Family Dentistry in Marietta
At Gilreath Family Dentistry Marietta, we provide complete care for the entire family. That’s what our practice is all about. We offer general dental services, including pediatric dentistry for children general dentistry for teens and adults, and specialized care for elderly patients. Our doctors see patients beginning at age 3. However, if you would like a consultation for your child before age 3, we will be happy to see your child. For children, we are primarily concerned with developing good oral habits (brushing and flossing), evaluating and treating any decay, and monitoring development through the years. In many situations, it is helpful for children to have interceptive orthodontics using fixed appliances. These can be help to provide additional room for the teeth as the child is growing. We offer these services to our young patients!
Pediatric Dental Care
We know how precious your little ones are to you and we want you to know that we will make your children very comfortable in our office. With you, we help them implement habits that will stay with your child. We teach them to brush and floss correctly. We explain the importance of brushing every day. Most dental care for children can be accomplished at our office. We don’t use a heavy handed approach at all–we want your child to feel safe and comfortable in our office. We’ll use the latest techniques to take care of any cavities and we are there for you if your child has an accident and hurts his teeth. At each visit, we’ll monitor their development and provide excellent care. And of course, we offer a prize for being such a great patient.
Dental Treatment for Adolescents and Teens
As your child develops into the tween and teenage years, it becomes even more crucial that good hygiene habits are formed. This is the time where plaque accumulation becomes more prevalent and gingivitis (the early stage of periodontal disease) starts. We continue to provide treatment for any cavities that develop and will help you continue to implement good oral care. We continue to provide good oral hygiene instructions and apply sealants to molars and sometimes premolars. A sealant is a thin plastic coating that seals the grooves of teeth. This is the area where fluoride does not work very well. The sealants are typically completed when the permanent teeth have come into the mouth. They are easy to do, don’t hurt and can provide excellent cavity prevention for your loved one.
This is also the time that most patients have orthodontic treatment. Dentists in Marietta offer our teenage patients traditional braces (wires and brackets) and we offer Invisalign®Teen, an orthodontic service designed specifically for teenagers. For many teenage patients, Invisalign® Teen has a significant benefit. The patient can remove the aligners while eating and brushing. These keeps the teeth from become stained because of poor brushing habits, which unfortunately is a very common thing with traditional braces. For patients who need treatment that cannot be accomplished using Invisalign® Teen, we work closely with several excellent orthodontists in the area and will refer your child as necessary. However, the young person must be extremely responsible, because if you don’t wear the appliances, the teeth don’t move. We’ll help you make the best decision in terms of which type of orthodontics to use for your child.
One of the benefits of doing your orthodontics with our practice, is that we typically see the children on a regular basis for dental care and we know your child, so we are able to closely monitor their cleaning habits and help them keep their braces clean. This will help alleviate permanent staining that can occur with poor hygiene. With your permission, we offer additional fluoride services and even additional cleanings throughout the orthodontic treatment time.
After every orthodontic patient has completed treatment, we fine tune the look of the teeth. This is a combination of services including evaluation and subtle refinement of the bite, tooth length and contour evaluation and refinement and white spot removal. White spots can form when teenagers are in braces but their cleaning habits are not great. The spots can be often be removed or made to look better using special technique called ICON, that won’t hurt the teeth or require anesthesia or drilling. In addition, we always use post-ortho refinement to evaluate the shade or the teeth as well as the texture, smoothness and reflectiveness and to provide corrections to any of these characteristics if necessary.
Please contact our Marietta Dentistry Professionals today to schedule a consultation for your son or daughter and help them take care of their teeth for the rest of their lives.