The information below is intended to cast some light on common dental topics and to inform you about the services and type of treatments available at Guidepost Dental Practice. We hope that this information will give you some basic dental knowledge so that together we can devise a plan of care and treatment to keep you healthy and give you a smile you are happy and confident with.

Prevention and Oral Hygiene

Prevention and early detection is the key in avoiding costly and extensive dental treatment.

Anxious Patients

We are able to offer intravenous or inhalation sedation at the practice for particularly anxious patients. This can be discussed in more detail with the dentist. Richard and Josie are very experienced in the administration of sedation and we follow all the recommended guidelines in the use of this technique.

Aesthetic Dentistry

Advances in modern materials and techniques have meant that we can now offer treatment to improve the shape, colour and appearance of your teeth to give you the confident smile you've always wanted. Old fillings and broken or missing teeth can make your teeth look unsightly and cause you to hide your teeth and feel embarrassed about smiling. Modern techniques such as crowns, bridges, veneers, tooth-coloured fillings, orthodontics, tooth whitening and dental implants are all available at Guidepost Dental Practice. This kind of treatment is aimed at giving you natural looking teeth and restoring confidence in your smile and ability to eat anything you wish.

"Invisalign: The invisible way to straighten your teeth."

Invisalign® can give you the beautiful straight teeth you've always wanted. It works through a series of invisible, removable, and comfortable aligners that no one can tell you're wearing. So you can smile more during treatment as well as after. Over seven hundred thousand adults and teenagers have already benefited from treatment from Invisalign, and now it's finally available here in the UK. Because Invisalign uses a computer database every step of the way, they are able to put their knowledge of their 700,000 previous cases to good use by advising us of the best treatment plans in any given situation.

How Does Invisalign Work?

• You wear each set of aligners for about 2 weeks, removing them only to eat, drink, brush, and floss.
• As you replace each aligner with the next in the series, your teeth will move - little by little, week by week - until they have straightened to the final position your orthodontist or dentist has prescribed.
• You'll visit your orthodontist about once every 6 weeks to ensure that your treatment is progressing as planned.

Total treatment time averages 9-15 months and the average number of aligners worn during treatment is 11-30, but obviously it varies.

Filling materials

There are now many improved materials available that can be matched in colour to the tooth and will bond to the tooth surface.

Crowns

Crowns are often needed to strengthen and restore a tooth that has been extensively damaged by decay or trauma.

Bridges

When teeth are lost or missing, the gap can be filled with a bridge.

Implants

An implant can be used to replace a single or multiple teeth or to secure or replace dentures. We have a specialist who visits monthly for assessments and treatment.

Veneers

Porcelain veneers can be used to change the shape or position of a front tooth or to improve the appearance by masking discolouration, mottling or rough enamel.

Tooth Whitening

Teeth often become stained and discoloured, as we get older, since teeth will gradually absorb colour from things like coffee, tea, red wine and tobacco.

Root Canal Treatment

If a tooth's pulp (nerve and blood supply) becomes infected or inflamed, root canal treatment is the only way to clear the infection and save the tooth.

Characterised Dentures

We work together with the patient to give you the appearance you want.