Dr. West's Boulder Dental Blog

The world of dentistry continues to advance at a rapid pace. If you have visited a Lafayette dentist in the past few years, you have probably noticed the things that make your visit more comfortable, such as the ability to watch TV or listen to music while receiving treatment. Many Boulder dentistry patients welcome oral conscious sedation to reduce or eliminate pain.

What may not be as obvious are the advances in techniques, tools and materials. Top dentists now use digital computer imaging which is safer than traditional x-rays. Dental technicians can store, retrieve and transmit digital images much easier than was possible with traditional x-ray film.

The use of lasers has also changed the face of dentistry. Laser surgery requires less anesthesia, minimizes swelling, and protects surrounding tissue. Boulder family dentists use lasers for detecting and treating cavities and dental technicians use them for the curing of restorative materials.

Another exciting development in cosmetic dentistry is the CAD-CAM technology that allows cosmetic dentists to perform restorations in a single visit. The types of procedures that can be completed in one visit include crowns, fillings, inlays, onlays and veneers.

If you need a thorough exam or want to improve your smile with cosmetic dentistry, call Gordon West DDS, Cosmetic & General Dentistry at 303-665-5335 to schedule a consultation. During your consultation, you can see before and after photos of some of our smile makeover clients. We would love to help you achieve the smile you have always wanted, and we have the tools, experience and technology to make that happen.

Dr. Gordon West

Whiter Teeth in Longmont is as easy as picking up the phone and making an appointment with Gordon West DDS, Cosmetic & General Dentistry. We specialize in whiter teeth for patients in the Longmont area.

A whiter smile can make all the difference in your self confidence. Whiter teeth brighten your smile and give you a reason to show off your teeth with a beautiful big smile.

We can help you whiten your teeth through a number of solutions that range in cost, from less expensive teeth whitening treatments that you can do yourself at home, to professional treatments that we can perform here in our office.

If you are interested in a brighter smile, and whiter teeth, give us a call and make an appointment. The hardest part will be dialing the phone, and in no time we’ll have you smiling bright.

Give us a call at 303-665-5335.

Hello,

My name is Dr. Gordon West, and I am a dentist in the Lafayette, Colorado community.

My practice is called ‘Gordon West DDS, Cosmetic & General Dentistry‘, and together we provide dentistry services including porcelain veneers.

If you are looking for an Lafayette Dentist, I invite you to give Gordon West DDS, Cosmetic & General Dentistry a try. We are state-of-the-art dental care in a comfortable environment, and caring. Give us a call at 303-665-5335, or visit us on our website at http://www.BoulderCountySmiles.com.

By the way: I am a member of the The Crown Council. You can learn more about The Crown Council at their website located at http://www.CrownCouncil.com.

Top Ten Reasons To Visit Your Local Lafayette Dentist:

1. Check Up; it’s time, and this is the best way to avoid dental problems.
2. Clean Up; our dental hygienist is ready to give you a super clean smile.
3. Brush Up; if it has been a while since your last dental visit, it’s probably time to come in to learn about the new options we have for dental care.
4. Avoid pain; if you have dental pain and have been putting off a trip to the dentist, come in now. We specialize in relieving dental pain.
5. Fillings; we can find and fill all your dental cavities in almost no time at all. This will help you avoid more painful problems down the road, and helps ease some of those sensitivities to hot and cold.
6. Avoid gum disease; we can assess the health of your gums and suggest treatments or practices that are available to help you improve the health of your gums.
7. Ready for a whiter smile? We can help. We have tooth whitening options available that will brighten your smile and make your teeth whiter.
8. Tooth replacement; If you are missing a tooth, we can help restore your smile with the latest in tooth replacement technology.
9. Cosmetic dentistry is something everyone is considering to make improvements to their smile. We can help you assess the options and learn more about the possibilities of cosmetic dentistry.
10. Confidence: Nothing brings you more confidence than when you know you have a bright and beautifully healthy smile.

I’m Dr. Gordon West, and I am a dentist in the Lafayette, Colorado community. If you are ready for professional dentistry, please give our office a call.

Give us a call at 303-665-5335, or visit us on our website at http://www.BoulderCountySmiles.com.

