What do we do at Bullock Dental to make sure these are not just words?
Your COMFORT is critical to helping you access the care you need for your oral health. One of the most challenging concerns people have about going to the dentist is that they are often uncomfortable or anxious about some part of the experience… often several parts.
These feelings of discomfort are our focus. We work to be aware of and remove as many of these concerns as we can.
WE start by helping you book appointments when it is convenient for you.
WE focus on being aware of concerns you have about discomfort or anxiety or being embarrassed about an oral health issue.
WE pay attention if you are worried about the time it will take to fix a problem or if you really need the work that is being diagnosed.
WE have real conversations when you have questions.
WE work to help break down costs into affordable amounts that work for tight budgets and help you to access any insurance coverage you have that we can.
WE have made sure the layout of our office is bright and open, allowing us to care for you in a spacious, peaceful atmosphere.
You are not a number or a case. We see you as a person, with real concerns and an important life outside our doors. Our whole office works to make sure we have done the best we can to help you feel COMFORTABLE when you are here and with the work we do for you. Let us help you feel COMFORTABLE about letting us care for you.
PREVENTING dental concerns
is so important to preserving your health and your quality of life.
We know there are many legitimate reasons that keep people from taking care of their oral health. Time, budgets, anxiety and other priorities are at the top of the list. This list of important reasons evolves over time into what we call the CRN cycle ( ‘Can’t Right Now’ ).
Curiously, these same CNR reasons for waiting to take care of themselves, however legitimate, are the same reasons why many people have concerns coming to the dentist, eventually turning into the CNR Cycle. Waiting to prioritize dental care can often cause the very discomfort they are trying to avoid. This discomfort, then causes more discomfort as waiting to care for concerns grows with time. It just increases. Concerns about time, budgets, anxiety and other priorities are now much greater.
We are so aware that this cycle is real. So many of our new patients have shared this with us time and time again.
It doesn’t matter if you have a perfect mouth and are strict about your oral health or if you have waited for good reasons to start or re-start caring for your oral health, we know what happens to healthy mouths and struggling mouths when time passes without regular dental care. This is why we focus so deeply on helping you PREVENT this cycle from seriously affecting your social and physical health and most importantly your quality of life.Let us help PREVENT any dental concerns you may have, from increasing and affecting your quality life.
CONFIDENCE?
Why is this included as a service?
One of the greatest gifts we watch our patients experience from the work that we do for them here in this office, is increased SELF CONFIDENCE. It is one of the most valued experiences we witness.
We have cared for thousands of patients over the years with serious dental concerns that have deeply affected their social and
professional lives.
Caring for and helping them to remove embarrassing dental issues, like dark, discoloured, oddly positioned, maligned, crowded or broken teeth, breath odour from poor hygiene, decaying teeth and bone, dry mouth and infections, missing teeth, gummy smiles, overbites, underbites and gum recession, are some of the most jointly rewarding and meaningful services we provide.
Hand in hand with this is the ultimate goal however, of making sure that our newest little patients from the start of their lives never have to go through some of the emotionally painful experiences that their parents have had. We are determined to champion the self confidence of each of our patients and work to help them be free of confidence diminishing dental concerns.
Let us work to help you build and maintain your confidence with a healthy, beautiful, embarrassment-free mouth that you can easily care for, boldly show off and people will enjoy being around.
We are very proud of the ACCESS our
patients have to the dental care they need.
We have made sure that our office is spacious, open and accessible for all of our patients. We have integrated many ACCESS conscious features into our office to ensure that there is room for careful care and treatment for any of our patients who need accommodation.
ACCESS starts with designated parking in front of our main office doors, an automatic sitting accessible door opener, wide walkways and hallways, barrier free bathroom facilities, a designated operatory for our wheelchair bound patients to receive care right from their wheelchairs, a new variable height wheelchair accessible x-ray machine, and wheelchair accessible business office counters, away from the waiting room for for comfortable discussion, privacy, payment and appointment booking.
Let us help you ACCESS the dental care you need. We are expecting you. There is room for you at our office.
The word REPAIR in a dental office
has often just meant what you do for a
broken tooth…
We REPAIR a great deal more than broken teeth in our office. Delay of regular dental care, even if for legitimate reasons, often brings with it a large bouquet of oral health challenges. It doesn’t take much time for significant damage to occur to gums, bone and tooth surfaces, or for maligned teeth to cause tooth wear, chipping and gum recession. It also doesn’t take much time for self esteem to take a hit when discolouring, decaying and odour causing dental issues become obvious.
