Dental Blog - Harley Street Dental Clinic

Everything you need in a dental clinic in W1

If you are new to central London, no doubt finding a great dental clinic in W1 is high on your to-do list. If not, it should be, because, apart from anything, you never know when you are going to need an emergency dentist.

But what else do you need from a dental clinic in W1? There is so much to dentistry these days, it’s hard to think of all the services you might need once you have joined a dental practice. And it’s always preferable to be able to access them all under one roof than to have to be referred out to other dentists, and slog your way across this busy city looking for unfamiliar addresses.

All under one roof

When you join Harley Street Dental Practice, you can relax, because our 12 highly qualified and experienced dentists, cover every aspect of dentistry for your entire family. We even have a team of three consulting maxillofacial surgeons, so you do not have to go elsewhere for oral surgery if you need it.

From the youngest baby to the most senior patient, we have got your needs covered in our beautiful restored Georgian townhouse right in the heart of London’s private health district.

We also appreciate that English may not be your first language, and we have translators on hand if you are having trouble understanding the technical details of your treatment.

We want you to be able to feel relaxed and at home as soon as you come through the door into our welcoming reception area. If you have a while to wait for your treatment, you can sink into our comfy sofas or collapse into a bean bag, and while away a few minutes with a hot drink and a magazine or watch television. We even have a dedicated prayer room that patients of all faiths are welcome to use.

After an initial consultation, you will be assigned the dentist most suited to your needs, and they will retain overall charge of your case, even if other dentists are brought in from the team to deal with certain aspects of your treatment. We may be a large clinic, but we always keep our care personal.

You can go mercury-free at this dentist in Harley Street

Even though the UK has deemed amalgam to be safe for use as a filling material for cavities, more and more people are opting for white fillings, which are made from materials around which there is no controversy.

At Harley Street Dental Clinic, your dentist in Harley Street, you can have your amalgam fillings replaced.

Currently, the General Dental Council considers mercury to safe for use as a filling material. There is, however, an ongoing debate among scientists about its safety. They agree that amalgam fillings leak mercury into the mouth, but is it safe and is so how much? This is where the debate now lies.

Dentist in Harley Street Meanwhile, over the past few decades, porcelain composite materials have been increasing in popularity. Here’s why:

Keep more of your tooth

The first great thing about white fillings is that the dentist in Harley Street only needs to remove the decayed part of your tooth to use this material. When we use amalgam, we have to remove healthy tooth material as well. So, when you get a white filling, you keep more of your tooth. This means it stays stronger and more resilient to the powerful forces created when we chew.

A sealed filling

Also, unlike amalgam, porcelain actually bonds with the tooth, creating a seal that bacteria cannot penetrate. Amalgam just sits inside the tooth, and after time, bacteria can sneak down inside it.

Teeth with a chewing surface

Our back teeth are designed with bumps and hollows to grind up our food. Amalgam is a soft material and cannot recreate these. Amalgam-filled teeth are flat and less able to grind up food. White fillings set hard and can be shaped by your dentist in Harley Street to recreate the chewing surfaces of your teeth.

Tooth-coloured

Amalgam fillings glint a dark metal grey in the mouth, showing the world just how many cavities you’ve had. White fillings keep your previous dental upsets a secret.

Better health?

Many patients report feeling better physically when amalgam fillings are removed. Some people may be more sensitive to the effects of mercury than others.

If you want to explore the option of white fillings or any other treatments at our dental clinic, simply book a consultation with one of our highly trained dentists.

Would you like straighter teeth?

Crooked teeth are a source of concern for many people. You may be worrying about how you look, or experiencing pain or difficulties with eating or speaking. If this sounds like you, then Harley Street Dental Clinic can help with orthodontics in Harley Street. This is a particular service that focuses on how the teeth, jaws and face develop. Treatment is often carried out during childhood, when there is a mixture of baby and adult teeth. Every year over 200,000 children and teenagers in England and Wales have orthodontic treatment and make a long-term investment in their health and wellbeing. However, if you an adult who has missed out on corrective procedures as a child, you can still have work done now.

What are the benefits?