I am a member of the The Crown Council. http://www.CrownCouncil.com

Have you ever heard the phrase ‘I’d rather have a root canal’ to describe something painful or unpleasant? At Gordon West DDS, Cosmetic & General Dentistry, we perform root canal (endodontic) therapy routinely for our Lafayette dentistry patients and many report minimal discomfort. Root canal procedures have advanced significantly in recent years. For many root canal patients, the procedure is no worse than getting a filling from your dental professional.

At Gordon West DDS, Cosmetic & General Dentistry, our goal is to help our Longmont, Louisville, and Broomfield root canal patients avoid the necessity of  endodontic treatment by providing skilled dental care. However, if root canal therapy is necessary to preserve a tooth for one of our root canal patients, we provide the most advanced dental care.

How do you know if you need a root canal? See Dr. Gordon West immediately if you experience tenderness or pain, hot or cold sensitivity, tooth discoloration, tooth injury, gum swelling, gum pain, or lymph node tenderness or drainage. However, for some patients, there are no symptoms. That is why it is crucial to visit your local dentist regularly for a thorough dental examination.

Call Gordon West DDS, Cosmetic & General Dentistry, at 303-665-5335 to schedule an appointment.

Center for Advanced Dental Care

Maintaining healthy teeth is an important concern for our local Boulder residents. As your dentist, it’s my job to help you understand how to care for your teeth and to keep them healthy.

Everyone in the Boulder knows that maintaining healthy teeth requires regular daily brushing and flossing. Regular visits to your local Boulder dental practice is also necessary to keep watch for cavities and to help you maintain proper dental hygiene. We often forget that maintaining a healthy diet can also be beneficial for the health of your teeth.

A diet that includes foods that help your muscles and bones will also help you develop healthy gums and healthy teeth. Examples of local foods to include in your diet include foods rich in vitamin B such as breads and cereals. Foods rich in vitamin C, usually fruits and vegetables, help improve the health of your gums. Zinc and magnesium are also good for the health of your teeth and are found in foods like lean beef, fish, and poultry.

All foods increase the production of saliva. Saliva is important to healthy teeth because it helps to maintain the pH balance in your mouth. Maintaining this balance helps keep your teeth and gums healthy. Foods high in fiber also encourage saliva production as does the chewing of sugar-free gum. Gum, however, can damage unhealthy teeth or pull out dental fillings, so always use caution when deciding whether to chew gum and which brand to chew.

Just as certain diet choices can be beneficial to the health of your teeth, others can be detrimental. Foods and drinks that are high in sugars are more likely to form the acids that attack your teeth and result in decay. And while table sugar is often associated with the formation of cavities, other sugars such as glucose, fructose, and maltose are also causes, and are often found in juices and sodas. Limiting the consumption of sugars to mealtimes lessens the amount of time your healthy teeth are exposed.

Making good diet choices and limiting between meal sugar consumption can improve the health of your teeth and gums.

If you would like to learn how to better care for your healthy teeth in the Boulder area, contact Gordon West DDS, Cosmetic & General Dentistry at 303-665-5335. We would love to hear from you.

-Dr. Gordon West

I’m Dr. Gordon West, a dental implant dentist in the 80026 area. In a recent post, I explained how traditional dental implants are used to dramatically improve the lives of my Boulder denture and cosmetic dentistry clients. Today’s topic is mini dental implants, sometimes called ‘immediate implants’.

Though they are not as well known as traditional tooth implants, mini implants are also being used successfully in the 80026 postal code area to improve smiles. Like their larger diameter counterparts, mini implants can support a restoration for one or more missing teeth or replace a bridge or fixed denture. Broomfield tooth restoration clients and denture wearers benefit greatly from these slip free dental implants that are anchored securely in the jaw bone.

In some cases, a patient is unable to receive traditional full-size dental implants due to insufficient bone thickness. There are also Boulder mini implant patients who are not able to undergo dental implant surgery due to health issues. These Lafayette over-denture patients in the 80026 postal code area are often excellent candidates for the mini version.

The placement of toothpick-size mini dental implants can usually be done in one dental visit. The placement usually requires no incisions or stitches. Recovery time, if necessary, is usually very short. Most patients are able to eat dinner that evening.

Many Lafayette aesthetic dentistry clients are happy to learn that mini implants are a lower cost dental implants option. Don’t let the word ‘mini’ fool you; Your smile can receive a maximum upgrade with mini dental implants.

Call Gordon West DDS, Cosmetic & General Dentistry at 303-665-5335 to schedule a consultation.

