry. Dr. Jaksa has extensive
advanced education in this area at the highly respected Center for Advanced Dental Study in St. Petersburg, Florida. He
feels this allows him to be extremely competent in this area of dentistry.
Oral surgery performed by
Dr. Jaksa includes extractions of erupted and impacted teeth, and other simple surgery procedures. Procedures needing a referral
will be given to one of the areas most competent oral surgeons.
Many teeth would need to
be extracted if not for root canal treatment. This painless procedure is performed
to save a tooth that is dying, or no longer alive. Successful root canal treatment
can allow you to keep a tooth that would otherwise be extracted.
A full denture is an appliance worn by the patient to replace all missing
teeth. A partial denture is used to replace some missing teeth. With the advent
of implant dentistry, denture patients now have the choice of adding implants to their denture, or eliminating the denture
altogether with implants. With over 25 years of experience, Dr. Jaksa has the
education, clinical experience, and skills to handle the most difficult full mouth reconstruction.
Your child’s initial
visit should be at age 3. Our goal is to not only deliver the best dental care,
but to develop a non apprehensive dental patient. Both parent and child are educated
so habits and practices can be developed for a lifetime of optimal dental health. Our
six month recall system for children is essential to deliver care at the appropriate time and reinforcement of good dental
health practices. One of the most critical aspects of children’s dentistry is space management of the erupting teeth
and referral to the most competent orthodontists in the area. Children can have different
bite problems which dictate when they need to be treated. Some children with skeletal
growth problems require care as early as age six. Late diagnosis can seriously affect outcome and lead to significant future
dental problems and treatment. Some children with simple dental malocclusions
can be treated at age 11-13 when the primary teeth are lost. Dr. Jaksa feels that selection
of the best orthodontist is one of the most important dental decisions for your child’s dental health that you will
make. Excellence in orthodontics will lead to optimum dental health, where poor
orthodontics can lead to a compromised result with a lifetime of dental problems. Dr. Jaksa has the experience in this dental
community to refer your child to the area’s most competent orthodontists.
