Services

Restorative Dental Care

Regardless of the reason, your teeth may need restorative work in order to keep your whole mouth healthy. Your TenderCare dentist and staff maintain high standards of compassion and quality of work, partnering with you for a long-term solution for your dental needs. The restorative dental care procedures offered at TenderCare dental offices include the following.

MAKE AN APPOINTMENT

Use our convenient, secure online form to schedule an appointment for you or your family at one of our locations. Our Portland, OR dentists have locations throughout the metro area.

Dental Fillings

(Tooth-Colored Restorations)

TenderCare Dental provides the Portland, OR area with tooth-colored restorations for cosmetic dental treatments. Tooth-colored restorations are made from durable plastics called composite resins. Similar in color and texture to natural teeth, the restorations are less noticeable, and much more attractive, than other types of fillings. You can smile, talk, and eat with confidence. In addition, tooth-colored restorations are compatible with dental sealants. A tooth can be filled and sealed at the same time to prevent further decay.

Advantages to Tooth-Colored Restorations Include:

  • Reduced sensitivity
  • They provide a natural look and also have a natural feel
  • They can replace metal fillings
  • They are less likely to crack over time which prevents additional decay

Ceramic Crowns

TenderCare Dental offers the Portland, OR area reliable dental crowns and bridges. Both crowns and most bridges are fixed prosthetic devices. Unlike removable devices such as dentures, which you can take out and clean daily, crowns and bridges are cemented onto existing teeth or implants, and can only be removed by a dentist. A crown is used to entirely cover or “cap” a damaged tooth.

Besides strengthening a damaged tooth, a crown can be used to improve its appearance, shape or alignment. A bridge may be recommended if you’re missing one or more teeth. Gaps left by missing teeth eventually cause the remaining teeth to rotate or shift into the empty spaces, resulting in a bad bite. The imbalance caused by missing teeth can also lead to gum disease and temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders.

A Crown May Be Needed To:

  • Replace a large filling when there isn’t enough tooth remaining
  • Protect a weak tooth from fracturing
  • Restore a fractured tooth
  • Attach a bridge
  • Cover a dental implant
  • Cover a discolored or poorly shaped tooth
  • Cover a tooth that has had root canal treatment

 

Bridges

Similar to partial or full dentures, bridges are used to replace one or more missing teeth. When a tooth is missing, it can cause a chain reaction of problems that include:

  • Shifting teeth
  • Change in your bite
  • Speech impediments
  • Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJ)
  • Greater chance for periodontal disease
  • Increased risk of tooth decay

Once teeth have shifted, they become much harder to clean. This gives plaque places to hide, forming harmful tartar that can cause cavities and gum disease. With dental bridges, however, there’s no need to allow missing teeth to threaten your beautiful smile.

A dental bridge is a false tooth or teeth – also known as a pontic – which is joined between two crowns to fill in the area left by a missing tooth or teeth. The two crowns holding it in place are attached onto your teeth on each side of the false tooth. This is known as a fixed bridge.

Fixed bridges are made of porcelain fused to metal (PFM) or ceramics, which closely resemble natural teeth. Since bridges can’t be taken out of your mouth, they require a serious commitment to daily dental hygiene habits but will last as many as ten years or longer.

The process of getting a bridge takes two visits minimum to complete. On a first visit, teeth are prepared and the dentist takes an impression of the teeth. A temporary bridge will be made for the two weeks it takes to make the permanent bridge in the lab. This temporary bridge will serve to protect your teeth and gums.

At the second visit, the temporary bridge will be removed and the permanent bridge will be cemented after the bite has been correctly adjusted. The dentist will then advise you on how to best take care of your teeth with the dental bridge, supplying a bridge floss threader in order to floss around all areas of the bridge. Flossing, along with brushing twice a day, is required each day to protect your bridge and smile!

Partial and Full Dentures

TenderCare Dental provides dentures and denture fittings to the Portland, OR area. Dentures are prosthetic devices constructed to replace missing teeth. Patients can loose teeth due to many reasons, the most prevalent being removal due to severe periodontal disease and tooth decay. If you are in need of removable partial dentures or a set of complete dentures, we here at TenderCare Dental will help restore your smile.

Advantages of dentures include:

  • Mastication – chewing ability is improved
  • Aesthetics – the presence of teeth provide a natural facial appearance
  • Phonetics – by replacing missing teeth, especially the anteriors, patients are better able to speak
  • Self-Esteem – patients feel better about themselves

All of our offices can help you with denture and partial denture services. We can repair broken dentures, missing denture teeth and provide new dentures and partials when repairs are not practical or possible.

Oral Surgery/Tooth Extractions

(Tooth Removal)

TenderCare Dental provides tooth removal and other medical dental procedures to the Portland, OR area. Needing a tooth pulled is never a fun situation but here at TenderCare we make sure you are comfortable and relaxed before your procedure. We provide simple extractions which are performed on teeth that are visible in the mouth and surgical extractions, involving teeth that cannot be easily accessed. Tooth removal is always performed using local anesthetics.

After removal, a blood clot will form in the socket usually within 1 hour. Bleeding is common in this first hour, but its likelihood decreases quickly as time passes, and is unusual after 24 hours. The raw open wound overlying the dental socket takes about 1 week to heal. Thereafter, the socket will gradually fill in with soft gum tissue over a period of about 1 – 2 months.

Reasons for a tooth extraction can include:

  • Broken, cracked or extensively decayed teeth
  • Teeth that are unsuitable candidates for a root canal
  • Teeth associated with advanced periodontal disease
  • Mal-positioned or nonfunctional teeth such as wisdom teeth
  • For preparation for orthodontic treatment