Dr. James Rhea, DDS

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Found this great website: saintlouiscerec.com while surfing around the CEREC doctor website.   It has some great information about Cerec technology such as the procedure, the technology, and some before and after photos.  CEREC makes crowns in the office in one appointment and saves patients time. Take a look if you are interested.

Today I was working away and I heard a familiar sound, the sound a Diagnodent makes when you take a cavity detecting reading on a tooth.  It was on the screen of a TV airing the Dr. Oz show.  He was doing an oral health segment and was talking about what a great device it is.

We’ve been using one for about four years now, and what a great tool it is for diagnosing decay.  The diagnodent shoots a harmless low level laser beam onto a tooth and shows a digital readout from 1 to 99.  Any reading higher than 30 is considered decay.

In four years of use I’ve never had a false positive reading.  No kidding.

It is really useful for cavity detection in children because we can catch cavities while they are small and restore them.  Prior to the introduction of this instrument we determined a cavity by sticking a pointy instrument called an explorer into a suspicious pit or fissure in a tooth, if it stuck in the tooth we considered it a cavity.  Sometimes a cavity had to get pretty big for the explorer to stick and we would miss early stage decay. With the Diagnodent we don’t miss them.

We are now using a new piece of equipment that will make a new crown in one appointment.  It is called the CEREC  and is a truly neat and exciting  machine.  It is the next big thing in Dentistry.  It consists of a 3D camera and imaging computer and an attached milling machine that grinds a new crown out of a porcelain block while you wait.

Well we are jumping into the 21st century. 

 Can you believe it- a real website!  It is obvious that these days the best way to communicate with your patients and to attract new ones is through the internet.  I don’t think anyone under 30 even knows what the Yellow Pages are. So bear with us as some pages are still under construction and we will try to make the site useful and informative.   

This winter we started using our new digital radiography system.  The good news for our patients is less radiation exposure  than traditional x ray film.   The new sensors require about 25% the amount of exposure as our old film.  The new Panoramic Xray machine requires about 15% the radiation as the old film machine.  Not having to dispose  of the developing liquids is an advantage and it is good for the environment .  JR