Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

There is no age limit for Invisalign! As life spans increase, more and more older adults who want to enjoy their best possible smiles are turning to cosmetic dentistry and treatments like Invisalign. At A Family Dentistry, we believe that everyone deserves a beautiful smile that they can be proud to show off!

However, certain factors can make orthodontic treatment more of a challenge for seniors. For instance, you must have healthy gums because any tooth movement involves bone remodeling. If your periodontal health is good, this shouldn’t be a problem; but if the gums or supporting structures aren’t stable, we would need to delay treatment until they are.

Also, be aware of what Invisalign can and can’t do. This treatment tends to work best for crowding and spacing issues, so more advanced tooth movements may require traditional braces. 

One of the benefits of Invisalign is that you can take the aligners out to brush and floss your teeth. Conscientious oral hygiene and routine visits for exams and cleanings are always important, but even more so with older adults who are more prone to gum problems.

Regardless of your age, we invite you to call our Sun City Center dental office to arrange a commitment-free Invisalign consultation. After evaluating your needs, we may find that another treatment like porcelain veneers is more appropriate to correct the appearance of your slightly crowded or crooked teeth. Please call us at (813) 642-8885 to get started!

It used to be that getting a new dental crown involved several appointments and a two-week wait. These appointments involved multiple injections, impressions, and getting a temporary crown that didn’t always fit well or look natural.

Today, however, at A Family Dentistry we are pleased to offer our patients the benefits of CEREC same-visit crowns. Creating a CEREC crown at our Sun City Center, FL dental office involves only one visit, and you leave our office the same day with a durable, natural-looking crown.

Unlike crowns fabricated in a dental lab, CEREC technology brings the process right here to our office. Our doctors design your crown by using comfortable digital impressions, without messy paste, of your teeth. Using specialized CEREC software, they create a virtual 3-D model of your new crown and send the information to a milling machine right here in our office.

You can watch in amazement while your new crown is sculpted from a block of porcelain, and within a couple of hours, you will leave with your final crown cemented permanently in place. We can complete the entire process in a little more than two hours.

If you are on a deadline or you just want to avoid the wait involved with a lab crown, please call A Family Dentistry to arrange a convenient dental appointment.

When people think of cosmetic dentistry, they often envision complex procedures and a high price tag. But the truth is that any treatment we provide at A Family Dentistry is done with an eye toward aesthetics. Not only do they restore your oral health, but leave you with a more attractive smile.

If your teeth are worn and broken-down, we can combine treatments like crowns, fillings, veneers, and dental bonding to restore your smile to full health and also improve your appearance. Dealing with improperly aligned teeth that hurt and make hygiene difficult? We offer Invisalign clear braces to eliminate these problems and leave you with a more harmonious, balanced smile.

Of course, we can also address purely cosmetic issues like uneven gaps and spacing, poorly proportioned teeth, and severe dental staining and discoloration. Whether your concerns are function or aesthetics, we can help with both. Dr. Nguyen and Dr. Anthony will be happy to meet with you to learn what it is about your smile that you would like to address and how you’d like us to help. You will be part of the decision-making process every step of the way so that the results we achieve are exactly what you were hoping for.

Would you like to make some changes to your smile but aren’t sure where to start? Please call our Sun City Center, FL dental office to arrange a commitment-free consultation so we can get you started.

Dentures are a time-tested solution for missing teeth, and they’ve helped millions of people regain their ability to chew and speak comfortably and smile confidently. But dentures come with their drawbacks, the chief complaint being that dentures are unstable. And until the last few decades, there wasn’t a solution other than denture adhesives that didn’t work all that well anyway.

But at A Family Dentistry, we are pleased to offer state-of-the-art dental implants. While they can be used as a standalone replacement for a single tooth, we also use implants to stabilize dentures to hold them securely in place.

Several implants are placed surgically in your jaw and left to heal for several months. Meanwhile, our doctors will work closely with you to design natural-looking dentures that complement your smile. Your dentures are fabricated by skilled technicians with attachments that snap onto the dental implants to hold them securely in place.

Implant-supported dentures in Sun City Center, FL have become increasingly popular as people like you discover their benefits. If you are a first-time denture wearer or have older dentures that no longer fit well, please call our dental office at (813) 642-8885 to arrange a consultation with one of our doctors.

We refer to dental exams and cleanings as preventive services because they allow us to look for and correct small problems like decay and gum disease before they worsen and become difficult and costly to treat. How frequently you need to see us for preventive care is something that can only be determined by Dr. Nguyen and Dr. Anthony after they evaluate your oral health.

The American Dental Association recommends preventive dental cleanings and exams twice a year as a general guideline. But if you are plagued by oral health problems or dealing with chronic periodontal disease, you may need to see us three or four times a year.  If you don’t maintain these visits as we recommend, you put yourself at risk for developing issues that damage your oral health before you even know they exist.

Prevention is easy and cost-effective because we can spare you many problems and more invasive, costly procedures in the future. For example, a spot of tooth decay that could have been addressed with a simple filling early on can damage your tooth to the extent that a dental crown or even a root canal might be needed to restore your oral health.

If you are overdue for a preventive dental cleaning and exam in Sun City Center, FL, or just have questions about the frequency of visits, please call A Family Dentistry to arrange a convenient appointment.

Root canal treatment is necessary when a tooth becomes infected because of advanced decay or dental trauma. We have many ways to keep you comfortable, but you should know one important fact about root canal treatment; it is not the procedure itself that causes discomfort but the pain of the infection you experience when you arrive at our office.

At A Family Dentistry, however, we understand that telling you this may not do much to reduce your fear, and our goal is to ensure that you can relax and get the care you need. Here are some steps we take:

• Explain why treatment is necessary – A root canal is the only way we can relieve your pain and save your tooth. We’ll use digital x-rays and intraoral cameras to pinpoint the problem, so you know why you need treatment.  
• Help you understand what the procedure involves – Knowing what to expect can do a lot to reduce your anxiety. First, we’ll make sure you’re comfortable in the chair with a pillow and blanket if you like. Once your tooth is numb, you won’t feel any pain, though you might feel some pressure.
• Provide support and compassionate care – Our team has decades of combined experience in providing comfortable root canals. We know what it takes to help you relax and that sometimes all that’s necessary is a kind word or a hand to hold if you need one.

If you suspect you need a root canal or have questions about the procedure, please call our Sun City Center dental office to arrange a consultation with Dr. Nguyen or Dr. Anthony.