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Showing posts from December, 2018

Post-Extraction Swelling

Extractions are often necessary to correct misalignments caused by overcrowding. Dr. Jia Y. Lee’s office in Rancho Cucamonga provides for general dental and orthodontic needs, allowing patients to use the same doctor throughout their orthodontic therapy. Our extractions have a very high success rate, but patients need to know how to take care of themselves while recovering. Swelling is a natural, healthy response to the removal of a tooth. Inflammation is the body’s way of concentrating white blood cells and limiting the spread of bacteria. But following a simple extraction, the blood should quickly form a clot that will protect the socket while it closes, making inflammation an unnecessary burden to the patient. Inflammation can be inhibited by applying ice packs in the days immediately following the surgery, but the patient must be careful to not apply ice for longer than fifteen minutes, and to leave fifteen minutes between applications. It takes about a week for swelling to disappe

Have You Had A Cleaning This Year?

Dr. Jia Lee and his staff encourage all our patients to maintain a great oral health routine at home, but it is still important to come into the office for regular professional cleanings.  During the holidays, we want everyone looking forward to the New Year and maintaining great oral hygiene!  However much you brush and floss, some harmful bacteria grow in your mouth that cause gum disease and can only be removed by a dental professional.  It’s important to see a professional regularly not just to clean your teeth, but also to locate and monitor areas in the mouth that may need special attention, and a dentist can tell you if you may be missing a spot or skipping an important step in your regular oral care routine.  During a teeth cleaning, a hygienist thoroughly clean the area above and below the gum line with scaling tools to rid them of plaque and tartar. After the surfaces of the teeth are cleaned, the hygienist flosses between every one of your teeth and may apply fluoride if rec

Dental Instruments

Since dental hygiene is so important, we strive to make patients’ visits to Dr. Jia Lee’s Rancho Cucamonga dental office comfortable. Regular cleanings and bite checks can prevent pain later on, but we recognize that dental visits are a source of anxiety for some people. We think that if people feel better equipped to talk about their visits they’ll feel more comfortable, which is why we wanted to explain a little about our instruments. While their teeth are being inspected and cleaned, patients will notice our hygienists using handheld mirrors and wands with metal hooks. The hooked instrument is called an explorer or a probe. We use it to break up tartar and to test the hardness of patients’ enamel and for infections in the gum pockets. As we break tartar apart, we’ll rinse the mouth and suction away the debris using a narrow vacuum called an evacuator. When we need to drill away tooth decay, our most common means of anesthetizing patients is with a syringe. Dental drills emit water a