GENERAL AND RESTORATIVE DENTISTRY IN EDWARDS, CO

Edwards and Avon dentists agree: Proper dental hygiene, including regular professional cleanings, are the key to a healthy, happy smile. A hygiene appointment is more than cleaning your teeth – it’s an oral wellness exam.

Every hygienist in our practice has at least a decade of experience, plus they have some of the most advanced dental technology (such as a soft-tissue laser to treat periodontal infection) at their fingertips.

What can you expect at your hygiene exam?

• Oral cancer screening
• Periodontal risk assessment
• Your health history summary
• Full dental charting
• Full dental cleaning and polishing
• Oral hygiene instructions
• Oral product recommendations

This in-depth exam allows us to see the whole picture – not just your teeth. Why? Your oral health is directly connected to overall health. Oral disease such as periodontal disease can have devastating effects on your body, increasing your chance of heart disease, diabetes, and much more.

For more information on the link between oral wellness and a healthy heart, (referred to as the oral-systemic link or mouth-body connection), please see this article, The Link Between Gum Disease, Heart Attack, and Stroke.

A dental implant is the best way to restore natural function and appearance to a smile that has lost a tooth.

Dental implants let you:

• Look and feel your best
• Smile with pleasure
• Enjoy your favorite foods with confidence
• Retain your natural facial profile and bone health

As your partner in Edwards restorative dentistry, Dr. Thad Twiss restores dental implants after they have been surgically placed. For the placement, he works very closely (side-by-side, even) with his trusted periodontist or oral surgeon. This way, the doctors work together towards an ideal restoration: your new tooth!

Once you get your dental implant, you’ll have it for life! As long as you take care of your implant with proper hygiene and regularly see Dr. Twiss, your implant will last.

Anyone can enjoy the comfort and beauty of a healthy smile! If your teeth, smile, or bite have lost their initial stability, Dr. Thad Twiss can help. Full mouth reconstruction helps patients with older, failing dentistry or misaligned jaws that are no longer in harmony with their bodies.

Treatment begins by restoring your bite and mouth’s function, which could include TMJ treatment, wearing a mouthguard, and gaining beautiful restorations. Once the bite is in harmony with your body, we’ll focus on the aesthetics of your smile, which could include veneers, teeth whitening, and so much more.

If you grind your teeth or play contact sports, your teeth need protection from themselves. Dr. Thad Twiss offers both sportsguards and night mouthguards to keep teeth in their optimum condition.

We offer Under Armour® brand sportsguards, for a performance-enhancing boost and professional dental protection. The sportsguards are made of high-quality materials that protect teeth from impact so that athletes can focus on their sport.

For patients with TMJ pain or the tendency to clench or grind, Dr. Twiss provides customized mouthguards. These mouthguards help teeth retain their surface structure while promoting a healthy bite. Dr. Twiss uses the TENS machine to provide soothing electrical stimulation to jaw muscles so that a relaxed position can be found. As such, our patients get more than just a bite guard! Our custom mouthguards are comfortable and made of the best materials.

Implementing effective, comfortable, and advanced technology for our patients is a hallmark at Vail Dentistry. Dr. Twiss and his team have been trained to use laser dentistry for several cosmetic and restorative procedures.

Virtually painless, our soft tissue laser is used in several gentle, fast-healing gum treatments:

• Bacterial reduction of gum pockets
• Bacterial reduction during scaling and root planing
• Reshaping unhealthy gum tissue
• Treating aphthous ulcers
• Cosmetic gum reshaping 

However, increased comfort for our patients is only one benefit of laser dentistry. Gums start the healing process while the laser is in use, and are fully healed within a day or two (unlike a week or more of recovery time with scalpel and suture methods). Plus, with years of experience and extensive laser training, Dr. Twiss makes your appointment quick and efficient!

We love seeing kids! To make sure little smiles stay healthy, we recommend a child’s first dental visit at about the age of two. The Vail Dentistry team works hard to make a child’s introduction to dentistry a happy one.

How do we do this?

• We have a treasure box for your kiddos after every visit.
• Gentle treatment, age-appropriate communication make dentistry fun for children.
• Kids who get a filling or an extraction also get a gift certificate to Larkburger for a free milkshake!
• We offer sealants for children to seal out bacteria and avoid cavities.

Whether they’re in need of a filling or cleaning, we’ll make their dental visits fun.

Are you suffering from these symptoms?

• Chronic headaches or migraines
• Ringing in the ears
• Tingling fingers
• Cracking or popping in the jaw when chewing
• Worn teeth
• Facial, neck, and upper back pain

It could be signs of Temporomandibular Disorder (TMD), which is the condition of an unbalanced jaw joint. Dr. Thad Twiss can help you relieve symptoms of an unbalanced temporomandibular joint.

Using noninvasive technologies, you can experience relief in no time. The TENS unit, or an occlusal guard, can have our patients feeling better than they have in months or years. After the facial muscles are relaxed with the electrical stimulation of the TENS unit, headaches often go away. 

Contact Vail Dentistry today to experience the relief you deserve.

At Vail Dentistry, we embrace technology, efficiency, and nature. Our dental team provides high-quality dental services with the best materials available while reducing waste wherever possible. To our Edwards dentist and his team, ‘green dentistry’ means we curb our carbon footprint in these ways:

• Tooth-colored fillings – instead of mercury amalgam fillings reduce mercury and other heavy metals in the water system
• Amalgam separation – While we do not place amalgam, we take special precautions when removing mercury amalgam fillings. We use special traps to filter pieces of these old fillings and keep them out of the public water supply. We dispose of the trapped amalgam with a company that recycles them.
• Sanitation and sterilization – Rather than chemical sterilization of instruments, we use a hospital grade, steam-based sterilization technique with no toxic chemicals. Biodegradable, enzyme-based cleaners are used whenever possible. Our sterilization process is checked monthly using a third party to ensure all of our safety.
• Digital dental charting, billing – We are chartless and paperless; your digital patient records are safely secured
  We use biocompatible dental materials
• Digital x-rays – Expose you to 75-90% less radiation than traditional x-rays while reducing waste. This helps keep more than 4.8 million lead and 28 million liters of toxic
• Energy efficient lighting

Feel good about your smile and your dental office! Call for an appointment with Vail Dentistry today.