Exciting new update at Smiles by Payet Dentisty

While it may not seem like an earth-shattering improvement, today we took a big step in improving our Customer Service today!  Today we installed some new software in our office called “Dentforms;” what this software allows us to do, starting NOW, is to become almost a PAPERLESS dental office.

Now, you’re probably thinking, “So what does that mean to me,” right?

Here’s what it means:

• We can keep our fees lower because of cost savings – no more super-expensive laser ink cartridges, no more reams of paper, etc etc etc.  While small at first, these will add up!
• We can really speed up the amount of time needed to put all of your information into our main patient software, which means less waiting time!
• You can now complete all the New Patient “Paperwork” ONLINE, BEFORE you ever set foot in our door.  Before you could download our forms, complete them, and bring them into our office, but it’s so easy to forget the forms on your desk or counter.  No more forgetting!  This will include your Medical/Dental History, any Questionnaires (such as our TMJ/Headache Questionnaire), and even information on your dental insurance so that we can verify it all before we even meet.  Talk about HUGE time savings, and a real convenience to you!
• We even get to be an evironmentally GREEN dental office by using practically no paper and ink.  How many dental offices in Charlotte NC can claim that?  🙂

You can take advantage of this new feature by going to Request an Appointment with Dr. Charles Payet, and clicking on the “New Patient Forms Here” link.  We’ll look forward to welcoming you with no clipboard or paperwork in hand, just a friendly smile and Lifetime Dental Care.

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A neat little benchmark

Can’t say it’s terribly important in the greater scheme of things, but it’s kind of neat watching the increase in views on the Smiles by Payet Dentistry Blog here.  Just started at the end of November, and I really still have a lot to learn about SEO and how that works with blogs and websites, etc., but in the month of March we passed 350 views, which was very close to DOUBLE our previous high, and we’ll pass 1,000 views sometime in the next 2 weeks or so.

Just thought I’d share that tidbit.  🙂

Fun Fun Fun! Single-visit porcelain crowns with CEREC 3D!

OK, I know that most people don’t think that going to the dentist is fun, but it sure can be a lot more interesting than it used to be for sure.  The advent of digital dentistry, particularly CAD/CAM dentistry that allows us to make all-porcelain crowns in just 1 visit, is just pretty darn cool, and that’s even according to my patients who’ve benefited from it.  We brought the CEREC 3D system into our office at the end of December 2007, and in that time we’re approaching our 200th CEREC crown.   In the beginning, I didn’t take many pictures because I was really concentrating on learning how to make the crowns beautiful, fit well, and happen smoothly and quickly.  Now that we’ve become more comfortable with the technology, I’m taking the time to really take quality photos to show off just what we can do, and yesterday just was the perfect opportunity.

This gentleman had these porcelain-to-metal crowns placed about 4-5 years ago, but he is a major grinder and started breaking the porcelain off within a year.  That’s one of the potential problems of adding porcelain on to metal like that.  They obviously needed to be replaced, and he drove all the way from Asheville, NC for us to do this in 1 appointment; since we clearly needed very strong porcelain, we chose EMAX, which has truly remarkable strength.  Take a look and see the results for yourself after the crowns were glazed in our oven:

A short video on Six-Month Braces

As I mentioned in a previous post on dental photography, I’ve been working to create Before/After videos of the different procedures we offer, and while they do take some time to put together, I am getting more of them completed.  Here’s one that describes a little more about the process of Six-Month Braces and what we can do for you to create a more beautiful smile.

Dr. Jim Boyd – creator of the NTI-tss therapy for headaches & jaw pain

I count myself very fortunate to have known Dr. Boyd for about 4 years now, and it was through online communication with him that I originally began learning about the NTI and the remarkable abilities it has, in the hands of a properly trained dentist, to provide amazing relief to so many patients who’ve suffered from migraines, chronic tension headaches, TMD, jaw pain, etc.  Quite honestly, he’s been a tremendous mentor and influence during that time, and I am grateful for all the hard work he has put in to educate both doctors and patients on what we call “Parafunction,” more commonly referred to as bruxism, grinding, or clenching.  I’d like to share with you a video that he has posted on YouTube for both professionals and the public, in which he explains so clearly why he developed the NTI protocol and how it works and why it works so amazingly well.  If you’d like a Complimentary Consultation to if you think the NTI might help you, please call us at 704-364-7069 or Request an Appointment through our website.

Skipping your dental checkup now could cost you more long-term

The Chicago Sun-Times reported today that more Americans are choosing to cut back on visiting the dentist due to the current economic downturn……….with potentially far more expensive consequences than most think.

Click HERE to read the full story in the Chicago Sun-Times.

We understand the tempation to skip a regular check-up at your dentist’s office when times are tough and budgets tight.  We also hope you understand that staying on track with regular check-ups could literally save you hundreds or thousands of dollars in dental treatment later.  Think about it this way:

• Skip an appt. now or decide to wait to get the filling done for $1-200……..and when the cavity gets much bigger, you might need a build-up filling and crown for $900-1300.
• Skip getting the build-up filling and crown now for $9-1,300 and you may end up needing a root canal, too, which could add another $800-1100.
• Wait too long entirely and your tooth may not even be fixable and have to be extracted, and getting teeth replaced can be FAR more expensive than saving them.  Just 1 dental implant and crown in Charlotte can cost $3500-5000; what if you need more than 1?
• Wait too long and multiple teeth that before only needed fillings, now need crowns and root canals?
• Wait too long and the early-stage gum disease that can be easily controlled now might progress to the point that they can’t be saved and you end up in dentures.