Of greater concern, is when care is delayed for our oral health, bacteria is often left unremoved in hard to reach places. This too often allows decay and infection to result in tooth loss and even bone loss. This unmanaged oral bacteria can also seep into the blood stream though inflamed swollen gums and contribute to many illnesses including cardiac disease.
We are certainly committed to helping to REPAIR every broken tooth that comes through our doors, but more importantly, REPAIRING the much more serious damage caused by delayed dental care. Let us help you REPAIR whatever significant or minor dental concerns you might have and prevent them from seriously affecting your health, your self esteem and ultimately, over time, your quality of life.
…are fast, comfortable and displayed instantly when complete on large monitors for reading and viewing. X-ray images can be zoomed into to better assess, diagnose and educate our patients. The Digital X-Rays we use in our office contain up to 70% less radiation then traditional x-rays and are a critical tool in revealing what the eye can’t see for thorough diagnosis.
is a powerful mobile scanner that quickly captures, records and displays the detailed anatomy of our patients mouths without the traditional messy gag-inducing impression materials. These scans are used for orthodontics, crowns, bridges, implants, periodontal and oral health assessments and much more. The colour digital displays are highly educational and clearly help our patents see and better understand the care they need.
… is a specialized high energy blue light that is used to harden filling material in seconds. The blue light energizes a photo-initiator in the filling material instantly hardening the filling. What this means for our patients is when they leave the office after having a tooth filled, the curing light has already bonded and fully hardened the filling, making it ready to chew on right away. Before we had curing lights, patients would need to wait 24 hours for the filling material to fully hardened before being able to eat on that side.
… is a highly specialized Laser that we use for many dental treatments. Laser dentistry improves efficiency, and eliminates discomfort for our patients in a number of dental procedures including surgery, periodontal, and endodontic treatments. Lasers reduce tooth sensitivity, eliminate pain, speed up healing of mouth sores and lesions and reverse gum disease. These and many other benefits are provided for our patients with the use of this advanced dental technology.
…is a very important tool for root canal surgery. It allows us to quickly and accurately locate the root tip of a tooth during a root canal procedure. This eliminates the need for additional x-rays and shortens the procedure time for our patients.
…is a digitally supported, new age Orthodontic System. Instead of bulky metal brackets and wires, it uses custom digitally designed teeth liners. They are clear, practically invisible liners that when used in sequence, gently straighten your teeth. The liners are removable for cleaning unlike traditional braces and because you remove them to eat, they do not require restrictions on what type of foods you can eat. The liners also complete orthodontic work faster and with less hassle.
…is a very small digital camera the size of the tip of an electric toothbrush. It is designed for taking precise and well-defined pictures of hard to see places within patient’s mouths. These pictures are then displayed on the computer monitor in large format so our patients can better see and understand their dental treatment needs. The images also help us communicate with visual clarity to insurance companies to help our patients get the coverage they deserve.
…is our Practice Management Software. It contains a sophisticated medical records system that helps securely store and organize all our patient’s information. It is designed to handle digital management of everything from storage and display of complex x-ray data, multi chair scheduling and mouth charting, to financial management
…or for short, a CBCT x-ray machine, is a large tower digital x-ray unit used to take 2D and 3D x-rays and scans of the whole mouth. This unit also uses 70% less radiation than traditional x-rays. The standard at Bullock Dental is to use ALARA when taking all x-rays, meaning ‘As Low As Reasonably Achievable’ which means we get the best detail in the images we can, with the lowest doses of radiation possible.
… is a state of the art instrument sterilization ‘oven’. We use this to ensure that all the dental instruments we use in our office are sterilized between uses and meet the strict infection control standards required by the Alberta Dental Association for the health and safety of our patients.
…is used by our hygienists to quickly remove unsightly and damaging tarter on teeth with ultrasound technology. This is a high energy vibration applied to each affected tooth, that disrupts the calculus and breaks it up so it is easier to remove. This scaler paired with traditional hand instruments is highly effective and dramatically improves the overall health of the jaw bones and gums.
Once plaque sits on your teeth for greater than 24 hrs. it hardens into tartar. Plaque and tartar contain huge quantities of bacteria which release toxins causing deterioration of the bone and soft tissues holding your teeth resulting in eventual tooth loss. Tartar must be scraped off professionally with scalers and cannot be removed with a toothbrush or floss. 70% of the population suffers from gum disease. Recent medical studies have revealed a close connection between oral health and medical health. Oral bacteria and their toxins travel through your blood stream to the rest of your body causing damage elsewhere. It's beneficial to minimize these bacterial numbers with professional tooth cleaning.
