Invisalign Invisible Braces in Seoul Korea

U.S.Dental (also known as Tufts Dental )

Dr.Gina Sohn - Tufts Graduate
U.S.Dentist in Seoul / Licensed in MA, CT, NJ

FACEBOOK
http://www.drginasohn.com
Tel 02-553-7512 / Overseas 822-553-7512



4 months and 2 weeks.

11 months

5 months

1.5 Year


1 Year

5 months

6 months

4 months

4 months

7 months

7 months

12 months

Invisalign is a series of clear, thin polyurethane trays that straighten your teeth by just wearing them. Wearing aligners will gradually and gently shift your teeth into place. You simply pop in a new set of aligners approximately every two weeks, until your treatment is complete and you achieve the confident smile that you've always wanted.

There are no metal wires or brackets.
Invisalign is a lot more comfortable than traditional braces.
Unlike regular braces, there are no metal wires that scrape against the teeth or irritate gums and cheeks.
Thereby, no pain is involved.

People can't see it.
Not many people can tell that you are going through orthodontic treatment because Invisalign is almost invisible from a distance.
You can smile without holding back. Nothing to hide.

Life gets easier.
You can remove them from your mouth and eat whatever you want during treatment. Brushing teeth gets so easy,too.
However,for full efectiveness, they should only be removed to eat and practice daily oral hygiene.
Invisible aligners are easily cleaned simply using a toothbrush and tap water.

How Invisalign Works ?

The process begins with taking molds of your teeth.
From the molds, your teeth models are duplicated, teeth are set up straightened by little increments, and a series of aligners are fabricated duplicating the amount of teeth movement created.

Aligners have certain degree of elasticity. Once applied in your mouth, this elasticity forces teeth to conform to the shape of aligners. This way, teeth are straightened milimeter by milimeter, day by day.

Patients wear each stage of aligners for approximately 2 - 3 weeks before switching to the next in the sereies. About every 4 - 6 weeks, patients revisit for re-taking new molds and for check-up to make sure the treatment is progressing as planned. On each visit, patients are given new sets of aligners.

Total treatment time is shorter than regular braces and usually ranges from 4 - 12 months depending on complexity of the case.

Initially, some patients may notice increased salivation or difficiulties speaking especially right after new aligners are worn. However, these symptoms subside within a few days most of the time.
As treatment nears completion, our doctor will design a retention plan to help you keep your smile for life.

 Invisalign solves a variety of problems including overbite, underbite, crossbite, crowded and gapped teeth. However, traditional brace are recommended for some cases.

Dental Implant in Seoul Korea : Socket preservation, Bone Grafting, Sinus Lift

U.S.Dental ( also known as Tufts Dental )

Dr.Gina Sohn - Tufts Graduate
U.S Dentist in Seoul / Licensed in MA, CT, NJ

FACEBOOK
http://www.drginasohn.com
Tel 02-553-7512 / Overseas 822-553-7512
Yongsan / Itaewon area


The success of dental implants depends on whether there is a sufficient volume of healthy bone at the recipient site at the time of implant placement. After tooth extraction, the alveolar ridge will commonly decrease in volume and change morphologically. If bone resorption is significant enough, then placement of an implant may become extremely challenging.

Recent advances in bone grafting materials and techniques allow us to place implants in sites that were considered compromised in the past.

Bone graft

Today, we have the ability to grow bone where needed. This not only gives us the opportunity to place implants of proper length and width, it also gives us a chance to restore functionality and aesthetic appearance.

The graft material can be either an autograft (your own bone), an allograft (bone from other human beings; disease free immune frees), a xenograft (from other species), an alloplast (Synthetic bone), or combination thereof.

Your own bone is taken from the jaw, hip or tibia (below the knee). Special membranes may be utilized to protect the bone graft and encourage bone regeneration.

Bone preservation after tooth extraction

Tooth extraction sockets normally heal without any significant difficulties. However, bone naturally grows into the socket and reduces in height and width during healing process. Bone resorption is most often a concern in areas where the amount of bone was minimal before extraction or in the esthetic zone since soft tissue contours follow hard tissue contours. The eventual shrinkage of alveolar bone results in lost bone contour and poor esthetics.Thus, preserving the existing bone during tooth removal is critical to ensure successful osseointegration of dental implants.

