Same-day emergency visits held open every weekday morning.
Straight answers to the questions patients actually ask us, written by our doctors and kept free of sales talk.
Everything here is general information, not dental advice. Your mouth gets an exam, not a web page.
Seven interactive guides across the site, plus the four deeper explainers below. Nothing here needs a login or an email address.
Tell us what is bothering you and see which treatment usually fits, with a booking link.
Open the guideKnocked-out tooth, cracked tooth, toothache or a lost filling: what to do in the first hour, plus today's same-day chairs.
Open the guideFirst tooth, kids, teens, adults and seniors. What each stage of life needs from a dentist.
Open the guidePick your carrier and see a sample in-network result, with the membership and financing fallback.
Open the guideSedation options, headphones, blankets, stop signals and breaks. Build the visit you can sit through.
Open the guideWhat happens across 75 minutes, and the new patient forms to fill in beforehand.
Open the guideBrushing angle and timing, flossing technique and the foods that help or hurt enamel.
Open the guideDecision aid
Three restorations, three very different amounts of tooth removed. Pick the situation that sounds like yours and see what we would usually recommend, and why.
Usually recommended
With most of the enamel intact there is nothing to hold a crown onto, and cutting a healthy tooth down for one is the wrong trade. Bonding is additive and reversible; a veneer removes roughly 0.3 to 0.7 mm of enamel and is not.
Usually recommended
An onlay caps the broken cusp and leaves the healthy walls alone. Compared with a full crown it keeps roughly 30 to 50 percent more tooth structure, which matters for the long-term survival of the tooth.
Usually recommended
A root-treated back tooth has lost its pulp, its blood supply and usually both marginal ridges. Cuspal coverage is what protects it from a vertical root fracture, which is the failure that cannot be repaired.
Usually recommended
Porcelain placed onto an untreated bruxism habit chips. We take a bite record first, plan the new edge position, and a night guard is part of the treatment rather than an upsell afterwards.
Usually recommended
We measure the remaining wall thickness. Under about 2 mm the wall will flex and eventually split, so it gets covered. Above that we can often keep it and place an onlay.
The strongest option and the least lifelike. Cannot be etched, so it is cemented rather than bonded.
Our default for anything that shows. Needs a bonded seat and enough thickness (about 1 mm) to reach full strength.
Beautiful and fragile. Only used where a bonded enamel surface carries the load, never on a back tooth.
The longest-lasting material we place and the kindest to the opposing tooth. Rarely chosen now for the colour alone.
A grey line can show at the gum line after years of recession. We reach for it mainly on multi-unit bridges.
Placed in one visit with no lab. Expect polishing every few years and replacement sooner than ceramic.
General information, not dental advice. Strength figures are published material properties; what is right for your tooth depends on an exam and x-rays.
When a tooth is badly broken you get two real choices and two follow-on choices. Here is what each one costs you in visits, bone and years, laid out side by side.
| Compare | Root canal + crownEndodontic therapy, then cuspal coverage | Extraction + implantRemove, graft, then a titanium fixture and crown | Extraction + bridgeThree units carried by the two neighbours | Extraction, leave the spaceNo replacement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What happens | The inflamed or necrotic pulp is removed, the canals are shaped and irrigated, then filled with gutta-percha and sealer. A crown follows to protect the tooth. | The tooth comes out, the socket is usually grafted, and after healing a titanium implant is placed and later restored with an abutment and crown. | The tooth is removed and the two adjacent teeth are prepared for crowns that carry a false tooth between them. | The tooth is removed and nothing replaces it. |
| Visits and timeline | 1 to 2 visits for the root canal, 2 more for the crown. About 3 to 5 weeks end to end. | 4 to 6 visits. Expect 4 to 9 months from extraction to final crown while osseointegration happens. | 2 to 3 visits over 3 to 6 weeks once the gum has healed. | 1 visit, then a healing check. |
| Keeps the natural tooth | Yes. Root, periodontal ligament and bone all stay. | No. | No. | No. |
| Effect on the bone | The socket keeps its ridge. No graft needed. | Socket grafting limits the ridge collapse that follows an extraction. The implant then loads the bone and helps maintain it. | The ridge under the false tooth resorbs over time. Nothing is loading it. | The ridge narrows most in the first 6 months. Grafting at the time of extraction keeps the option of an implant open later. |
| Neighbouring teeth | Untouched. | Untouched. | Both are cut down permanently, even if they were healthy. | Teeth drift toward the gap and the opposing tooth over-erupts, which can change the bite. |
| Typical survival | Published 10-year survival for a root-treated, crowned tooth sits around 85 to 90 percent. | Reported 10-year implant survival is commonly 90 to 95 percent, with peri-implantitis the main long-term risk. | Around 10 years on average for a conventional bridge; failures usually start as decay on an abutment tooth. | Not applicable. The consequences build slowly over years. |
| Sample fee range | $1,150 to $1,900 for the root canal plus $1,250 to $1,700 for the crown | $1,800 to $2,600 for the implant plus $1,600 to $2,400 for abutment and crown | $3,300 to $5,100 for three units | $210 to $450 for a simple extraction, $350 to $900 surgical |
Scroll the table sideways to see every option
Best when enough sound tooth remains above the gum for a crown to grip, and the root is not fractured.