We sure do! Dental Insurance can seem complicated but with our in office knowledgeable Insurance coordinators we can help you easily submit your dental insurance. We will make sure you are clear on what your insurance covers before we begin treatment.
When a tooth becomes structurally weakened from decay or fracture there is often little tooth material left to work with and a crown is necessary. Fillings need strong natural tooth structure to hold them in place. If there is insufficient tooth structure and a filling is placed it will fail often causing more tooth to break away. The solution is a crown which surrounds the weak tooth and holds it together to prevent breakage when chewing.
The frequency of dental X-rays you need depends entirely on what your specific oral health requirements are. A dental X-ray is a vital tool that helps Dr. Bullock detect potential problems early before they develop into more serious issues. In general, most people receive a dental X-ray once or twice a year.
While many oral conditions are detectable with a visual exam, much of what happens with the anatomy of a tooth happens below the surface. Decay, bone loss, root fractures, and developmental conditions can appear normal on the surface but a dental x-ray may reveal another story.
For the benefit and safety of our patients, we use Low dose digital x-rays at Bullock Dental. Digital dental x-rays emit up to 70% less radiation than traditional film x-rays. We recommend only necessary x-rays that allow us to detect and diagnose dental conditions before they progress into more serious issues. The average daily background radiation we receive each day from our environment is about 8 micro Sieverts. Digital dental x-rays can range from 3 to135 micro Sieverts. To put this into perspective a round trip flight from New York to Paris will give you 30 micro Sieverts of radiation. Most dental x-rays are equivalent to just living in our environment for a half a day.
As with all of our treatment recommendations, we take a personal approach and base the frequency of your x-rays on your current oral conditions, your past dental history and any changes you may report in the health of your teeth or gums. Low dose digital x-rays routinely help prevent more costly and complex treatment had they not been taken.
When the inner most part of a tooth called the pulp, which constitutes the nerve and blood vessels within the tooth, is injured or infected debilitating pain can result. The pulp is encapsulated within hard tooth structure with only a small opening at the root tip for blood flow. When increased blood flow happens due to injury or infection, pressure builds within the hard tooth resulting in pain. The pain or infection can only be resolved by either the removal of the entire tooth or removal of the pulp by making a small hole in the top of the tooth and removing the pulp. When the pulp is gone there is no more pain or infection and best yet you keep your tooth.
This a good question. The brand of the toothbrush is not nearly as critical as the type of bristle, the size and shape of the head and how frequently you replace your brush. We recommend a soft bristled brush with a small head. The soft bristles are most important for the health of your gums. A small head allows you to get around each tooth more completely and is less likely to injure your gums. Brushing twice daily, morning and night, and replacing with a new brush are much more important issues than the brand you choose. We recommend replacing your brush at least once a month.
There's no getting around the need to get around your teeth daily with dental floss. It clears food and plaque from between teeth and under the gum line. If you don’t floss plaque hardens into which forms wedges and widens the space between teeth and gums causing pockets. Over time, gums pull away and teeth loosen.
Baby teeth allow children to smile, speak, and eat comfortably. Tooth decay progresses very quickly in baby teeth. Leaving decayed baby teeth leads to infections in the mouth, damaging the permanent teeth and spreading infection throughout the body. Deep decay often results in extractions. Once the baby teeth are prematurely gone, permanent teeth do not erupt in the correct position causing crooked teeth and creating the need for braces in the future.
The most important thing to remember is that if you ever suspect a problem with your child’s mouth, please make an appointment for him or her to be seen—regardless of their age.
Ideally, most children should be seen by a dentist before any problems arise. At about 2.5 to 3 years old is a good time for their first checkup and screening. Prior to their first checkup and screening it is a good idea for the child to come in when Mom or Dad are having their checkup and screening to give them a chance to grow accustomed to the sights and sounds of the dentist office. Watching family members getting treated is a helpful experience and can alleviate first visit anxieties. When your child comes in for his or her first official visit, we enjoy making these visits fun. We give them a chance to ride in the dental chair, meet the staff, and count their teeth. Dr. Bullock and the entire team enjoy treating children—and we look forward to making their first experience with the dentist something they enjoy.
