Today's Dentistry is a San Jose, California-based family dental practice that treats patients of all ages. Peter K. Lee, DDS, and the highly skilled team is committed to delivering the highest quality dental care for all their patients, using advanced dental equipment.

Dr. Lee and the staff at Today's Dentistry provide quality dental care to patients, focusing on a comprehensive approach to oral health. By treating and educating patients, the team helps patients to stay healthy between visits. Their staff understands the importance of listening to patients, helping them to feel comfortable and relaxed. This personal approach is evident in everything we do.

The team at Today's Dentistry also performs emergency dental services, including bonding, root canals, crowns, and bridges. As a local dental practice, the team creates lifelong relationships with their patients and their families, and they work to ensure that patients receive treatments in a comfortable and relaxed environment.

Missing teeth can be embarrassing, causing people to hide their smile and lose their self-esteem. The space that missing teeth create can easily become infected with bacteria, causing other teeth to shift out of place, and making it difficult for people to speak or eat correctly. The team at Today's Dentistry are sensitive to the hardship a missing tooth can create. We provide dental implants so that our patients can regain their self-confidence, improve their health, and approach life boldly.

Installing implants is a complex procedure that requires us to replace their missing teeth in a safe and natural way. We know that there are multiple dental providers to choose from, so the team at Today's Dentistry are constantly looking for ways to improve the overall experience of our patients. Our office is located in San Jose and we offer patients the opportunity to restore missing teeth in a way that looks natural and beautiful.

Once you are cleared for the procedure, the staff at Today's Dentistry will take an impression of your mouth to create a new tooth in a dental lab. Each synthetic tooth will match the size and shape of the surrounding teeth, along with having a perfect color match. This way your smile will appear completely natural once we complete the procedure. Many patients are satisfied with the results since no one can tell the difference between which teeth are real and which ones are synthetic.

Teeth restored with implants will not get cavities. A replacement tooth, or crown, does not decay like a natural tooth. However, you still need to brush, floss and care for it and your surrounding natural teeth in the same manner as natural teeth. Regular professional cleanings and dental checkups are also essential.

The next step in the procedure is to implant a metal post under the gum line. This aspect of the procedure is what sets an implant apart from other forms of cosmetic dentistry. The metal post is secured to the jawbone in order to create a durable, synthetic root system that rivals the strength of natural roots; with one exception that the metal cannot face infection. Over the course of a couple of months, the metal post and jawbone will fuse together. This creates a level of durability that cannot be replicated in other types of procedures.

Afterward, we will secure the new synthetic tooth to the metal post at the surface of the gums. The new tooth is attached so securely, that patients can eat their favorite foods, maintain an active lifestyle, play sports, and more, without fear of their tooth becoming loose or falling out. Patients can enjoy the benefits that come from never having to worry about their tooth again.

The team at Today's Dentistry provide dental implants in a way that is comfortable and functional. We take the time to make sure that every aspect of the procedure is completed correctly the first time.

Once implants have been installed, they are extremely easy to care for. We hear patients throughout San Jose ask questions that range from 'Do implants come out' to 'How do I brush my teeth'. Fortunately, the answers are not as complex as some people might believe. Since we install dental implants by creating a synthetic root system, they are durable and secure. The dental implants will not fall out or become loose. This means you can go play basketball, run in a 10k marathon, and wrestle with your kids without worrying about your tooth coming out.

In order to care for your implants, we advise patients to brush and floss their teeth throughout the day like normal. Additionally, it is important to schedule dental exams and cleanings with Dr. Lee at least twice a year. The staff at Today's Dentistry will help to clean your teeth and ensure that they stay healthy. While dental implants cannot become infected themselves, the teeth around them can. If, in the future, you suffer from a severe case of gum disease or a dental abscess, the infection can spread into your jawbone. This puts your implants in jeopardy because in order to stay secure, the jawbone must be in good health. If it becomes infected, your dental implants and all of your teeth will be in jeopardy.

A. Generally, this is not a good idea. We find that it is generally much better not to attach implants to teeth. We frequently attach implants to each other, which can improve strength and works well. So in a case like this, although it may be more expensive in the short term to place two implants instead of one, the long-term success is likely to be much better with the two implants.

