Services

Bonding is a popular method to enhance your smile. Bonding has a range of uses, including correcting cracks or gaps in teeth and covering stained or discolored teeth.

The procedure uses a composite resin, which is molded and sculpted over an adhesive gel that is placed on the tooth. After the resin has been applied, an ultraviolet light is used to harden the resin, which is then polished to give you a fresh, new smile.

Bonding is an obvious improvement over unsightly silver fillings. It usually lasts for over 10 years and is a safe, affordable and attractive solution for many dental problems.

Dental bridges are a great way to replace missing teeth. Bridges are made from gold, metal, alloys or porcelain to ensure that they are strong and durable.

The process of creating a bridge begins at your local Bemidji dentist’s office, where we will create abutments out of your existing teeth, where the bridge will be attached. The existing teeth are re-contoured to provide a base for the bridge. A mold is taken of the area and sent to a dental lab to create a bridge that will fit properly and feel as close to your natural teeth as possible.

While the lab creates your permanent bridge, we will fit you with a temporary bridge to protect the abutments and the exposed gum areas and looks more appealing than having a missing tooth. When the permanent bridge is ready, you will have a follow up procedure to set the bridge.

The bridge may take a little while to get used to, but after a few days it, should feel like you have your own teeth back again. We recommend eating soft foods for the first few days after having your bridge placed as you adjust to the new tooth.

Making sure our children grow up with wonderful smiles is something that we take great pride in.  As your Bemidji dentist, we always make sure to be as gentle as possible with the children who we treat.  We provide complete services for the young ones in our area, including regular cleanings and periodic examinations.

As your Bemidji dentist, we take great pride in making sure your smile is always at its whitest.  We offer complete and periodic dental examinations to make sure that your teeth stay sparkling.  When you visit our office, we will complete a thorough examination of your teeth and gums to make sure that there is no decay or any other issue which needs to be addressed

At our Bemidji dental office, we are well equipped to help you perfect your smile.  We offer a wide variety of services, including bridges, crowns, veneers and implants, which allow us to improve your satisfaction with your smile.

Several of our cosmetic procedures require 2-3 visits to our office as portions of the procedure are completed by an outside lab.  While your permanent dental appliance is created, we will fit you with temporary solutions so that you experience little to no inconvenience in the meantime.

Over time, our teeth begin to weaken and become more susceptible to problems such as decay, cracking and discoloration. If you feel that your smile isn’t what it once was, crowns can help. If a tooth is decayed or appears cracked or weakened, a crown may be necessary to make sure that there are no additional problems with the tooth.

The process of installing a crown takes 2 or 3 visits to us, your local Bemidji dentist. On your first visit, the tooth will be filed down so that the crown can be placed over it. You will be given a local anesthetic before this part of the procedure so that you do not experience any discomfort. Once the tooth has been reshaped, a mold will be taken of the area so that our dental lab can create a crown that looks as similar to the surrounding teeth as possible. Before leaving, we will fit you with a temporary crown until your permanent crown is ready.

The crown takes about 2-3 weeks to produce. At this time, you will have another appointment to place and fit the permanent crown. You will again have a local anesthetic to numb the area, and the tooth will be set in place. When you look in the mirror, you will see your old smile back.

When decay occurs below the gum line, it may be necessary to remove a small amount of bone and gum tissue. This often occurs before we make a new crown for your tooth.

Crown lengthening procedures can be used in restorative dentistry or to improve the aesthetics of your gum line. This procedure adjusts the gum and bone level to expose more of the tooth so it can be restored.

Sometimes crown lengthening is done to improve a “gummy” smile because the teeth appear short. The teeth may actually be the proper length but excess gum tissue may be covering these teeth. During this procedure, excess gum and bone tissue is reshaped to expose more of the natural tooth

Brushing your teeth every night removes most of the plaque and other debris from your teeth.  However, a visit to your Bemidji dentist will leave your teeth in even better shape!  Our dentists remove plaque and debris from those hard-to-reach places in your mouth and polish your teeth to look their best.

Dental implants are a permanent and appealing solution to replace missing or extracted teeth. They are often preferred to other alternatives like bridges because no additional teeth need to be altered to place the new tooth.

The implant process is performed over the course of several months. The first part of the process is to install the implant itself. To do this, patients will schedule an appointment with us, at which time a screw is placed into the jaw bone. Multiple implants can be placed at once if necessary.

The implant must be allowed about 3-6 months to heal, and during this time, the jaw bone will form around the implant in a process called osseointegration. During this time, your Bemidji dentist can install temporary crowns so that you can eat and speak normally and maintain a proper aesthetic appearance for your smile.

After the implant has healed, it is time to place an abutment on the implant. The abutment serves as the base for your new tooth. One this is placed, an impression is taken and is sent to the lab to create your permanent restoration. Once the restoration is completed, you can return to the office to attach it permanently. Your smile will look just like it used to, and after a short period of getting used to the implant, it will feel just like one of your own teeth.

The Diagnodent Decay Detection system helps detect tooth damage at the earliest possible stage so that the most appropriate treatment can be presented to you.

Diagnodent is a fluorescent laser that finds cavities which lie beneath the surface of the tooth.  There are often cavities that x-rays and the explorer do not find.  This advanced technology helps us preserve a greater amount of your tooth structure by uncovering dental decay before it progresses too far.

Digital x-rays are quickly becoming adopted by a large percentage of the dental industry. A digital x-ray allows the dentist to take an image of the tooth or teeth and put it into an imaging program. Within this imaging program, there are a number of tools that will allow the dentist to take a very close look at the teeth and surrounding structures with amazing accuracy. As a benefit to the patient, the digital x-ray also provides nearly 80% less radiation than a standard x-ray. This is due to the fact that the digital version of the x-ray is much more sensitive to this radiation and has been specifically designed with the patient in mind.

