Los Angeles Cosmetic Dentist
Oral or Dental Services providers by specialty
When attempting to restore, improve, enhance, or simply care for your mouth, teeth, and gums, there are really a number of dental professionals who could become involved. The following list briefly details the role that some of these specialists fill. A Los Angeles cosmetic dentist might specialize in a combination of the following arenas. Often, if a Los Angeles cosmetic dentist does not specialize in one aspect of dental care, like oral surgery for example, he or she will generall work closely with an oral surgeon to ensure all patients easy access to full service, high quality, dental care.
General Dentist
This is your primary dental care provider, the dentist you see for your regular check-ups and cleanings. You'll also turn to him or her when you have a tooth or general mouth problem and need a diagnosis, when your gums require attention, for root canals, treatment of cavaties or fillings for other corrective reasons, and for general preventative care and education, instructing you on appropriate methods of care for your teeth. General dentists can also be turned to for crowns, bridges, veneers or other restorative measures.
A general dentist will have earned a DDS (doctor of dental surgery) or DMD (doctor of dental medicine) degree. No need to worry about the difference between the two. Dental students complete the same curriculum to achieve both, but different schools simply name their degrees differently
What you'll usually find of practicing general dentists is that they'll have completed at least 3 years of undergraduate schooling, followed by 4 years of dental school. To qualify as a specialist in a particular, more advanced, field of dentistry, general dentists must complete further training. Such specialists are listed below.
Public Dental Health Clinics
Such clinics are designed to use the community to promote awareness of dental health needs. Aiming to prevent diseases of the teeth and gums, these clinics launch group educational campaigns throughout their community. They also provide the community with needed services, usually including help finding a qualified dentist, answering questions about dental health and offering instruction or advice on dental health care, as well as providing alternate oral health resources and support materials. Additionally, many public dental health clinics will set up educational programs for local schools.
Endodontist
An endodontist specializes in teeth's nerves. Studying injuries of the nerves and causes of them, as well as in preventing and treating nerve diseases, an endodontist might perform different levels of root canals, or other necessary surgeries of the roots.
Oral and Maxillofacial Radiologist
A radiologist is the specialist who produces and consequently interprets dental X-rays. The radiologist's findings would be used to diagnose and treat diseases and condition in the maxillofacial and oral area.
Oral Medicine
Oral medicine is a term that encompasses the specialization in more complex conditions of the mouth, jaw, and teeth. This can involve the diagnosis and handling of serious diseases like oral cancer or lichen planus.
Oral Pathologist
An oral pathologist examines the catalysts of oral diseases that have an effect on structures like the jaw, lips, cheeks, or teeth. Their studies also travel into neighboring portions of the face and neck. Other health care providers rely on the knowledge of an oral pathologist for the evaluation and diagnosis of things like biopsies, lesions, or tissue.
Oral Surgeon
An oral surgeon practices oral medicine, and furthermore can perform surgery on the lower face, jaw, and mouth region. Such surgeries might be performed to correct facial trauma or as mouth reconstruction, and major dental implant surgery. Some oral surgery patients might also be suffering with jaw tumors or cysts.
Orthodontist
An orthodontist is an oral health care provider that many of us become familiar with during our adolesence. He or she specializes in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of malocclusions, more commonly knows as overbites or underbites. These can be caused by extra teeth and crowding, excess spacing between teeth, or simply by jaws that are naturally misaligned. An orthodontist will correct the alignment of teeth with the use of various types of braces, wires, small rubber bands, or with temporary appliances and retainers. While it is common to think of an orthodontist as someone you see during your youth, many adults also pursue orthodontia to reverse movement or correct a malocclusion that was never properly treated.
Pedodontists/Pediatric Dentist
A pediatric dentist specializes in treated children as young as just 1-2 years of age, as well as those nearing early adulthood. He or she will usually deal mostly with teeth that are decaying, missing, crowded, or crooked. A pediatric dentist focuses on similar situations, but has completed 2 additional years of training after dental school. This allows him or her to focus on deeper issues, like the development of children's teeth, the specific demands of a child's dental care, as well as general child behavior and physical development.
Periodontist
A periodontist focuses on the gums and bones of the teeth, diagnosing and managing the gum disease gingivities and periodontitis, a disease of the gum and bone. The procedures that a periodontist might perform include simple and deep pocket cleanings, crown lengthening, soft tissue grafting, bone grafting, gingival or flap procedures, soft tissue recontouring or removal, hard tissue recontouring, and the restorative procedure, insertion of dental implants.
Prosthodontist
A prosthodontist is an expert at repairing, on a bigger scale than a general dental provider, natural teeth as well as replacing missing teeth. The tools for replacing missing teeth include artificial teeth, commonly known as dentures and gold or ceramic crowns, also knows as caps. Like a periodontist, a proshodontist also is involved in dental implant procedures. These dental specialists might also be involved with providing prosthetic pieces for patients with jaw or neck deformities.