Q. I lost my upper back teeth on one side and have gone for years without doing anything about it. My sinuses always seem to bother me more on that side than on the side that I have back teeth. Could these problems be related to one another?

A. In a large majority of people who are missing their upper back teeth for a long period of time, is the increasing downward growth of the maxillary sinus. At birth, it is the size of a pea and progressively grows as the skull matures. This growth is at the expense of the surrounding bone. If you are considering replacing those upper back teeth with fixed teeth that stay in all the time, it may be necessary to perform a sinus elevation procedure to allow room for placement of dental implants into this area to support those teeth. This involves placement of bone and/or bone substitutes into an area which was previously occupied by the lower part of the maxillary sinus. Most importantly, this procedure increases the available bone use to place implants and restore the missing back teeth.

A. In most cases, with the new options available today in the field of dental implants, some form of treatment is possible. We encourage people to get help as soon as possible if they are already having some problems with their current situation. These problems include excessive use of denture adhesives, chewing only soft food, unable to taste some foods, constant mouth sores, unhappy with the appearance of one's teeth and bite position (in some cases the nose and chin getting closer together). The sooner we correct the problems with dental implants, the more choices one has available for treatment. If you have any or all of the above symptoms, implants can very well be the answer for you.

A. It is not necessary to have an implant for every tooth that is being replaced. The number of implants necessary to provide support depends on the type of implants used and the type of teeth (removable vs. non- removable) that will be attached to the implants. A thorough oral exam and panoramic x-ray is all that is necessary in most cases, to determine which implant can be used and how many must be used. Sometimes additional X-rays or CT scans are used in more complicated cases.

Q. I consulted a dentist several years ago about using implants to replace my lower denture and he told me that I did not have adequate bone available to place enough in-the-bone implants without danger of fracturing my now fragile jawbone. Are there any alternatives?

A. Because of the advances in the field of implantology, there are now more choices and techniques. It is rare for a person to not be able to receive an implant or a combination of implants. Today we have available many types of implants designed to accommodate multiple problems.

A. Teeth that have root canals can fracture more easily than other teeth because they are weaker and somewhat dehydrated. They can sometimes be as brittle as glass. In the past, the best available treatment was to remove the tooth and file down the adjacent teeth to make a bridge - caps on the adjacent teeth with an attached 'dummy' tooth between. Sometimes this still is the only way. However, in many cases an implant can replace the fractured tooth and we will not need to grind down a tooth to at all.

As an Invisalign dentist, our team straightens teeth using a series of aligners. First, an impression of your teeth is taken so that a series of aligners can be created in a dental lab. The aligners themselves are made out of a thermoplastic material that is strong and at the same time flexible in order to be comfortable when worn for long periods of time. The material is virtually invisible.

The aligners should be worn for 22 hours a day and every two weeks; they need to be switched out with the next one in the series. Over a period of months, the aligners will slowly move teeth into place, making one minor adjustment at a time that is targeted to specific teeth. This helps your teeth to be comfortable as they are moved into position at a manageable pace. Once you are done wearing your aligners, your teeth should be perfectly straight.

Some patients need to wear attachments or ridges in order to ensure that their teeth move into place perfectly. An attachment is a clear bump that is made of an enamel colored composite and secured to the teeth. Bumps on your aligners will grip them in order to hold the aligner in place. Ridges work in a similar way only an indent is created instead of a raised bump. This can be necessary for more complicated cases to ensure that a particular tooth, or several teeth, move into place like they should.

Unlike wearing traditional braces, Invisalign will not make a major impact on your quality of life. Since the aligners are clear, it will not impact your appearance. Additionally, since they only need to be worn for 22 hours a day, they will not interfere with eating. This is a huge advantage because you can eat your favorite plate of ribs, go out for a romantic date, eat a caramel apple without worrying about something becoming stuck in your teeth or a wire being pulled out of place. This time also allows you to take the aligner out when having an important conversation or making a presentation at work. Overall, this is a convenient way to straighten your teeth and provides the maximum level of flexibility.

