Have you been checked?

Velscope Vx Oral Assessment Device

April is Oral Cancer Awareness Month.

Aesthetic Dental Designs® wants everyone to consider the life changing potential of having oral cancer.  Many people think it will never happen to them, but it can, it can happen to anyone at any age even if you are not a tobacco user or a consumer of alcohol.  Oral cancer is becoming more prevalent in our teenagers also due to the human papilloma virus.

Make sure you get an oral cancer screening once a year by your dentist.  Furthermore, a fairly recent device that is non-invasive and takes less than two minues that can provide early detection is the Velscope Vx.  We are using this device on every patient and have found early forms of cancer that are completely undetectable without its use on a few of our patients already.  Dont wait to find out and check yearly.  April is Oral Cancer Awareness Month and Dr. Snyder and his staff would like everyone to help spread the information so that other's can benefit.

Some amazing facts to consider: 30,000 Americans will be diagnosed with oral or pharyngeal cancer this year. It will cause over 8,000 deaths, killing roughly 1 person per hour, 24 hours per day. Of those 30,000 newly diagnosed individuals, only half will be alive in 5 years. Overall survival rate is 18% or less. This is a number which has not significantly improved in decades. The death rate for oral cancer is higher than that of cervical cancer, Hodgkin’s disease, cancer of the brain, liver, testes, kidney, ovary, or skin cancer (malignant melanoma).

Thinking about getting porcelain veneers?? Choose carefully.....



A new smile with porcelain veneers done
by Dr Todd Snyder (top photo),
replacing the poor quality veneers
that were done by a different dentist (bottom photo).



Everyone wants to look good and have an amazing smile, but if you are thinking about altering your smile with porcelain veneers there are some things you need to know, and the process is not reversible. First is that a veneer is a custom made piece of art hand crafted as a one of kind piece of glass. Every dentist does them differently, and every office uses a different ceramist to fabricate the veneer. Custom craftsmanship has lots of variables. Take extra time to talk about a doctor's previous cases when interviewing an office. Ask to see plenty of photographs demonstrating the quality of the work, make sure it is their work and not just stock photographs of someone else's work. Find out about how the veneer process works in each dental office you interview as it is not the same in all offices. Ask about how the teeth and gums will be handled during the procedure as well as any temporary restorations while waiting for the final veneers to be completed. Veneers can be done in many ways and on one tooth or many teeth. Veneers when done well can look every bit as natural as the tooth next to it. More importantly veneers need to look believable and unperceivable as shown here by Dr Todd Snyder's work at Aesthetic Dental Designs®, in Laguna Niguel, California where he has replaced six existing veneers with new ones. In replacing the bulky white veneers shown in the bottom photo, notice how the lip position was able to be enhanced as well as creating healthier gum tissues, and a more symmetric smile. To replace existing work that has damaged tooth structure and gum tissue can be a lot more costly and challenging, so take the time to interview and ask many questions. At Aesthetic Dental Designs® we always offer complementary consultations.