I know that I’m dramatizing the potential risks a bit here, but the thing is…..those risks are real and happen every day.  It makes us really sad when patients put off the inexpensive treatment now and then have to pay a lot more, maybe even suffer a lot of pain, because they waited.

At Smiles by Payet Dentistry, we offer several options to help you afford your dentistry now, and of course we are glad to help prioritize your treatment to get the most urgent items taken care of first.  Some options:

1. CareCredit Interest-Free Financing for 3-, 6-, or 12-Months.
2. Smiles by Payet Dentistry In-House Discount Plan
3. And we have a couple others – Download our Payment Options worksheet for details or call 704-364-7069 for details.
   

The most important take-home message is simply this: don’t wait, because it will only get worse.

Yet ANOTHER cracked tooth due to bruxism (grinding/clenching)

I just can’t say it enough – if you grind your teeth, you need a properly made and professionally adjusted nightguard!

Perfect situation this morning: a young lady of only 29 years age came in for a root canal and crown on a lower molar because of a badly cracked tooth.  It didn’t look all that bad on the outside, and seeing how small the previous filling was, you’d really think that the chances of this are practically non-existent……..but you’d be wrong. Take a look:

A Badly Cracked Tooth From Grinding/Clenching

And let me tell you – it is NOT a coincidence that this young lady has suffered from chronic migraines for years, but we haven’t addressed that for her quite yet.  First we had to get her out of the terrible pain she had every time she bit down.

If you grind or clench your teeth (and notice that this tooth doesn’t even look worn down or flattened), please be willing to spend a little money, even if your insurance doesn’t cover it.  It could literally save you THOUSANDS of dollars in dental treatment, lots of time in the dentist’s chair, and even pain.

Yes – single-visit crowns can be beautiful!

Obviously, the single biggest advantage for patients with our CEREC machine is the ability to have beautiful, all-porcelain restorations completed in a single visit.  Here’s an example of how nice that can be.  This patient had 10 porcelain veneers done about 2 years ago; due to her grinding habit, she had knocked off and broken one of the veneers.  Rather than make a yucky impression and send it to the lab, while she had to wait several weeks with a temporary veneer, we made it right in the office.  One visit porcelain veneer, no temporary, no second visit, and her smile was back to beautiful!  See if you can guess which one was done by us on CEREC and which were done by the lab?

A Beautiful 1-Visit Porcelain Veneer by Dr. Payet in Charlotte, NC

If need your any tooth fixed, not just if it’s a porcelain veneer, CEREC CAD/CAM can do it for you.  Call our office 704-364-7069 or Request an Appointment Online.

A great news story by NPR on Sleep Apnea in children

NPR aired a story this morning (March 5th, 2009) that has to do with snoring, sleep apnea, and the wide-ranging effects that they can have on behaviour, brain function, etc.  This is something I”ve been studying and talking to patients about for several years now, but it’s gaining wider acceptance in the medical fields.  On the most basic level, sleep disorders cause a decrease in oxygen levels to the brain, which results in various decreases in function and can have significant effects on your overall health.

Please take some time to listen to the reports and read the articles – wonderful information!

NPR’s reports on Sleep Apnea & Snoring

Philosophy of Dental Care

We could also perhaps name this…..”How do I know if my dentist and I are on the same page?”

While there are an infinite number of variations on this theme, you can break it down into 2 basic groups of dentists.  While both can serve you well, given how important the doctor-patient trust relationship is, I recommend you be willing to ask questions of your dentist and his/her team to make sure that you have the same goals for your mouth and dental health.  Here are the 2 basic breakdowns:

(1) “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Dentists who subscribe to this theory generally don’t recommend any treatment until something actually hurts or breaks or is obviously decayed.  In other words, let’s say you have a tooth with a crack in it, such as the ones I showed in this post from January ’09: Cracks in Teeth.  This group of dentists generally won’t say anything about these teeth unless it actually starts hurting you or the tooth breaks.  Given that it is impossible to actually predict when a tooth like that will break or hurt, you may go for many years with teeth in that condition, so the ADVANTAGE of this philosophy is that you don’t spend any money until it actually happens.  The DISADVANTAGE is that – when the tooth finally breaks and/or hurts, it is generally in much worse condition than if treated earlier, which means that it will probably be more expensive to fix.  Plus, of course, you might have to deal with the pain, and for some reason, these things always happen on nights or weekends when the dentist isn’t available.

(2) “Here’s a potential problem; let’s go ahead and fix it now before it breaks and hurts.”

In this philosphy of care, the dentist will evaluate you for all current and potential problems, inform you, and give you the option of choosing to have the treatment done before the tooth breaks and/or hurts.  Of course, the dentist should NEVER try to force you into anything – always remember that you are the ultimate decider of when to have your treatment done.  But if you have some trouble brewing in your mouth, wouldn’t you prefer to get it fixed before it gets really bad?  Before it gets more expensive?  Before you have to suffer?

It’s probably pretty obvious which philosophy we choose at Smiles by Payet Dentistry – #2.  We will inform you of any and all problems that we see.  We’ll give your our recommendations based on the years of experience and advanced training and available research.  We’ll tell you what treatment options you can choose.  And then we will sit back and let you decide how much to do, when to do it, and how you want to do it.  Please ask us questions until you feel completely comfortable, and don’t worry that you’re hurting our feelings if you decide to wait.

We understand that you will be ready when you’re ready, and we are here to help you when you are.  Our goal is simply to make sure that you are fully informed so that you can make the best choice for yourself.    Call us for an appointment, or request one through our website by clicking here:  Request an Appointment.