Atraumatic Tooth Removal

Avoiding bone loss during extraction can help preserve alveolar bone. It may eliminate the need for bone graft later.
The anterior maxillary area is at particular risk because the bone plates are thin and subject to trauma during extraction. Some situations make tooth removal extremely difficult, including the brittle root canal treated teeth, the severely dilacerated teeth, and the fractured tooth with little coronal portion to grasp. However, proper instrumentation and technique will allow for the best possible result.

Socket preservation

The extraction socket can heal uneventfully if the surrounding bone is thick, tooth removal has been atraumatic. However, extraction is always followed by bone resoprtion and bone will be lost in height and width. This resorption process will continue for the rest of a patient’s life unless either a bone graft or dental implant is placed.

Researchers report that filling the socket with a bone graft along with a barrier membrane immediately after extraction significantly reduces the amount of bone resoprtion.

A barrier membrane excludes the epithelial cells that invade the socket during healing process and thereby keeps as much space to be filled with bone as possible.
The use of a bone graft alone results in some preservation of alveolar height and width but less than with a barrier membrane.
The use of a barrier membrane plus a bone replacement graft has been shown to be superior to a bone graft or barrier membrane alone.

Sinus Lift

The maxillary sinuses are behind your cheeks and on top of the upper teeth. These are air-filled spaces that everyone has. Often the roots of the natural upper teeth extend up into the maxillary sinuses. With age and tooth loss, the upper jawbone shrinks and the sinus enlarges. When these upper teeth are removed, there is often just a thin wall of bone separating the maxillary sinus and the mouth. This often makes a patient a poor implant candidate. Dental implants need bone to hold them in place. In order to increase bone height, the base of sinus is elevated and filled with bone graft material. And it’s called a sinus lift.

Crestal Approach
The sinus is entered from the alveolar ridge( where teeth existed). A pilot hole is created through the bone reaching 1-2 mm short from the sinus floor and the hole is expanded to the size of implant to be placed. With an ostetome or a water balloon, the thin, left-over sinus floor wall is fractured. Then the sinus membrane is raised, bone grafting materials are filled, and implants are placed. This technique is rather simple and less invasive than the lateral window approach.

Lateral Window Approach
The lateral wall of the sinus is exposed. A bony window is created. The sinus membrane is then gently lifted upward and bone graft material is inserted into the floor of the sinus.

If enough bone is available between the upper jaw ridge and the bottom of the sinus to stabilize the implants well, implants can be placed at the same time.

If not enough bone is available, the graft will have to mature for several months. Once the bone becomes part of the patient’s jaw, then dental implants can be inserted and stabilized in this new sinus bone.

Alveolar Ridge Expansion

This is a technique used to restore the width of lost bone when the jaw ridge gets too thin to place conventional implants. In this procedure, the bony ridge of the jaw is literally expanded by mechanical means. Bone graft material is placed and implants can be placed at the same time or wait until the graft matures for a few months before placing the implant.

Vertical Ridge Augmentation

It is a procedure to improve the height of the alveolar ridge.

Block bone grafts are harvested from the symphysis or the ramus and grafted onto the site where implants to be placed. After several months of maturation, dental implants are placed into this newly brown bone. This technique can be used for predictable bone augmentation up to 3- 6 mm in horizontal and vertical dimensions.

Another way to increase bone height is placing implants into their final position first. The implant should stick out of the bone with a few mm of threads exposed. Then, fill the area with particulate grafts to the height of the implant surfaces. And cover the entire site with a stiff barrier membrane that can keep the shape of newly augmented bone throughout the maturation period.

Dental Implants and Smoking

U.S.Dental (also known as Tufts Dental )

Dr.Gina Sohn - Tufts Graduate
U.S Dentist in Seoul / Licensed in MA, CT, NJ
http://www.drginasohn.com
Tel 02-553-7512 / Overseas 822-553-7512

Implants and Smoking

Smoking has many adverse effects on human body. Oral cavity is no exception to the rule. In fact, the whole stomatognathic system suffers from the tobacco use. Among the factors that may negatively interfere with the final outcome of implant procedures, smoking may play a prevalent role.

