At AZ Dentist we take your health and our role as your healthcare provider seriously. As dentists, we are an important part of your healthcare team, which means that full body wellness comes first. We understand that life is precious, and health can sometimes be a delicate balance. Our dentists also know that your mouth is a mirror that shows us your overall health. In many cases, our highly-trained staff can see signs of diseases of more than just the teeth in your mouth.
The founder of AZ Dentist, Janne Lynch, DDS believes strongly that we must be concerned about the entire health and well-being of our patients. First and foremost, the mouth is a part of the body. It is our goal to keep the person healthy, not just the mouth.
At AZ Dentist we start from an allopathic base of knowledge and use the most current health knowledge and information to refine that base. To that end, we offer patients the care we want for ourselves, both as dentists and health-conscious individuals.
For example, everyone knows that dental amalgams contain mercury. A lesser-known fact is that the white composite material that dentists use to make tooth-colored fillings can also give off chemicals. The mouth is a wet environment, so the chemicals that come off of these composite materials are dissolved into your saliva. These are called eluents.
These eluents from composite materials can act like estrogen in the body. It is unknown at this time what their health effects are; however, we practice caution before introducing these eluents into your mouth. Worse, the larger the filling, the more estrogen-like eluent that comes off of it.
To avoid this effect, if you need a filling, we will offer you a dental inlay or onlay at AZ Dentist. A dental inlay or onlay is a piece of inert and non-reactive porcelain that can be cemented into your tooth like a puzzle piece. It is custom-made for your tooth at a lab by our exclusive ceramists. All dental cements will wash out over time, and chemicals will be put into your system. However, the cement we use has the fewest eluents possible. Plus, it is only microns thick, so a very tiny amount is used as compared to a composite filling.
If you need a crown, we will use a metal-free crown, a full porcelain crown, or a zirconia and porcelain crown. The cement used for a crown is also only microns thick. Through small practices like this, we reduce the impact of dental procedures for patients.
In addition to our focus of holistic dentistry, we know the importance of working with the best professionals in their craft. We have an exclusive partnership with two master ceramists, who are both artist and artisan. Their workmanship is extraordinary.
Every dental restoration that is sent to our lab is custom-made by one of these masters. For dental work on front teeth, we will often send our patients to meet with the master ceramists directly at the lab. There, the master ceramists will match your existing teeth to get custom shades for the ceramic restorations that they make. This is especially important if we are matching a new restoration to old restorations.
Our two master ceramists have been making custom dental restorations in Scottsdale for over twenty years each. Their keen eyes for detail and ability to detect and reproduce subtle shade variations make them experts at cosmetic work. They are very important parts of the AZ Dentist team.
Because holistic dentistry is important to us at AZ Dentist, we have partnered with the medical community in the detection and treatment of the most common form of sleep apnea, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).
When your jaw is thrust forward repeatedly, it leaves very specific grind patterns in your teeth different than if your jaw is grinding from side to side. When you thrust your jaw forward, it is your nervous systems attempt to get your tongue out of the back of your throat. This is a telltale sign that you may be suffering from sleep apnea!
The very best treatments for obstructive sleep apnea are a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) or Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure (BiPAP) machine. These work excellently for many people. However, some people with OSA cannot tolerate these treatments, and become non-complaint with the CPAP or BiPAP treatment after a short honeymoon period.
When this happens, we can craft something worn inside your mouth to reduce sleep apnea issues. These sleep apnea devices pull your mandible into a forward position and keep the base of your tongue from blocking your airway. This helps you breathe more effectively and comfortably at night. These devices are durable medical equipment that are custom-made for each individual.
When we speak of holistic dentistry, we must also talk about periodontal disease. At AZ Dentist, we are committed to the most up-to-date and aggressive treatment of periodontal disease for our patients. The reason for this is two-fold.
The ultimate end of periodontal disease is your teeth getting loose and falling out. The bone around your teeth cannot be regained once it is lost. When you have periodontal disease, we will partner with you to stop this bone destruction and loss, so you can keep your teeth.
The bacteria that cause periodontal disease may migrate through your system, somehow participating in the process of heart disease. Those bacteria also are attracted to the placenta, and can end up hurting your unborn baby.
Whether you are pregnant or not, if you have periodontal disease you have bigger problems than losing all of your teeth. People all around the world live with dentures, but people cannot live without a heart.
