Listen or Read Dr. Vitale’s Monthly Podcast Interview!
Topic – Transforming a Smile with Cosmetic Dentistry
Below you will find an easy to read transcript of Dr. John Vitale’s interview on the Experts Discuss monthly Podcast. You can either watch the video to listen to the podcast or simply read the easy to follow transcripts below. Enjoy!
Podcast Interview:
RC: Hello everyone, this is Liz Harvey coming to you from our razorcast™ studios in New York City where we are dedicated to bringing you top quality advice from many of the leading expert professionals across the United States.
In today’s episode we are speaking with Dr. John Vitale. Dr. Vitale is the founder of Dr. John R. Vitale, DMD at Port Liberte, a general dentistry and cosmetic dentistry practice in Jersey City, New Jersey. He has an extensive dental background that began at Iona College and then at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Dr. Vitale has been practicing in the area for over 35 years and is currently a member of the International Congress of Implantology. He is also certified in BOTOX® and dermal fillers and he continues his education in the dental field with monthly classes. Dr. Vitale has also had the pleasure of traveling to Honduras and Panama to provide charity dental care to needy patients.
Dr. Vitale is widely considered to be one of the top dentists in the country and he is also a contributing member of our national network of industry professionals.
Today we are going to talk about a very important topic: Transforming a Smile with Cosmetic Dentistry: Bonding, Implants, Veneers, Whitening.
RC: Hi Dr. Vitale, how are you today?
Dr. John Vitale: I’m fine thank you, how are you?
RC: I’m great, thanks for being with us and let’s get started.
Question 1: What types of dental procedures are considered Cosmetic Dentistry?
RC: First question, what types of dental procedures are considered cosmetic dentistry?
Dr. John Vitale: Well I think you can classify any procedure which changes a person’s appearance or the color of their teeth, the shapes of their teeth. I think they would all be considered cosmetic procedures. Then they have different sub-categories also.
Question 2: Is teeth whitening for everyone or are there people who it won’t work for?
RC: Okay so one of the sub-categories I think, is teeth whitening. Is teeth whitening for everyone or are there people that it won’t work for?
Dr. John Vitale: Teeth whitening is generally for most of the population but not for everyone. I think older adults probably in their late 50’s, 60’s and 70’s who have a certain kind of tooth, a dense tooth with a dark second layer, generally those teeth do not whiten very nicely. But for the vast majority of people, dental whitening provides a very acceptable and cosmetic result.
RC: Okay and with regard to age groups, what age do people start whitening. Do you see teenagers coming in to get teeth whitening or do you recommend it mostly for college age kids, adults?
Dr. John Vitale: I think in my vast experience doing this, most people who come in to the office are generally young adults. Starting at age 18 and going upwards into their late 40’s and early 50’s. I think a lot of women in their 20’s and 30’s, especially those getting married for instance. They are usually our prime candidates for dental lightening in the office.
RC: Okay that makes sense and supermodels and other people like that too probably.
Question 3: What are the advantages and disadvantages of dental bonding?
RC: Okay and to move on to another form of cosmetic dentistry. What are the advantages and disadvantages of dental bonding?
Dr. John Vitale: Well the advantages of dental bonding are as follows. Number one, it’s a quick fix because you generally can acquire the results that you want in one visit and it’s generally done chairside. So when a person leaves your office their appearance is fixed. Whether it is by changing a color of the tooth, the changing the size of a tooth.
The disadvantages are they don’t last as long as veneers do. A composite resin is used for a dental bonding procedure and a composite resin is composed of ground up glass beads and a resin matrix. We put an etch and a bond on the tooth and then we apply this material and hit it with a light and shape it and polish it and you’re on your way. But it picks up stains over a period of time because it is not as dense as a veneer. A veneer is a material that is made of porcelain and it’s baked in a kiln like a piece of pottery and so the end result is a colored piece of glass so to speak. So if you stain it, you just buff it up and it comes back to normal and it looks the same ten years later as it looked the day it was placed. That’s the big difference.
Question 4: What types of problems do dental veneers fix?
RC: Okay and as far as veneers go, what types of problems do dental veneers fix? Why would someone need to get a dental veneer?