Best when the tooth is not restorable: vertical root fracture, decay well below the bone, or a failed retreatment.
Reasonable when the neighbouring teeth already need crowns, or when bone volume rules an implant out.
Sometimes the right call for a wisdom tooth or a second molar with an intact bite in front of it.
General information, not dental advice. Fees are sample ranges for this demo site and exclude insurance; survival figures are drawn from published literature ranges and vary with the tooth, the bite and home care. Dr. Okafor will give you a written estimate before anything starts.
Gum health
If you have heard a hygienist call out "three, two, four" around your mouth, those are pocket depths in millimetres. Here is the staging system behind them and what each stage changes about your care.
The cuff of gum around each tooth is tight, pink and does not bleed when the hygienist measures it. Six readings are taken per tooth at every recall so we can see any change early.
Two cleanings a year, full periodontal charting once a year, x-rays on the schedule your risk calls for.
Inflammation is in the gum only. The attachment and the bone are untouched, which is why this one is genuinely reversible. Bleeding when you floss is the sign, not a reason to stop flossing.
A thorough cleaning, technique coaching, then a 6 to 8 week recheck to confirm the bleeding has stopped.
The attachment between gum and root has started to detach. It is early, it is measurable and at this stage it responds well to non-surgical care.
Scaling and root planing in one or two quadrants, then periodontal maintenance every 4 to 6 months instead of a routine cleaning.
Deeper pockets mean parts of the root are no longer cleanable with a brush and floss alone. The bone loss shows on a bitewing but the teeth are still firm.
Full-mouth scaling and root planing under local anaesthetic, usually over two visits, then maintenance every 3 to 4 months.
Vertical bone defects, furcation involvement between molar roots and some mobility. Deep pockets harbour bacteria that instruments cannot reach from above the gum.
Scaling and root planing first, then referral for periodontal surgery or regenerative grafting where pockets stay deep. Maintenance every 3 months, for good.
Beyond the gums, the bite itself has changed: drifting, flaring front teeth, fewer than 10 opposing pairs left, teeth that move when you chew.
Stabilise the disease first, then rehabilitate. That can mean splinting, strategic extractions, implants or a removable prosthesis, planned as one sequence.
Grade A
Slow progression
No bone loss over 5 years. Non-smoker, no diabetes. Heavy plaque with little destruction.
Grade B
Moderate progression
Under 2 mm of bone loss over 5 years. Smoking under 10 a day, or HbA1c under 7.0 percent with diabetes.
Grade C
Rapid progression
2 mm or more over 5 years. Smoking 10 or more a day, or HbA1c 7.0 percent and above. Destruction outruns the plaque present.
General information, not dental advice. Staging and grading follow the 2018 world workshop classification; only a full periodontal chart and current radiographs can tell you where you actually sit.
Benefits explained
Dental insurance is not medical insurance. It is a coupon with a ceiling: a fixed pot per calendar year, three coverage classes and a waiting period on the treatments that cost the most. Tick what you might need this year.
Sample PPO plan: $1,500 annual maximum, $50 deductible, 100 / 80 / 50 coverage
$0 of $1,500
$1,500 of your maximum is still available.
You have hit the annual maximum. Anything beyond it is out of pocket this year, which is often a reason to split treatment across two benefit years.
Check your carrier100 percent
No waiting period
Exams, cleanings, x-rays, fluoride, sealants
80 percent
Often 3 to 6 months
Fillings, simple extractions, root planing, some endodontics
50 percent
Often 6 to 12 months
Crowns, bridges, dentures, implants where covered
General information, not dental advice, and not a benefits quote. Every figure here is a sample for this demo site; percentages, maximums and waiting periods differ by carrier and by employer group. We verify your actual benefits in writing before treatment.
Bring what you read here to your next visit. We will put the x-ray on the screen, point at what we are seeing and talk through the options with you, not at you.
We value your privacy
We use cookies to run this site, remember your preferences and understand how it is used.Cookie policy