Welcome to Harrison Dental Associates. Led by Dr. Matthew Harrison, we are your trusted family dentist office in Charlottesville, VA. Offering a wide variety of dental services, our dental care team strives to provide our community with high-quality, comprehensive dental care via general, cosmetic, and restorative dentistry services.

We invite you to come to tour our office, explore our website, or call us and chat with our friendly front-desk staff. Everyone on our team is happy to answer any questions you might have about our dental treatments and procedures, and we look forward to helping you achieve your dream smile.

Additionally, Dr. Harrison and our entire staff at Harrison Dental Associates strive to create an office that is welcoming to all patients. Whatever stage you are at in your dental health journey, we will welcome you into our office with a smile and help you achieve your dental health goals.

Our office is committed to staying up-to-date on the best dental technologies to provide the highest standard of care for our patients. Weve incorporated a variety of amenities into our office to make our procedures more comfortable and efficient. We also use advanced digital technology for a patient experience that is more comfortable and results that are more predictable.

CBCT, or Cone Beam Computed Tomography, scans are utilized in our office to get X-ray images instead of traditional dental X-rays. CBCT Scans provide the dentist with a more accurate X-ray of your dental structures for better treatment planning. Additionally, it reduces the risk of nerve damage during a surgical procedure such as placing dental implants.

Many of our procedures utilize dental lasers. Dental lasers help reduce the amount of post-procedure bleeding as well as overall discomfort for patients, particularly when treating the soft tissues of your smile. Because dental lasers immediately seal off any nerve endings or blood vessels, patients often dont even need anesthesia during these procedures.

For procedures involving dental impressions of your smile, we offer digital impressions as an alternative to traditional molds. We find that digital impressions are less messy and more comfortable for our patients overall than traditional molds. Using an intraoral camera, we will utilize our impression software to create 3D replicas of your smile to send off to labs for creating custom dental bridges, crowns, implants, dentures, or partials.

Dr. Matthew Harrison earned his B.S. in biology from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA, and his D.D.S. from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA, graduating with honors. He also spent two additional years at the University of Virginia Health Systems completing additional training in oral surgery, dental implants, and sedation dentistry.

Dr. Harrison strives to provide excellent dental care while ensuring his patients dental care needs, desires and comfort are all satisfied. Dr. Harrison enjoys being active outdoors and traveling as much as possible. He is an active member of the American Dental Association, Virginia Dental Society, and the Academy of General Dentistry. Dr. Harrison, his wife Devin, and their sons, Brantley and Beckett have relocated from North Carolina and reside in the Charlottesville area.

At Harrison Dental Associates, we are excited to offer our patients the best of the best tooth-replacement methods. This is why we are proud to offer in-house dental implants in Charlottesville, VA. Our patients love dental implants to replace missing teeth because they offer a variety of restorative benefits. You wont get these with other tooth-replacement options. Dental implants stop the bone loss that occurs when youre missing teeth.

We find that patients enjoy the long-term benefits of dental implants because they are the best restorative dentistry option that most closely resembles that of your natural tooth. A dental implant helps patients fully restore their chewing and speaking patterns without requiring dietary restrictions, the support of surrounding teeth, or additional steps in their oral hygiene routines. It gives you back your full quality of life.

As your trusted restorative dentist in Charlottesville, VA, Dr. Harrison is happy to provide dental implants in Charlottesville for patients. Dental implants are the premier tooth replacement option that we offer to our patients. We handle the entire dental implant process in our office.

Dental implants actually take the place of your missing tooth from the root up. A dental implant treatment plan will span a couple of months. First, an oral surgery procedure takes place. The surgeon implants a titanium or zirconium implant post into the jawbone tissue to simulate the tooths root. After the oral surgery, you will need to wait a couple of weeks for your jawbone and gums to heal over the dental implant.

The dentist caps your dental implant with an abutment and dental crown after youre completely healed from surgery. This crown blends in with your existing teeth as well as restoring the full functionality of your smile. Your dental implant functions just like a normal tooth would. You bite and chew with it and simply brush it like you normally would to take care of it.

The healing process for a dental implant procedure typically takes around three months. The titanium post has to fully fuse with your jawbone. It creates the tooth-root functionality dental implants are known for. Once the post is fully healed, we will attach an abutment to it and then secure a custom dental crown on top of the abutment to create a fully restored tooth.

Dental implants offer patients the complete restoration of a missing tooth. Unlike a dental bridge, a dental implant is surgically implanted into your jawbone giving you the tooth-root functionality that you wont get with other options. This means easier oral hygiene care as well as no dietary restrictions. Dental implants dont need support from surrounding teeth. No healthy teeth are compromised to hold the implant in place.

During the healing process, make sure to keep the affected area clean. Saltwater rinses are great to encourage fast healing while also ensuring the area remains clean. Once the dental implant process is complete, you can care for the implant just as you would a natural tooth. Continue to brush, floss, and schedule regular oral health and wellness visits with your local dentist to ensure optimal dental health for you and your dental implant.

Good candidates for dental implants have to be in overall good health to undergo the surgical component. Any oral health problems must receive treatment before moving forward with the implant process. Proper bone density is a necessity as well. Bone loss occurs when a tooth is missing. But implants need enough healthy bone structure to be stable. If you dont have adequate bone density, you may need a bone graft before treatment.