Straighter teeth look better, which improves your confidence. They are also healthier. Teeth that are properly aligned are easier to clean as there are fewer gaps in which plaque can accumulate. Correctly positioned teeth are also more stable as they are properly supported and less likely to move around in the mouth, get damaged or become loose. For our patients in Harley Street, orthodontics has also helped with discomfort form poorly positioned teeth, as well as issues around using the mouth normally. You may associate orthodontics in Harley Street with metal braces, but there is now a variety of different techniques available to suit your needs.

Options to suit everyone

We offer orthodontics in Harley Street for a range of issues, from resolving crowded or poorly spaced teeth to aligning upper or lower dental arches and correcting the bite of the teeth. A good bite allows the upper and lower jaws to meet and work together properly during eating. Happily, advances in dental technology have allowed us to provide faster, more comfortable treatment that is much less obtrusive. Modern braces make use of materials such as clear plastic in the form of aligners. We can also fit your braces behind your teeth where they are totally hidden. These lingual braces are the ultimate in invisible braces. Whichever technique you choose, you can have the smile you want without the inconvenience, discomfort and unsightliness of traditional methods.

Fall in love with your smile

For so many people, their day starts badly as they do not like what they see in the mirror. If this sounds like you then you might like to consider seeing a cosmetic dentist in Harley Street. Crooked, overcrowded, discoloured, poorly spaced, uneven or missing teeth, or unhealthy gums can have a negative impact on your appearance, but there are solutions. At Harley Street Dental Clinic, we offer a range of procedures that can enhance your smile so you can enjoy the way you look and so enhance your self-esteem. We are proud to offer a combination of approaches from our multi-disciplinary team so you can be sure that you are getting the best possible experience.

What does a cosmetic dentist in Harley Street do?

A great smile starts with good oral health so we provide all the services that you would expect from a regular dentist. In addition, there is a whole range of procedures that focus specifically on the beauty of a smile. When you use us as your Harley Street cosmetic dentist, we can advise you on treatments that enhance, realign, refine or replace teeth to improve their aesthetic aspects. We can even combine several procedures in what is known as a smile makeover. You tell us about your dream smile and we help you to achieve it with porcelain veneers, dental implants to replace missing teeth, white fillings, teeth whitening, gum alignment and straightening procedures, including invisible braces.

How can you help me?

Patients who trust us as their Harley Street cosmetic dentist know that we offer a high level of skill combined with a caring approach. We want you to have the results you deserve so we use special techniques and equipment as well as a genuine commitment to working with you. This means we can provide you with the treatment that best meets your needs. So, whether you are looking to get rid of gaps, clear up gum problems, resolve misalignments or to improve the appearance of your teeth, we can help.

Helping you to feel good about yourself with a beautiful smile is our priority. Make an appointment with your cosmetic dentist in Harley Street, to talk to us about your options.

Clean as a whistle

Oral health is all about keeping bacteria at bay, and the best way to do this is to keep your mouth clean and healthy.

It’s not that these bacteria are bad in themselves. Our mouths are populated with these little critters, they live on the surfaces of our teeth and gums and soft tissues, and do no harm. It’s what they produce that is the problem. They feed on sugars in our mouths, and release acid. The acid is what causes the problems.

The problems with plaque

When plaque is left to fester, and it loves hanging out around the gum line and in crannies and crevices where it’s hard to get at with tooth brushing, it thickens and hardens into tartar. The bacteria nearest the tooth enamel then release acid that starts to erode the enamel of the tooth. If the acid gets into the dentin and pulp that lie underneath the enamel, tooth decay sets in. The acid also irritates the gums, resulting in the inflammation of early gum disease, and later on, can attack the bone below the gums, causing teeth to loosen in the sockets, and even fall out.

Dental hygiene to the rescue

This is why at Harley Street Dental Clinic in Harley Street, dental hygiene is one of our top priorities. We want each patient to see the hygienist at least twice a year. Some patients may have to come more often.

Pregnant women need to come more often as their elevated hormone levels cause a quicker build-up of plaque and there is a higher chance of developing what is known as pregnancy gum disease.

Smokers are also more at risk because smoking constricts the blood vessels, reducing the amount of oxygen reaching the gum tissues. Diabetics may also need more frequent check-ups as diabetes slows healing.

