General Family Dentistry

Night Guard: These devices protect our teeth from extreme forces of teeth clenching and grinding (also known as bruxism) which tend to occur during sleep. Occasionally, it is also noted during waking hours. The forces placed on teeth by these clenching and grinding habits can cause significant damage to teeth, gums and artificial parts of our teeth such are fillings, crowns and bridges. This damage comes in the form of worn surfaces, crack lines, fractures, pain, and can eventually lead to loss of teeth. By wearing a Night Guard, our teeth are protected from these forces, much like wearing a helmet or knee pads to cushion from traumatic injuries.

Sport Mouthguard: It is critical to wear a mouthguard when engaging in contact sport for people of all ages. Children’s developing teeth are at risk of damage while they play sport, the use of a sport mouthguard custom made to their growing teeth and jaws is the ideal way of providing coverage. Adults need protection not only for natural teeth but also for existing dental work such as crowns, fillings and implants.

At the Bondi Dentists, we custom fabricate each Night Guard and Sport Mouthguard: this ensures correct and comfortable fit that provides the best protection.

Snoring is typically caused by poor muscle tone in the throat and tongue. During sleep the muscles relax causing the tongue to fall backwards towards the throat, restricting the airway and causing the throat tissues to vibrate when breathing. Snoring is the sound that is caused by this vibration. Sleep Apnoea (or OSA) is a serious condition when the tongue falls back so far that it blocks the airway, causing sufferers to cease breathing for several seconds. When this happens, the body triggers muscle spasms which cause you to awaken from a deep sleep, resume normal breathing and fall asleep again. This process can occur several times throughout a night without you even realising.

This broken sleep can result in excessive fatigue during the day, irritability and memory problems. OSA is more likely to affect middle-aged men than women and other risk factors include being overweight, having high blood pressure, having risk factors for heart failure or stroke and being a smoker.

Sleep Apnoea is a dangerous illness and a referral to a specialist sleep physician will be made, for proper assessment, before our dentists will recommend treatment. Our dentists can treat mild to moderate Sleep Apnoea with the use of a custom-made dental appliance that helps bring the jaw forward, preventing the tongue from falling backwards and blocking the throat.

Your children’s dental health deserves through attention from a young age, their teeth begin to grow at about 6 months old and this is where their dental journey begins. We are pleased to offer dental care and maintenance for the young ones in your family, with our hygienist Elizabeth Raikes who is also a trained Oral Health Therapist for children.

It’s important to cultivate a positive attitude to dentistry in children: it removes fear of dentistry, provides confidence in a health setting and helps to give a better understanding of their health from a young age. At our practice, we achieve this by planning a well timed, organised and gradual introduction of dental health care to a child patient. We believe in showing children that dental visits can be fun and educational; it is one of the building blocks of their growth into a health adult with healthy teeth and gums.

At about 2 years of age, all the baby teeth have come through the gums and at this stage it would be good to see that a child’s dentition has developed normally. From 2 to 4 years old is when we advise our patients to bring their kids in for their first dental visit: a very relaxed and informal appointment, no treatments necessary, in order to get them familiarized with the concept of dental care and maintenance. Gradually, we can move the child into having more experiences at the dental office, making them comfortable within the setting.

We welcome children of all ages, please let us know how we can be part of you family’s dental health care.

Helping you with your oral hygiene is one of the most important aspects of our practice. We are proud to offer dental hygienist services at our office. Our hygienist Elizabeth Raikes is a highly trained and experienced part of our team who provides comprehensive treatment that is vital for the dental health of the whole family.

Hygiene Services

The mouth is widely considered to be a portal of entry for foreign organisms such as disease causing bacteria, viruses and fungi. Modern medicine has proven that the mouth is the most contaminated part of the body, harbouring over 600 different types of bacteria.

Our practice gives a great deal of focus on oral hygiene, focusing on prevention and maintenance of our teeth and gums. The care we provide comes with considerable experience and proven techniques: we strive to keep your smile healthy and happy which contributes to your general health and well being.

Management of Tooth Decay and Wear

Destruction of a tooth can happen through a few different ways, although primarily this is from bacteria burrowing in, causing holes on our teeth (tooth decay). In addition, there is also wearing down of teeth caused by the following:

Grinding teeth against teeth, both in normal chewing and night time teeth grinding while asleep.
Abrasion from vigorous tooth brushing and harsh toothpastes
Acid erosion from acids in food and drinks such as wine, fruit and fruit juices as well as sports drinks.

These are the usual causes of damage to our teeth and it is important to have a dental team that has the knowledge and experience to provide early detection, effective treatment and most importantly adequate prevention of decay and wear.

Management of Periodontal Disease

Gum disease is the most common disease in humans, affecting about 97% of people at some point in their lives, with the level of disease varying from person to person. Healthy gums and supporting bone are the foundations that support our teeth, so it is just as important to maintain these parts of our mouth and jaws.

With severe gum disease, bacteria are the major cause of bone destruction which eventually results in teeth falling out. At our practice, we believe that patients should be informed of their gum and bone health status so that they can get the appropriate treatment if it is needed. This is why a full gum and bone assessment is a crucial part of examining our patient’s state of dental health.

We strongly support our patients in therapeutic treatments such as non surgical gum therapy. This means cleaning the teeth above and below the gums. In addition to this, prevention of further gum disease is highlighted and we encourage our patients to take charge of their dental health by providing home care instructions and techniques.

Recent research has shown that gum disease is now very much linked with increase risk of multiple diseases and conditions such as cardiovascular disease, cancers and child bearing complications. For this reason, it is critical that gum and bone health is made a priority for everyone.

Dietary advice and Saliva Testing

Two of the main factors that can strongly influence the health of our teeth and gums are our diet and the saliva present in our mouths.

Diet plays a significant role in the overall state of health and disease in our body, which includes our teeth and gums. Different food and drinks, as well as medications, can directly and indirectly affect the structures of the mouth. Factors that influence this relationship includes What we eat, the time of the day we eat it, how we eat certain food and drinks as well as the frequency of consumption and the specific components of these food and drinks.

Saliva’s vital role involves the functions of lubrication of the mouth, buffering against acids and transporting minerals to our teeth and gums. As such, it is an important part of protecting our teeth against dental disease. A dental hygienist is trained to counsel patients about teeth and gum disease, including their level of risk. This includes the use of a saliva test, which helps to provide us with information to give our patients the appropriate guidance for the care and maintenance of their teeth and gums, now and into the future.