General Dentistry

General Dental Services

• Fillings - with the significant advances in scanning technology, Dr Dirks is able scan your tooth and mill a precision milled restoration with the all new CEREC®. The advantages are precision fitting, stronger material and strong bonding. This is ideal to replace oversized old amalgam restorations, repair fractured teeth or even smaller restorations - all in one session!
• Crowns and bridges (link with smile design page) - Once a tooth is overfilled or root treated, the remaining structure becomes vulnerable to fracture. A crown or a bridge can give full coverage protection to the tooth, helping it to function as a unit when transferring chewing forces. Digital impressions (scanning) and milling makes placing a crown with CEREC® a single visit process. Getting rid of impressions, long waiting times and repeat appointments.
• Root Canal Treatment - teeth work hard through our lives and they are subjected to extreme elements like heat, cold, acids and pressure. Although teeth are covered by the hardest organic material called enamel, over time they will suffer if subjected to the elements constantly.  There are several reason why a tooth may need root canal treatment:
  • Trauma - a traumatic blow to the tooth or fracture can cause the nerve to be irreversibly damaged.
  • Decay - if decay spreads to deep into the tooth, the damage caused may affect the nerve.
  • Time - as we grow older, the blood circulation in the tooth diminishes and this can cause the nerve to die.
  • Treatments - if a tooth has had to many procedures done to it, over time the nerve tissue might suffer.
• Dentures - we offer a variety of denture solutions but it is important to look at what modern dentistry offers and how it can help improve your oral health.
• Children’s Teeth - the most important patient group! We hope that we can educate rather than treat the children in our practice. We know so much about good oral health and care,  as well as what a healthy diet means.  If you incorporate all of these in your life, you stand a very good chance to never require dental treatment other than regular maintenance or maybe orthodontic treatment to straighten your teeth.  We offer all adult treatments to our children except cosmetic treatments until they are 18 years old.

• Mouth Appliances - at Thurlow we offer a wide range of appliances for the different aspects of dentistry.
  • Sports Guards - a definite if you are playing any kind of contact or impact sport
  • Night Guard - with the busy lives we lead, many of us grind our teeth at night. This has a significant impact on our teeth over time and create a tooth wear. A night guard will give a layer of protection, relaxing your chewing muscles and relieving the strain on your joints, which are often associated with chronic headache, facial and neck pain.
  • New Tooth Whitening Trays - if you have lost your trays or your mouth structure has changes significantly, we can provide you with a new set of tooth whitening trays, customised for your mouth.
  • Orthodontic Retainers - these are very important after orthodontic treatment and if there is one thing we have learned over the years regarding orthodontic treatment is that teeth will always move unless you retain them. if you notice a crack or hole in your retainer, it is best to replace them to maximise their retention.

• Surgical Treatment - Dr Dirks has done extensive training in implant rehabilitation, refining his surgical skills which has carried over to other surgical treatments in the mouth.
  • Tooth Extraction - not many peoples favourite topic! We try to carefully remove teeth, if and when required.  This will then hopefully heal in such a way that we can possibly consider replacing the lost tooth with an implant. In certain cases a replacement might not be necessary, but we will still take the same caring approach.
  • Gum Lift and laser treatment - with the help of a laser we can easily remove unwanted gum tissue, tags and do several other small soft tissue adjustments in a clean and atraumatic way.
  • Apicoectomy - a procedure where the very tip of a root treated tooth is removed if reinfected after a root canal treatment.