Our hygienists will remove the plaque from your teeth and gums with special equipment which scrapes away the hardened tartar. When everything is all cleaned up, they will polish your teeth, making the surfaces smooth and shiny so that plaque has a harder time sticking to it.

If you have not had this done for a while, you may need more than one appointment to get all that tartar off.

Everything you need from a dentist under one roof

If you are not a UK native, but are living in London as a second city, then how we Brits do things and where to find them can be quite daunting to get to grips with. No country ever seems to make things easy for people coming from abroad, and understanding the medical system can be quite a challenge.

However, at Harley Street Dental Clinic, we have made things as easy as we can for people needing a dentist in W1.

Dentistry seems to get more wide-ranging and specialised by the decade. At this dentist in W1, we want to bring you the best of focussed knowledge in one dental practice, so that you can access whatever services you need from dental colleagues who already know how to work well together.

Why choose us?

Our dental practice in Harley Street is in a restored Georgian townhouse right in the heart of London’s private health district. We have 12 dentists working here, as well as five hygienists, and numerous nurses, as well as a superb support team.

When you come to us to see a dentist in W1, you will be warmly welcomed and assigned to a dentist. You may need to see more than one dentist to get your treatment done. Perhaps you have come in to get your teeth straightened, and we find you will need to have one or two extracted because your mouth is crowded, and you also want your teeth whitened when your braces come off.

Whoever your dentist is will remain in charge of your treatment process, even if you do go off to have work done with a few other dentists along the way. At Harley Street Dental Practice, we understand how important trust is, and dealing with complicated cases like this ensures that you never get lost in the system of a large and busy practice, and that you have that all-important one-to-one relationship going on.

We want to make sure you completely understand what is going on throughout your treatment, so if English is not a language you are completely comfortable in, we can offer you translation services.

Complex orthodontics in Harley Street

We hear an awful lot these days about how easy and quick it is to straighten teeth, but that is only the case if it’s only the teeth that need straightening. Not all cases are simple. Sometimes at Harley Street Dental Clinic in Harley Street, orthodontics is much more complex.

One of the great things about being such a large practice, with so many dentists on hand, is that dentists from different disciplines can work together to help patients with a lot going on.

Orthodontics in Harley Street Our consultant oral and maxillofacial surgeons sometimes have to work with our orthodontic dentists, when not only the teeth need straightening, but the jawbones need moving too. In such cases, work is best carried out while the patient is still young enough, early teens, for their jawbones not to have set hard.

Not having jaws that bite together properly can create all sort of problems as times goes by. Teeth that are taking too much strain can crumble away. Tension on the muscles can lead to jaw problems, neck strain, headaches, and migraines.

Teeth straightening

Some teeth problems are simple to correct. Others are more complicated. Orthodontics in Harley Street offers solutions to every case, no matter how complex. And the braces required for complex solutions need not involve wearing heavy-duty metal braces that dominate the mouth and impair speech; not something any adult relishes.

Lingual braces

Incognito lingual braces are a great way to deal with complex alignment issues, without the whole world knowing about them. Incognito braces can’t be seen by anyone because they fixed to the insides of the teeth, next to the tongue. Each bracket is custom-made from gold alloy to exactly fit each tooth, using measurements taken from digital scans. These braces work on the same principles as traditional braces and can be used to treat complex issues.

Naturally, complex alignment issues are going to take longer to resolve than simple ones, so the braces will have to be worn for longer, which is why Incognito is such a great solution.

Book a consultation with us to find out more about how orthodontics in Harley Street can help you.

Dentures? Dental implants? Or both?

When people who have lost their teeth are trying to decide whether to go for traditional replacement methods such as dentures and bridges, or to invest in the more modern method of dental implants, it can become a cost/benefit exercise.

At Harley Street Dental Clinic, we want all our patients to be able to reap the benefits of dental implants in Harley Street. We have seen so many of our patients who have chosen implants tell us how wonderful it is to have the full functionality of their teeth back, and to be able to eat whatever they like, and not have to worry about wobbly teeth embarrassing them.

Dental Implants in Harley Street However, dental implants are quite an investment, and it can beyond the means of some people to have implants to replace every single one of their teeth.