• Tobacco smoke decreases immune cell activities, which contributes to decreased resistance to inflammation, and infection.
• Smoking decreases calcium absorption. Smokers show reduced mineral content in the bone, especially in postmenopausal female smokers. Tobacco interferes with bone formation.
• Smoking decreases blood flow by increasing platelet aggregation, causes collagen deposition, tissue hypoxia (less oxygen level), and inhibits wound healing.

Researches demonstrate lower success rate for implants in smokers. Failures seem to occur more in the maxilla than in the mandible. However, similar maxillary survival rates have been observed in smokers, provided sufficient healing time, progressive bone loading, and prophylaxis procedures are implemented. Then again, this is not to say smokers have no risk. Smoking may represent a relative contraindication.

With the possible detrimental effects of smoking on implants, it is recommended that patient is instructed to cease smoking for 2 weeks before surgery and 8 weeks after implant surgery.

Two stage Dental Implant surgery may be Better

U.S.Dental ( also known as Tufts Dental )

Dr.Gina Sohn - Tufts Graduate
U.S Dentist in Seoul / Licensed in MA, CT, NJ
http://www.drginasohn.com
Tel 02-553-7512 / Overseas 822-553-7512

Two Surgeries May Be Better Than One, Reducing Bone Loss In Oral Implants.

Researchers have found that less bone loss is experienced in an oral implant when a two-stage approach to surgery is used. Simultaneously inserted implants, which require one operation to transplant bone tissue and to insert implants into the jawbone, have shown excellent results. However, when the implants were inserted in a second operation about six months after the bone tissue grafts, crestal bone loss was reduced.

In recent years, implants that integrate into the jawbone have proven a successful alternative to traditional dentures to replace missing teeth. In cases where there is not enough bone tissue to anchor the implant, jawbone restoration is required. An autograft, where tissue is transplanted from one site to another on the same patient, may be used. If it is not possible to gather an adequate amount of bone, an allograft (tissue from another person), may be used for the graft material. Freeze-dried bone was used as the graft material in this study.

The study examined 81 patients with a median age of 52 years who were treated in Castelfranco Veneto, Italy, between December 2003 and December 2006. Of this group, 17 patients received grafts and 48 implants in a simultaneous operation. The other 64 patients received a total of 302 implants in a second operation a mean of six months following their graft surgeries.

Only three implants were lost, all from the simultaneously inserted implants, but this did not prove to be a significant difference to predict clinical outcome between the two methods. However, examination of crestal bone resorption around the implant's neck and specific cutoff values showed the delayed implant procedure to have better clinical outcomes by allowing less bone loss. This is important because bone quality of the host (patient) is considered to be a strong predictor for the outcome of the implants.

Dental Implant in Seoul Korea

US.Dental (also known as Tufts Dental )

Dr.Gina Sohn is a member of American Academy of Implant Dentistry
U.S Dentist in Seoul / Licensed in MA, CT, NJ

FACEBOOK

http://www.drginasohn.com
Tel 02-553-7512 / Overseas 822-553-7512
Located in Yongsan / Itaewon area

Dental Implants for Tooth Replacement

Your teeth are designed to last a lifetime but sometimes they don’t.

Replacing missing teeth is important to your general health and to the health of your other teeth. Not only do you lose chewing ability when a tooth is lost, but unreplaced teeth can cause other teeth to be lost, tipped or crowded and create subsequent problems. Also, there are obvious problems of poor appearance and loss of self esteem caused by one or more missing teeth especially on the front teeth.

There are options for replacing missing teeth ; Bridges, dentures and implants.

Dental implants should always be considered as the first option to replace a failing or missing tooth. Replacement of missing teeth with implants has been used for more than 50 years and as recognized as an effective treatment choice. Treatment prognosis is considered more predictable than traditional bridgeworks and removable dentures.
Implants may be the right choice for anyone missing teeth due to injury, disease or decay. They are especially practical for patients who can no longer wear removable dentures.