Dr. John Vitale: Well a dental veneer is a permanent placement of a porcelain material that is manufactured or made in a laboratory. It’s fired up in a kiln at about 1650 degrees and your end result is a piece of porcelain that goes over the front of your tooth and very little of the back of your tooth. It’s bonded on and it’s a permanent restoration. The things that dental veneers fix primarily are number one tooth color. Some people in years past, their moms may have had antibiotics when they were in utero and as a result they end up with what we call tetracycline staining on their teeth. Which is a discoloration of the tooth and no whitening or no composite resin is going to fix that type of a problem. So in that particular instance, you need a permanent fix, something that’s manufactured in a laboratory and permanently bonded to your teeth.
Other things that veneers do are they change the shape of your teeth, they change the size of your teeth and they can be used to close spaces in your mouth and change your aesthetics. It’s a very permanent, very nice and thorough form of cosmetic dentistry.
RC: That’s a lot of great information. Another question on that, how long does it take for a procedure and can you do one tooth, two or three? Typically when someone comes in to get dental veneers do they fix more than one tooth and how long is that process?
Dr. John Vitale: That’s a very good question. Generally when a dentist does veneers in a person’s mouth, they do all the veneers that are necessary at that visit and I’ll tell you why. Because when you paint your house for instance, if you paint one wall and you run out of paint and you go back to the home depot and you order the same paint. Well when you put it on the next wall it may not be exactly the same shade as the first layer of paint that you put on before. So when we are doing veneers we like to have the laboratory technician use the same batch of material for the entire mouth. So when we end up with a finished product, your front teeth all look the way they should look and they won’t have any variation in color. If you do one tooth and send it to the lab and place the veneer at shade A1 for instance and then two weeks later come back and try another tooth. It may not be the exact same A1. So we like to do all of them in one visit.
Now I’ve done as many as twelve veneers in one visit of preparation. After that an impression is taken, it’s sent out to the laboratory, the veneers are fabricated and then at the next visit, the veneers are tried in. We wait for patient approval and once the patient approves of the way they look, we bond them all in. So to answer your question it’s two visits to generally do the veneers.
RC: Wow and it sounds really thorough and thanks for all that extra information I appreciate that.
Question 5: Why do people choose dentures over a dental implant? Are implants for everyone?
RC: Lastly, we are going to talk about dentures and implants. Why do people choose dentures over a dental implant? It seems like a permanent implant would be a lot easier but are implants for everyone? Could you talk about that?
Dr. John Vitale: Yes I could. Why do people choose dentures over dental implants: probably for two reasons. The primary reason would be for finances. Dentures are not nearly as expensive to do as dental implants. However, the second reason is fear of the unknown. People generally if they don’t understand what they’re getting, they are fearful of it. Or if they hear something from somebody about a procedure and they don’t fully understand it, they tend to shun it. They know what a denture is, they are not that informed on what a dental implant is.
The reality of it is that dental implants with dentures are so much better and longer lasting and satisfying for the patient and the dentist. Because you literally as a patient after you have you dental implants and dentures placed, you can eat corn on the cob. You can cut a steak and eat it. You can’t do that with dentures. No matter how good they are, they have their short comings. Where dental implants give you a much nicer restoration and we do a lot of them.
RC: Great and is it mostly for older patients or I know some athletes that sometimes get the dentures versus the implants because they just figure they’re going to lose another tooth. What can you say about the typical patient?
Dr. John Vitale: Well when we’re talking about the typical patient, adults age 60 and over, for instance I think in our country over 3 out of 5 are in dentures – full dentures. That’s a staggering number or percentage of people who have no teeth. So for those people, this is a tremendous area for them to really explore and take advantage of because the end result is so satisfying.
Now for athletes, maybe younger people who have a lot of teeth in their mouth but are missing just a couple, well then you can do a dental implant. But the procedure that would follow that would not be so much a denture but rather a crown or a dental implant crown that would go over the implant.
To answer your question though, the older adults usually with no teeth or severe periodontal disease end up with either dentures or implant dentures.
RC: Okay great. Well thank you so much Dr. Vitale. We really do appreciate all of this information about cosmetic dentistry so thanks so much!
Dr. John Vitale: You’re welcome. It was a pleasure.
RC: And for our listeners across the country, if you are interested in speaking with Dr. John Vitale, you can either go online at www.drjohnrvitale.com or call 201-521-9800 to schedule an appointment.
On behalf of our entire team at razorcast™, we want to thank you for listening and we look forward to bringing you more top quality content from our country’s leading industry professionals.
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