That’s why we are glad to be able to offer important techniques that use dental implants in Harley Street, but not so many of them. Let’s take a look at a couple of them:

All-on-4

This technique is so-called because it is a way to support an entire arch of teeth on just four implants. The important thing is the way the back implants are inserted into the jawbone at a 45° angle so that they can create stability all along the arch of the jawbone. The two implants at the front go in at the usual 90° angle. These four implants then support a fixed bridge or denture. This is often a great solution for people who have been told they don’t have enough bone for dental implants in Harley Street. They are also known as Same Day Teeth because the crowns are fitted on the same day as the implants are inserted.

Denture stabilisation

A slightly different technique, denture stabilisation uses mini dental implants that are inserted through the gum instead of opening up a flap of gum to insert them into the jawbone. These mini implants have a ball or a bar fitting on top and the dentures are fixed to these. Each jaw usually needs four to six implants to support the dentures. Patients who already have dentures can get them customised to fit onto the implants, or have new ones custom-made.

Giving halitosis the heave-ho

If you have halitosis, or bad breath, it can make you so self-conscious that you give up smiling and laughing. You look unfriendly and cold, but you are just trying not to inflict your breath on the person you are talking to.

If you have already been to the doctor about your bad breath, maybe you would better off coming to see someone in a dental clinic in W1, as a dentist can do more than help keep your teeth and gums in good shape. At Harley Street Dental Clinic, we have various treatments for bad breath and have successfully treated many sufferers.

Getting to the bottom of it

Most of the time, bad breath can be the symptom of something that is easily sorted out. Sometimes it is the herald of a more serious problem. When you come to our dental clinic in W1, we search for answer in a series of steps designed to eliminate the obvious sources of your halitosis first.

Our process of elimination will start with checking your oral health to see if there is something lurking in your mouth. Although it’s not pleasant, you need to arrive at our dental clinic in W1 without having used any kind of breath freshener. We need to have a good sniff of your breath to gather clues as to what is going on. Then we will check that you are brushing and flossing properly. We will also have a poke around for any food stuck between your teeth. We will inspect your tongue, and also look for a heavy build-up of plaque and tartar. All of these things can affect the way your breath smells.

Once poor oral hygiene as a cause has been eliminated, we will want to be sure there’s not something more serious causing your breath to smell, such as decay and infections.

Once we’re sure it’s neither of those problems, the next area to consider is diet. If you eat a lot of strong foods such as onions and garlic, which exit the body via the lungs. Smoking, of course, can give you bad breath, as can going on a diet.

By coming to see us, you can look forward to fresher breath as well as good oral health.

Be a Beauty, not a Beast

When you watch a movie, have you ever noticed how the heroines and heroes all have wonderful white straight teeth in a harmonious smile that gleams? And the bad guys have snarly tangled yellowy-grey teeth? It’s an easy trick but it holds some truth. We are hardwired to be repulsed by anything that may harbour disease, and so it’s no wonder that most of us find dodgy teeth off-putting.

If you are back on the dating scene after some years absence, you might want to come visit your Harley Street cosmetic dentist to find out how we can make sure you’re a Beauty and not a Beast when it comes to kissability.

At Harley Street Dental Clinic, we have experienced cosmetic dentists. Take the wonderful Dr Abel Moreira. He graduated in Portugal in 2006 and has been with us as a cosmetic dentist in Harley Street since 2007.

Treatments tailored to your needs

When you come to see Dr Moreira as your cosmetic dentist in Harley Street, he will be able to advise you on what treatment, or combination of treatments, would be best to bring out the beauty of your smile.

Tooth whitening is often on the list. Our teeth get stained by what we eat and drink, and they lose their gleam and become yellower as years of brushing wears away the white enamel to show the yellow dentin below. Teeth whitening can be done on-site in around an hour.

If you need some work to cover up chips, cracks, worn edges and so on, and are going to have veneers or cosmetic bonding, it is best to leave the whitening until afterwards. The material used in bonding and veneers cannot be whitened, so the way to go is to colour-match to a few shades whiter than your teeth now are, and then get them whitened once the veneers or bonding are in place.

Gum contouring is used if you show too much gum when you smile. We use a laser to cut away excess gum tissue. It seals as it cuts, so there is very little blood and your gums will heal in just a few days.

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