Implant patients are of all age and it can be determined if you are a good candidate after a careful evaluation of your dental and medical history.
It is important for patients to have enough bone to support the implants. If you do not have enough bone, there are many safe and effective ways to correct bone deficiency and grow certain amount of bone.


Treatment time can vary greatly depending on your needs.

Classical Two Step Procedure

First Surgery
The implant site is prepared. The selected size of implant is placed. Gum tissue is sutured over the implant. The implant takes 3-4 months to fuse with bone.
Second surgery
The implant is uncovered and the appropriate abutment is attached to the implant. A mold of the abutment is taken and sent to the lab for the fabrication of the implant crown. For certain types of implants, second surgery to uncover the implant is not required.

Immediate Implant Placement

When the tooth has to be extracted, and the implant is a choice of treatment for the substitution of the tooth, immediate placement of implant into extracted site is recommended.

When implants are placed into the socket immediately after extraction, osseointegration process of implants speeds up as our body naturally fills the gap between the extraction socket and the implant with bone.

After extraction, we would wait 3-6 months for the extraction socket to be filled with bone, and then proceed with the implant surgery. The immediate placement of implants eliminates this waiting period. However, if the tooth is infected, immediate dental implant placement is not advisable.

Same day Implants and Teeth

In this technique, a failed tooth is removed, an implant Is placed and a temporary crown is immediately placed to avoid the “toothless look” that some patients are afraid of.

This procedure is not for everyone, though.
In order to do this procedure, certain criteria have to be met. There has to be adequate bone, a large enough implant needs to be placed, and the implant once placed has to show sufficient initial stability. And more importantly, the temporary crown has to be adjusted so that no forces are placed on it during teeth function in all directions. Meeting these criteria allows the bone to grow around the implant and a permanent crown can be placed after 9-12 weeks.

Gum Graft in Seoul Korea

U.S.Dental (also known as Tufts Dental)

Dr.Gina Sohn - Tufts Graduate
U.S Dentist in Seoul / Licensed in MA, CT, NJ
http://www.drginasohn.com
Tel 02-553-7512 / Overseas 822-553-7512

Gum Recession

Teeth sensitivity from exposed roots is quite annoying. When the weather gets cold, even the cold air we breathe in every day can start it.

Tooth brushing trauma is the predominant causative factor in the development of recession. Brushing too often with a hard tooth brush will cut the enamel and gum away and slowly expose root surfaces. Other factors that may lead to gum recession are inflammation from plaque, pull from high frenum, thin bony housing, and thin gum tissue.

The treatment includes either restoring the lesions with a filling material or surgically covering the root with a tissue graft.A question that is frequently asked is how does one decide the best treatment (restorative versus surgical).

Restorations are recommended when;

1. The defect is mainly in enamel.
2. There is adequate attached gingival.
3. Esthetic is not of primary concern.
4. There is some loss of interdental bone making complete root coverage impossible.

Gum graft is recommended when;

1. No enamel defect is present. It’s mainly in the root.
2. There is no attached gingival.
3. Esthetic is of primary concern.
4. There is no loss of interdental bone with adequate papilla length.

Gum graft.

There is evidence to indicate that gum graft procedures result in decreased root sensitivity and improved esthetics.
There are multiple periodontal esthetic surgery approaches for the treatment of gingival recession defects. These surgeries generally include the manipulation of the patient’s tissues to augment the soft tissues and cover the exposed root surface.

However, gum grafts aren’t always successful. In order to increase the success rate, there are factors to be taken into account;

The level of interdental bone may be of greatest significance for the outcome of root coverage procedures. From a biological point of view, complete root coverage is achievable in recession defects where interdental bone loss is minimal or none. When there is some loss of interdental bone , only partial facial root coverage is attainable.

An additional factor shown to influence the degree of attainable root coverage is the dimension of the recession defect. Less favorable treatment outcome has been reported at sites with wide (> 3 mm) and deep (> 5 mm) recession.5

Poor oral hygiene will influence the success of root coverage procedures.

Smoking is an additional factor as it relates to the wound healing aspect of grafting.