Gum Disease

Caring for your teeth is an essential part of maintaining good oral health, but your gums also play an important role, and proper care is crucial. Gum disease can be a serious detriment to both your oral health and overall wellness, and Dr. Lloyd Becker provides the type of regular periodontal care and checkups you need to maintain peak health and prevent periodontal issues.

With periodontal disease responsible for 75 percent of all adult tooth loss cases in the United States, it is critical to check for and treat periodontal issues when they first arise. Periodontal disease is an infection of the gums that starts when a build-up of plaque on your teeth hardens, creating a suitable environment for bacteria to collect and attack the surrounding gums. In its early stages, this gum disease is gingivitis, but if it is left untreated, it becomes periodontis, which can destroy your gum tissue and lead to tooth loss. Periodontis can even result in a loss of bone mass in your jawbone. Heart disease, diabetes and stroke have also been linked to poor periodontal health.

The state of your gums affects the health of your entire body, so come to our office in New York, NY to receive periodontal cleanings and treatment. It is easier to prevent gum disease or treat it early on than to reverse the effects of periodontis. Call 212-509-4585 to schedule an appointment at our practice. For more information about the dentist or Maiden Lane Dental, visit www.maidenlanedental.com. 

DIAGNOdent

Cavities can sometimes be difficult to diagnose, especially when they reside in the grooves and pits of molars, but technology has improved over the years to make detection of tooth decay easier than ever. While the traditional way to check for cavities involved looking for visual signs of decay, using dental X-rays and feeling for soft areas with a dental explorer, dentists can now use DIAGNOdent laser technology to detect even the smallest amount of decay, and at our practice in New York, NY, Dr. Lloyd Becker uses this technology to provide superior dental services to all our patients. 

Because the wide use of fluoride in recent years has hardened the outer layer of enamel on our teeth, cavities have become smaller and harder to diagnose, but the DIAGNOdent fluorescent laser provides a revolutionary way to detect decay. By using this laser, we can find decay that even dental X-rays and intraoral cameras at 30 times magnification can miss. The DIAGNOdent allows Dr. Becker to catch cavities at their earliest stages by reading what’s going on underneath the surface of teeth and detecting even the smallest amount of decay.

Early detection with the DIAGNOdent radically improves the quality of dental health care that our practice can provide because the technology allows us to preserve more of your tooth’s structure. When a cavity is caught early, it not only saves more of the tooth from decay; it also prevents the need for more radical dental treatments required for larger cavities.

At Maiden Lane Dental, we employs state-of-the-art technology to provide superior dental care to our patients. For the best diagnosis and treatment, schedule an appointment by calling 212-509-4585. For more information, visit www.maidenlanedental.com.

Night Guards

At our practice in New York, NY, we see many patients who suffer from bruxism, a condition marked by teeth grinding or excessive clenching. Some of these people grind their teeth or clench their jaw consciously throughout the day, but an even greater number do so at night while sleeping. Many of our patients who grind at night do not even realize that they do it until the results of the behavior give the condition away. If you grind your teeth, you will often experience damage to your enamel, as well as jaw pain, headaches and gum irritation. To protect your teeth, you must seek treatment, and Maiden Lane Dental, we find that night guards are the best way to prevent bruxism’s negative effects.

Similar to those worn by athletes, night guards provide a barrier between your top and bottom teeth when you sleep. By reducing wear to your teeth and making it harder for you to grind, your teeth will be healthier and you will feel better overall. We custom fit these night guards to make them as comfortable as possible. To fit you with a night guard, we will take an impression of your teeth to send to our dental lab for fabrication. Night guards created in a lab are very durable and can last for up to 10 years.

If you find yourself frequently waking up with headaches or pain in your jaw, it is very possible that you grind in your sleep. Often those who do not treat their bruxism end up with TMD, and they can even change the appearance of their face. To diagnose and treat your night grinding, call 212-509-4585 to schedule an appointment with Dr. Lloyd Becker. For more information, visit www.maidenlanedental.com. 

Root Canal

While the thought of having root canal therapy fills many patients with dread, the procedure is a necessary one for those whose teeth become infected in the nerves. If left untreated, infections can cause more than pain; they can turn into abscesses, which may lead to a loss of bone mass in the jaw. Treatment is imperative, and you can trust Dr. Lloyd Becker to relieve your pain at our office in New York, NY.

Although root canals may not sound pleasant to you, they are well worth it to stop your pain and improve your oral health. While there may be some soreness after the procedure, it is only temporary and is usually nothing that over-the-counter painkillers cannot take care of.