Inlays and onlays are often referred to as partial crowns. They use the existing tooth as a base and fit the inlay or onlay onto the tooth. This is done to strengthen the tooth, restore its shape, and prevent further damage. An inlay is done when there is no damage to the cusps of the tooth and the inlay can be placed right on the tooth. An onlay is used when the damage is a little more extensive.

In this procedure, we remove the decayed area of the tooth at our Bemidji dental office, then take a mold of the tooth and send it to the lab. They create a restoration made from porcelain, gold, or a composite resin, which takes about 2-3 weeks. In the meantime, a temporary inlay or onlay will be placed on the tooth.

During your next visit, the new, custom inlay or onlay will be placed into your mouth and permanently set so that your smile looks brand new!

An oral sleep appliance is a device that indirectly opens the airway near the base of the tongue. This allows air to move more freely, which can reduce snoring and episodes of apnea. There are two main types of oral sleep appliances.

The first device is a soft material that simply moves the tongue forward by suctioning onto the tip of the tongue. The body of the appliance sits outside of the mouth. Its effect is similar to sticking out your tongue and holding it there. These devices are generally available in different sizes.

The other type of appliance is similar to a mouthguard for the upper and lower teeth and causes the mandible (lower jaw) to move forward. These aids are referred to as mandibular advancement devices and are custom-made for each patient. The device is made of a special acrylic that advances the tongue and soft tissues of the throat to open the airway to assist with normal breathing during sleep. Some types of mandibular advancement devices can be “titrated,” or slowly adjusted to allow the patient to gradually advance the lower jaw under the dentist’s supervision to improve the effectiveness of the device. We can create both types of oral appliance at our Bemidji dental office.

While at our Bemidji dental office, we make sure that you receive the highest level of service and ensure that our dental work is of the highest quality. To help you maintain great oral health between visits, we suggest establishing a proper personal oral hygiene routine, including proper care for your teeth and gums. If you have any questions about your current hygiene plan, please ask us.

Oral cancer screenings

Oral cancer screenings are a very important part of any visit to your local Bemidji dentist! We are now able to pinpoint the start of a potential problem much earlier in its evolution using new technology. These procedures help us identify and treat oral cancers before they become major, irreversible conditions. Our exams use devices that allow us to view issues that cannot always be detected with the naked eye.

Certain lifestyle choices can have a great impact on tissue health and your overall oral health. If you are a smoker or heavy drinker, make sure to get regular screenings when you visit our Bemidji dental office.

Root Planing

Plaque and tartar often accumulates below the gum line. In this situation, we will clean and smooth the affected area to ensure that the area is completely spotless. If this space is not kept clean, the entire area can become irritated by bacteria. It is very important to have a dentist check this area if you experience bleeding during brushing.

When a tooth becomes infected, it is usually requires the removal of the affected nerves. If left untreated, an infection can turn into an abscess, which is a much more serious problem that includes bone loss in the jaw. A root canal will relieve you from pain caused by the infection, allowing you to enjoy all the foods you love without any pain from heat, cold or biting too hard.

When you are in our Bemidji dental offices, we begin by numbing the area around the tooth with a local anesthetic. We then create a canal in the tooth that we use to remove the infected nerves using a procedure known as “rotary endodontics.” Rotary endodontics is a way of performing the root canal utilizing a specific electrical handpiece. This tool often makes the process faster and allows us to perform the process with greater ease. After the infection has been removed, the space is filled with a sealant. It is highly recommended that a tooth that has undergone a root canal is fitted with a crown. This will improve the appearance of the tooth, and will also make it much more likely that the root canal is successful.

“Root canal” has become a scary term for dental patients to hear, but the benefits of the procedure and advances in dental technology have made it much less “scary.” Local anesthetics and proper pain medication allow the procedure to be performed with little to no pain in most cases, although like most dental procedures, there may be some soreness following the procedure. Over-the-counter painkillers are usually enough to provide relief, but our Bemidji dental office may also prescribe medication as necessary.

Veneers are used to redesign and reshape your entire mouth. Veneers are a very thin ceramic shell that covers your existing tooth structure, allowing us to fix many aesthetic issues, including staining, cracked teeth, gaps, misaligned teeth, chipped teeth and many others.

Placing veneers usually requires 2-3 visits to our Bemidji dental office. We will begin by discussing the new shape and look of what we are going to accomplish by placing the veneers. We will then carefully prepare the teeth for the placement of the new veneers. Impressions are then taken of the newly prepared teeth, which our lab will use to fabricate the final veneer. This process normally takes between 10-14 days. While the new veneers are being fabricated, we will provide you with a beautiful temporary solution to wear in the meantime.

When the veneers are finalized, we will make every effort to make sure that your new veneers will feel just like your natural teeth. We will bond them into place in our Bemidji dental office to ensure that you can enjoy your new smile for a very long time!

Keeping our teeth their whitest is a lot harder than it sounds. Even proper maintenance can sometimes leave our teeth a bit lackluster with all the coffee, wine, smoking and other things that can stain our teeth. Whitening can be an excellent way to restore your natural tooth color or even whiten them further.

At Great River Dentistry, we utilize a tray whitening system that involves two steps. First, we make an impression of your teeth in our Bemidji dental office, which is used to make whitening trays. Next, patients will put whitening gel into the trays daily for a short period of time for several days as directed. This often results in a smile 4-8 shades whiter!