Whistler Dental

Minimally Invasive Dentistry is a treatment philosophy that utilizes techniques and technologies to do the least damage to teeth possible.  These tecniques are used for simple fillings,  or for improving the esthetics of a smile with veneers, or even with artificial smiles that snap over your existing teeth without touching the teeth.

Fillings

Laser technologies such as the Diagnodent make it possible to find cavities when they are very small. So small, that these cavities are often not noticable clinically.  In the past the Dentist would find cavities by poking his sharp instrument ( the explorer) into the pits and fissures of the teeth looking for small sticky spots.  Once a sticky spot is found the Dentist would usually look closer, pick a few more times and then make a subjective assesment as to whether this is a cavity or not.  The Diagnodent measures the density of the tooth surface and displays a number.  Every Dentist would have his own diagnostic cut off where over would be a cavity and under would possibly be something to watch in the future.  The beauty of this system is that it is totally objective.  The cavity is determined by a very sensitive scientific instrument.  Dr. McKenzie has been using this for over 5 years.

Once this super small cavity has been found we need a new way to remove the very small spot and repair it.  A couple of ways to do this are with either a laser of another technology called air abrasion.  Dr. McKenzie has been using air abrasion for 20 years.  What started off as a very simple sand blaster, has evolved into a very precise instrument called an "Aqua-cut".  The Aqua-cut carries a stream of very fine sand particles in a stream of water.  The water pressure is controlled, as are the size of the silica particles, as is the type of particle.  The objective is to only remove soft diseased tooth.  Once the VERY small hole has been prepared, conventional bonding techniques along with flowable filling materials are used to fill in these VERY small holes.

Veneers

Veneers are a minimally invasive technique that have been around for a long time.  However they often do require some drilling.  The amount of tooth reduction required depends on many factors, such as the amount of colour change required, or the degree to which the teeth being treated have already been filled.  It the teeth already have fairly large fillings, often a full coverage crown is the best treatment option.  However, when the required conditions are met there are now techniques such as Lumineers which require very little or no drilling.

Another technique called "Snap-On Smile" requires no drilling at all and creates a beautifull smile.  With a "Snap-On Smile" a patient can eat and talk normally, but takes the smile out at night for rest.

Sealants

Dental sealants are an old technique which has always been minimally invasive.  It is an invaluable preventive technique which is especially great at getting kids thru their cavity prone years.  When a sealant is done in conjunction with air abrasion and a permanent flowable filling material this tooth is protected for a very long time.  Before air abrasion,  their was some controversy over how useful the sealant really was IF you were sealing very early caries underneath.  Now with laser technologies such as the Diagnodent and air abrasion, we are more able to predicably seal that tooth surface for a very long time.