During a root canal, Dr. Becker will remove the infection by applying a local anesthetic to the area and drilling into the tooth to create an opening in the canal. Then he will remove the infected tissue and clean the area. Once the infection has been removed, your tooth will be filled with a sealant and then fitted with a crown to protect it from infection in the future. The crown also helps improve the appearance and strength of the tooth. After the procedure is completed and soreness subsides, you will once again be able to eat without experiencing pain and sensitivity to heat, cold and pressure.

If you’re in pain, you don’t need to suffer. Schedule an appointment at Maiden Lane Dental by calling 212-509-4585. For more information, visitwww.maidenlanedental.com.   

Digital X-Rays

We believe that early detection is the best way to treat our patients. With that being said, we have recently adopted digital X-ray technology into our practice. Digital radiography will better allow us to diagnose and treat patients the right way before it becomes a more serious issue.

 

Digital X-ray technology offers many benefits over traditional X-rays. The biggest difference is the amount of radiation it emits, about 90 percent less than traditional machines. While the radiation in traditional X-rays is not necessarily harmful, it’s never a good idea to expose someone to any type of radiation.

 

Another great benefit of digital radiography is the immediacy of it. You don’t have to wait for the image to develop anymore. Right after the image is taken it is immediately displayed on a bedside monitor. This greatly cuts down on patient chair-time. The instant imaging software is a great way for us to “Go Green” because there’s no harmful chemicals used to develop the images and the image itself is not printed so there is no waster there. The image is displayed on an environmentally friendly monitor that files it away with your personal records for future use without printing.

 

In many cases, digital X-rays are able to detect early stages of tooth decay where traditional X-rays would not. The image we get is far more detailed than other imaging software. Catching decay early can prevent cavities, gum disease and other periodontal issues. By getting to these symptoms earlier, our staff is better equipped to stop it now and even prevent it in the future. 

Veneers

If you think movie star smiles come from teeth whitening or straightening alone, you’d be wrong.  The real secret to a white, bright, flawless smile is porcelain veneers. At our Lower Manhattan dental practice, we utilize dental veneers to completely change your smile.  The results have added up to some dramatically beautified smiles.  Many of us would love a close-up-ready, celebrity smile, but how can you be sure if porcelain veneers are the right option for you?

 

Determining whether or not veneers are a sensible cosmetic option for you begins with understanding just what they are, which Dr. Lloyd Becker details during your first appointment.  Veneers are a thin ceramic shell that fits over the tooth and creates a new, customized smile surface. Each veneer is custom crafted according to an overall desired smile appearance.  We will take a mold of your teeth and have the veneers created at a third-party dental lab. Dr. Garrison uses this restorative treatment for patients who have significant tooth staining, cracked, gapped, misaligned or chipped teeth.

 

New York residents who visit the cosmetic and restorative dentistry practice are given comprehensive, one-on-one attention in determining which options are best for restoring and improving their smiles-- whether they’re seeking porcelain veneers or another one of Dr. Becker’s services.

Dental Implants

There are many options to fill the space left behind from a missing tooth. Dental implants are the only permanent solution available for replacing missing teeth. Implants are widely considered the modern-day solution to missing teeth as they provide an aesthetically pleasing, permanent answer to a serious problem. We provide dental implant procedures to help our patients restore their smile and fix their bite after implant surgery.

 

When you lose a tooth, it is important to act quickly to fill the space. Apart from the cosmetic issues, patients who have missing teeth will often suffer from compromised chewing efficiency and tooth drifting. The space left behind from a missing tooth causes the other teeth to drift into that space which can lead to misaligned teeth. When teeth become misaligned, they become more difficult to clean, leaving unreachable pockets in the teeth that will collect bacteria. This will almost certainly lead to periodontal issues that will eventually lead to additional tooth loss if left untreated.

 

Receiving a dental implant is a surgical procedure and patients are put under a general anesthetic. A dental surgeon will make an incision into the patients gum line where they will insert the implant. The implant will be secured into the jawbone where it will need to sit for three to six months so the bone can grow around it, this process is called osseointegration. After the surgery, patients will visit us to receive a crown over the implant. This is done so the patient’s teeth do not drift and they can eat normally. Once the implant is secured, Dr. Lloyd Becker will place an abutment on top of the exposed implant that will support a permanent crown.  Dental implants are the only completely permanent solution to missing teeth.