Dentist therapist in Kyiv

Our dental therapists at DENTART clinic in Kyiv most frequently encounter the need for caries treatment in their practice. This is because it's the most common disease not only in dentistry but in medical practice as a whole. Caries is a result of insufficient hygiene and bacterial proliferation in our oral cavity. The disease progresses slowly but steadily, first destroying the tooth enamel and then other tissues, which in advanced cases can lead to tooth loss.

Initially, when caries first appears (at the so-called "spot stage"), it doesn't show any symptoms - there's no increased sensitivity to irritants, and teeth don't hurt. At this stage, the disease can be treated without a dental drill - using the Icon method and remineralization. In later stages, the dentist needs to remove the damaged enamel and restore the tooth with filling materials, and in advanced cases, even perform root canal treatment and remove the pulp - the so-called tooth nerve, or in professional terms - the neurovascular bundle.

Most often, caries develops on the chewing surfaces of teeth, but sometimes it can develop in other areas, such as the cervical zone (near the gum) or between teeth. In the latter case, it's impossible to detect it in early stages without additional diagnostics. There's also secondary caries that develops under fillings - which also cannot be detected independently.

Our clinic's dental therapists always recommend visiting a dentist for preventive purposes even in the absence of complaints - ideally once every six months. This is primarily necessary for early detection of caries and its treatment without a dental drill. If this opportunity has been missed, at "Dent Art" we perform dental treatment under a microscope, which allows us to preserve the maximum amount of healthy tissue while eliminating all carious lesions.

If caries is the most common dental treatment for a dental therapist, then its complications usually come second. Unfortunately, many patients don't visit the dentist for prevention and delay their visit even when increased sensitivity or even aching tooth pain appears.

Common complications of caries include inflammatory diseases such as pulpitis and periodontitis. Both pathologies typically are accompanied by severe pain, so patients don't wait anymore and urgently seek dental care.

Pulpitis is inflammation of the pulp, which is the soft tissue of the tooth containing blood vessels and nerve endings. That's why it's also called the tooth nerve. If caries reaches the pulp, it usually requires its complete removal with cleaning of the root canals and their subsequent filling with filling material. Pulpitis treatment concludes with tooth restoration.

Periodontitis is an inflammatory lesion of the tissues around the tooth, including the gums, ligaments, and even the jaw bone. In this case, treatment involves several stages and dental visits. First, infected tissues need to be removed, including nerve endings in the root canals, then the inflammatory process must be eliminated with medications, and after that, it's necessary to fill the canals and restore the tooth.

For both pulpitis and periodontitis, dental therapists at DENTART clinic perform diagnostics with computed tomography and carry out dental treatment under a microscope. Dental optics ensures benchmark precision of the dentist's actions, helps remove only infected tissues, and preserve all healthy ones. As a result, the tooth will serve noticeably longer than with treatment without a microscope.

Root canal treatment, in dental therapist terminology, is called endodontic therapy. This is a multi-stage procedure performed by a specialist, which includes the following types of work:

• removal of inflammation (if present);
• cleaning of canals;
• filling the canals with a special filling material - gutta-percha;
• restoration. The endodontic treatment concludes with tooth restoration using fillings or prosthetic structures (inlays, crowns, etc.).

Root canal treatment is most often required for caries complications (pulpitis or periodontitis). Additionally, endodontics may be necessary for injuries or as part of preparation for prosthetics - preceding the installation of crowns or bridge structures. If root canal treatment is not performed when indicated, the risk of early tooth loss increases.

At DENTART endodontic treatment is always performed under a microscope. Multiple magnification allows the dental therapist to clean root canals in the most hard-to-reach places, preserve maximum healthy tissue, remove instrument fragments (relevant during retreatment), and reduce the risks of recurring inflammation and/or other complications.

In modern therapeutic dentistry, special emphasis is placed on patient comfort and pain-free treatment. For these purposes, DENTART clinic in Kyiv offers our patients various types of anesthesia. Local anesthesia (the so-called injection before direct manipulations) remains the most common method for treating caries, root canals, etc. But in addition to this, dental treatment under sedation can be used, specifically:

• nitrous oxide inhalation analgesia. This is called superficial sedation, which provides a calming and relaxing effect. The patient remains conscious and can respond to the dentist's questions. Nitrous oxide (also known as laughing gas) is inhaled through a breathing mask, followed by a local anesthetic injection for direct pain relief. This method is recommended for adult patients with pronounced fear of dentists and children over 3 years old who need extensive treatment, such as treating several teeth at once;
• dental treatment under sleep sedation. This method of anesthesia represents deep sedation. The patient is administered safe hypnotic group medications that induce a medicated sleep. This anesthesia method is suitable for adults who fear dentists and young children. Dental treatment under sleep sedation is appropriate for lengthy procedures, such as endodontic therapy of several teeth at once.

It's worth noting that dental therapists do not perform dental treatment under general anesthesia. This type of anesthesia is applicable mainly in surgical dentistry, and even then very rarely, as there are safer alternatives available, such as deep sedation.

Another area of therapeutic dentistry at our DENTART clinic in Kyiv is dental restoration, which involves restoring teeth's shape, function, and aesthetics. While orthodontists use veneers, inlays, crowns, and other structures for such purposes, dental therapists use only filling materials. By the way, the latter procedure is also called the direct method of tooth restoration. It is applicable for chips, cracks, and other relatively minor damage.

Artistic tooth restoration is completed in a single visit (unlike veneers or crowns). Our dentist performs the necessary preparation, including removing plaque and matching the composite color to the natural color of your enamel. If necessary, anesthesia is administered, followed by the layered application of photopolymer filling material, grinding, and polishing of surfaces. Such dental restoration, especially for teeth in the smile zone, requires precise accuracy and high skill from the dentist. But this is exactly what allows us to achieve both impeccable aesthetics (natural color with the required degree of transparency) and high durability of the restoration.