We fight periodontal disease aggressively to cut down on the bacterial load that your body carries from this harmful bacteria. In doing that, we see better outcomes for heart disease patients, and babies of people who suffer from periodontal disease while pregnant. While we encourage everyone to floss, if you have periodontal disease, the health of your heart may depend on it.
Dr. Janne Lynch is a respected Scottsdale dentist. Her position has required a tremendous amount of training, work, and continued refinement. She moved to the Valley in 2007 to practice cosmetic dentistry in Arizona. She and her husband fell in love with the area after vacationing here, and continue to raise their five children here.
Her passion for cosmetic dentistry first started on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. She also completed a year of externship working as a dentist for the underserved in rural Texas. Here, she gained valuable experience in oral surgery. Now in Scottsdale, she offers cosmetic expertise with her surgical experience and excellent cosmetic training to her patients.
Dr. Lynchconsiders her journey in dentistry an ongoing one, and she is passionate about staying abreast of the most up-to-date dental health information and current best practices from both allopathic and biologic schools of thought. That way, she can deliver world-class dental care to her patients, giving them many options for treatments.
Her efforts have resulted in an extremely rewarding and very successful career in dentistry. Dr. Lynch continues to pursue excellence in everyarea of dentistryfrom knowledge about the direct health effects that your mouth has on your overall health status and well-being, to technical innovations inaesthetic dentistry, to industry-leading development of AZ Dentist.
Dr. Lynchs journey to dentistry was inspired by her desire to be a person who helps others. After she graduated from college, her first job was as a social workerfor children and families. It was at this job that she took one of the children in her caseload to the dentist with a toothache. Dr. Lynch saw that dentist fix thetoothache in ONE visit. This was a turning point in her life.
I was blown away by the immediate help this dentist gave a young girl by taking away her excruciating toothache pain, in about a half an hour. I realized that he had concretely helped her. It inspired me, and was a turning point in my life. My primary motivation for choosing social work as a career was helping people. As a young person just out of college, I was struggling with that choice because the help I was giving my clients seemed flimsy to me. It was not very tangible and when it was tangible, it was not lasting. I wasnt satisfied.
As I learned about dentistry being a marriage of science and artistic skill, with the added bonus of physically being able to help people, I was hooked. From that point on, all of my plans were about becoming a dentist.
While Dr. Lynch was in high school, she won both city-wide and school art competitions for her sculpture. She graduated from Oral Roberts University with honors with a minor in chemistry. With her artistic talent, strong science background, and desire to help people, she was sought after by many top dental schools.
Dr. Lynch ultimately selected the prestigious New York University College of Dentistry for her dental education. She chose New York University because of its intense hands-on training, combined with rigorous academics, and of course, because of the Larry Rosenthal Institute for Aesthetic Dentistry at NYU. Dr. Lynch graduated in the topof her class in 2005.
When you select Dr. Janne Lynch as your dentist, you can rest comfortably in the knowledge that it is her passion to help you. With her, patient care comes first. She remembers how it feels to be scared of the dentist. She even admits that she does not enjoy having her teeth worked on, so she will do everything she can to make you comfortable as her patient.
You can find satisfaction in knowing that Dr. Lynch considers her journey of dentistry ongoing. She remains up-to-date in both allopathic and biologic schools of thought on dentistry. As an extra bonusDr. Lynch has amazing artistic skills and loves to make your teeth look natural and beautiful. This is the case whether she is working on your front teeth that everyone sees, or the back of your mouth that no one sees. She finds personal happiness and satisfaction in making your teeth look amazing.
Dr. Levingston grew up in Orange County, California. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Biological sciences from California State University, Fullerton, and went on to earn his Doctorate of Dental Surgery at the UCLA School of Dentistry.
After 28 years of providing gentle, quality dental care in Laguna Beach, CA, Dr. Levingston and his wife, Lisa, have followed their two sons to the sunny and beautiful valley of the sun! He brings with him extensive experience in the areas of dental implants, cosmetic and family dentistry. Most of all, Dr. Levingston enjoys the providing personal attention to his patients, and considers them his dental family.
Dr. Levingston enjoys fishing, hiking, camping, and gardening, as well as attending sporting events, especially baseball games. He is a lifelong Angels fan, and spent many weekends in the valley attending spring training games.