Useful information

Maintaining a beautiful smile requires effort. We have heard countless times about the things that damage the colour of our teeth: coffee, tea, smoking. Experts reveal what exactly causes teeth to darken. Tobacco smoke contains two substances that make teeth change colour. Although nicotine is actually colourless, it turns yellow when it bonds with oxygen molecules. Tar, as a residue of smoked tobacco, is naturally dark and settles on the surface of the teeth, explains Sandra Skuodaitė, Dentist and Endodontist at the Prosthetics and Implantology Clinic in Vilnius.

Every year on 9 February, the International Dentist’s Day is celebrated. Dental and oral health is often discussed, but according to experts, most patients do not follow recommendations which often leads to frequent appointments with the dentist. According to doctors, one of the biggest enemies of a healthy and beautiful smile is smoking which remains one of the main reasons for deteriorating oral hygiene.

Modern dentistry can be considered to know how to effectively manage the “eternal” oral disease which is tooth decay. Fluoride products, proper personal and regular professional oral hygiene as well as eating habits provide real opportunities for preserving teeth throughout one’s entire life. While we know how to fight diseases caused by ‘dirt,’ we are also seeing how pathologies caused by the “achievements of civilisation” are becoming more apparent. The lifestyle of many people is changing radically. Our daily lives are characterised by speed, an abundance of information, constant decision-making, i.e. constant stress or anxiety. Today, dentists observe a group of oral diseases that is becoming more common and, worst of all, affecting younger people which is pathological (faster than normal for a given age) tooth wear. Tooth wear affects 97% of the population, with 7% of them requiring treatment to prevent the tooth structure from completely disintegrating due to this condition.

The topic of immediate implantation (immediately after tooth extraction) is often exaggerated for marketing purposes. It sounds very appealing: a patient comes to the clinic with poor teeth and leaves it with new ones. Sometimes, this treatment is described using catchy names such as ‘teeth in an hour’. This may give the impression that this is the latest and most advanced method of dental implantation used by the most progressive professionals in all cases of dental implantation. Surely not all of us think to ourselves when reading this: ‘Isn’t it too good to be true?’ The advantage of both incisionless (flapless) implantation and immediate implantation is speed, but decisions must be made carefully. Otherwise, we will once again be faced with the old truth of life that we have to sacrifice something for speed. That sacrifice may be the aesthetics, precision and durability of the prosthesis.

One of the most modern and successful methods of restoring lost teeth is dental implantation. This is not a brand-new treatment method. It was used even in ancient civilisations. The first modern procedure of this kind was performed in Sweden in 1965. With the rapid development of implantology in recent decades, dental implantation has become an everyday phenomenon in practical dentistry.

Implantation is a type of dental prosthesis that restores all missing teeth. Both the roots and crowns are restored. In other words, implants restore a tooth or all teeth when they are completely missing and cannot be replaced with other types of prostheses.