Some people are concerned about whether or not wearing an aligner will impact their speech. Most of our San Jose patients tell us that they have to get used to wearing aligners after the first couple of days. Sometimes, patients have a slight lisp which goes away once they become used to speaking while wearing them. This is standard with any orthodontic procedure but fortunately; most people can speak normally within a couple of days.

Aligner Trays: With Invisalign treatment, the patient will receive a series of aligner trays and swap out each one for the next one in the series every two weeks in order to gradually straighten the teeth.

Blue Compliance Indicator (Invisalign Teen): The blue compliance indicator is a small blue dot on the aligners that will fade from blue to clear in order to indicate if the patient is wearing the aligner for the proper amount of time and where the patient is in the Invisalign process.

Malocclusion: Malocclusion is the condition in which the upper and lower teeth do not meet properly when the bite is closed. Conditions of malocclusion can include overbite, underbite, crossbite and open bite; all of which are treatable with Invisalign.

Smart Track Material: Smart Track material is in Invisalign aligners to increase comfort, improve control of movement, increases the speed of treatment and applies a gentle force to the teeth over time.

We provide dental veneers so that patients can restore damaged teeth or transform their smile into something beautiful. At Today's Dentistry, we often treat patients that have a variety of dental concerns. Some patients visit our San Jose office because they break their tooth, while others are looking to create a Hollywood smile. Most people are candidates for the procedure as long as their tooth structure and roots are in place. If, however, you have a cavity or gum disease, this will need to be treated before we complete the procedure.

We also use dental veneers for restorations. When teeth become cracked, chipped or broken, a veneer can restore the tooth to its full functionality. As long as the tooth structure is intact, we can restore the appearance of a tooth while making it possible to eat and speak without feeling any discomfort.

When patients visit our Today's Dentistry offices, we will take an impression of their teeth to create the veneers in a lab. The veneers will match the size, shape, and color of your teeth, taking a week or more to create.

In order to place dental veneers, we will first prepare your tooth by removing a portion of the enamel. This helps the veneer lay flat and in line with your gum tissue. After preparing the tooth, we will secure a temporary veneer using removable glue. While wearing a temporary veneer, it is important to brush your teeth gently and avoid eating any foods that may push it out of place. Since it is secured by removable glue, it can be moved fairly easily.

When your permanent veneers are ready, you will come back into our Today's Dentistry offices so that we can remove the temporary and ensure that the new veneer is a perfect fit. It is typically attached using a water based solution to see how it looks. If any adjustments need to be made, it will be done at this time. Otherwise, the tooth will be cleaned, and the dental veneer will be bonded to the tooth. Patients will enjoy how the results look. They are instant, and you can start flashing your smile right away.

Your teeth will typically be sore for a few days after the preparation phase and after placing the permanent veneers. During this time, you can take pain medication to help you stay comfortable. Patients can also benefit from getting rest and using a cold compress to reduce any swelling. We recommend that patients watch what they eat for a few days and stick with foods that are soft. While there is a short recovery time when getting veneers, the procedure is entirely worth it because in the end, you will have a beautiful smile.

One main benefit of veneers that patients enjoy is how the veneers make their teeth look. This procedure is an excellent solution, since the veneers can transform your smile into one that looks perfect and beautiful. The veneer uses your natural teeth, so there is no need for surgery, and the recovery time is reduced. Since the veneers are made to match your other teeth, they will look natural, and no one will be able to tell that you had any cosmetic dentistry work completed. Another benefit is that they are made out of a stain resistant material. This means that your teeth will stay whiter and brighter, even if your favorite beverage is a hot cup of coffee. We can use dental veneers to transform your smile.

As with most cosmetic procedures, there can be some discomfort associated with getting dental veneers installed. This is to be expected, however, we do our best to keep patients comfortable during the procedure so that you will not experience any pain while the veneers are being placed or your teeth are being prepared. The process can take several weeks so there will be a period where you need to be careful about what you eat and what activities you engage in. In other words, do not play football after getting temporary veneers placed onto your teeth. You should schedule the procedure for a time where you will be close to home and able to take easy.

Dentin Hypersensitivity: Dentin hypersensitivity is when the enamel wears down on the tooth enough that the dentin faces exposure and will cause great levels of pain when a person applies pressure to the tooth or drinks hot/cold beverages.