General & Family Dentistry — Goodyear, Arizona
THE KEY TO A PROBLEM-FREE SMILE

NIGHT GUARDS FOR BRUXISM

Do you consistently wake up with a sore jaw or headache? If so, then you could be one of the millions of Americans dealing with bruxism, or unconscious teeth grinding during sleep. This can severely damage the teeth over time, but we can keep them nice and safe with something called a night guard. A small oral appliance worn only to bed, it places a thin but strong barrier between the teeth to prevent them from coming together during the night.

ORAL CANCER SCREENINGS

Early detection and treatment are essential to successfully overcoming oral cancer, but in many cases, patients aren’t diagnosed until the disease is quite advanced because its early symptoms are easy to miss. Nothing gets past our team’s trained eyes, however. We’ll perform a thorough oral cancer screening at all of your checkups, and if we find any suspicious growths or sores in or around your mouth, we’ll help you get the appropriate follow-up care right away.

AT-HOME HYGIENE PRODUCTS

Did you know that 99% of your dental care actually happens at home with routine brushing and flossing? Needless to say, the oral healthcare products you and your family use every day are extremely important, but with the endless variety available on store shelves, which ones are the best for you? Our hygiene team can point you in the right direction at your next appointment, just be sure to ask! We can even provide a number of prescription-strength products that aren’t available on store shelves.

TMJ THERAPY

In addition to your teeth and gums, the TMJ, or temporomandibular joint, is also a vital part of your oral health. This is the small set of hinges that connects your jaw to the rest of your skull and enables it to move in all directions. Like other joints in the body, it can sometimes develop strain, injury or arthritis, which can lead to symptoms like pain and stiffness in the jaw, chronic headaches and even soreness in the neck and shoulders.

Our team has specialty training to not only diagnose a wide variety of TMJ disorders (TMD) but treat them as well. After determining the root cause of a patient’s pain, we can either rebalance their bite with an equilibration (in which we reshape a few teeth to ensure that the rows of teeth come together properly), or we can prescribe them an occlusal splint. This is a therapeutic mouthpiece that slightly adjusts the jaw into a more relaxed and natural position. A patient only has to wear it to bed, and over time, the jaw will adapt to this new position, making any symptoms go away.