It doesn’t take a great deal of research to understand that bright and healthy smiles are more attractive. Everybody in Colorado likes to see a great smile, and having a great smile is not only healthy for your mouth, but healthy for your self esteem, too.

I’m Dr. Gordon West, DDS, and I am a dentist serving the Lafayette community with dental services including porcelain veneers. We call our practice ‘Gordon West DDS, Cosmetic & General Dentistry‘, and we are located in the Lafayette, Colorado. I provide dental services to the greater Boulder area from our dental office in Lafayette.

If you are looking for a dentist in the Lafayette area, including Longmont, Louisville, or Broomfield, please contact us. I am currently accepting new Colorado dental patients and would love to share with you some new and inexpensive ways to improve your bright and healthy smile.

I know the value of a bright and healthy smile, and can help you improve your smile with our Colorado dentistry services including porcelain veneers, dental implants, and prepless veneers; just three of the many dental services we provide at Gordon West DDS, Cosmetic & General Dentistry.

Give me a call today, I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Hello! Welcome to the Gordon West DDS, Cosmetic & General Dentistry blog. If this your first visit, we hope you find useful information about our Lafayette cosmetic dentistry practice. If you have read some of our previous articles, we are glad you checked back with us. We post new articles regularly.

My name is Dr. Gordon West, DDS. I have been practicing dentistry in Lafayette since 1998. Gordon West DDS, Cosmetic & General Dentistry is a full-service dental office located at 1140 West S. Boulder Rd, Suite 201 in Lafayette, Colorado. In addition to providing comprehensive examinations and deep cleanings for clients in the Boulder area, we perform all types of tooth restorations.

When a tooth has decay or has been damaged, a dental restoration is needed to ‘restore’ the tooth to its previous intact condition. A dental filling is one of the most common and well-known types of restorations. A dental filling is used to repair decayed or damaged tooth surfaces. Most people have a few fillings in their mouth.

If you have old silver amalgam fillings, we can replace them with nearly-invisible tooth-colored fillings. These fillings are made out of a strong composite resin. Many of our Longmont cosmetic dentistry patients have replaced their old silver fillings with fillings matched to their teeth. You can improve your smile instantly and relatively inexpensively by getting rid of the ‘metal’.

Another reason some Broomfield and Louisville clients have had their old fillings replaced is because they are concerned about the possible heavy metal toxicity of the mercury in the silver.

If you would like to replace your amalgam fillings, call us at 303-665-5335 to schedule a consultation. We are currently accepting new patients and would be happy to show you around our Lafayette cosmetic dental office and introduce you to our friendly team.

Smile – it increases your face value!

Colorado is known for its beautiful smiles, and our local Lafayette community is no exception. Keeping your teeth clean is an important factor in maintaining your beautiful Lafayette smile. One of the benefits of regularly visiting your local Lafayette Colorado dentist is a thorough teeth cleaning and a review of your brushing habits.

Our Lafayette dental hygienist helps you keep your teeth clean by assessing the condition of your teeth, and recommending improvements to your daily teeth cleaning habits. Our Lafayette oral hygienist can also professionally clean and polish your teeth at your regular Lafayette dental check up. You should schedule a regular dental check up every six months.

I am Dr. Gordon West DDS, and I work at Gordon West DDS, Cosmetic & General Dentistry located in the state of Colorado. We specialize in cosmetic dentistry in the Lafayette Colorado community, including the surrounding areas of Longmont and Louisville.

Cleaning your teeth in Colorado is the simple task of removing plaque (a sticky deposit that gets left on teeth in which bacteria thrives) and tartar (a calcium deposit that forms on teeth and aids in tooth decay). This is done by brushing regularly with a toothbrush and fluoride toothpaste, and flossing. Brushing and flossing at least twice each day can keep plaque and tartar from building up on your teeth and results in cleaner, healthier teeth. A regular visit to your local Lafayette dental hygienist will help you stay on top of problems that can go unseen.

The American Dental Association (ADA) recommends visiting your local Lafayette, Colorado dentist at least once every 6 months for a regular dental check up and teeth cleaning. These regular visits to your Colorado dentist potentially prevent the undetected development of problems that can occur from neglecting to clean your teeth.

To keep that beautiful Lafayette Colorado smile in good shape, come in for a dental check up and teeth cleaning.

Call Gordon West DDS, Cosmetic & General Dentistry in Lafayette Colorado to make an appointment. You can reach us right now at 303-665-5335.

Dr. Gordon West