Dr. Elizabeth Beth Bray is from the pacific northwest where she attended the University of Washington and studied Molecular Biology. She knew from an early age she had a passion to change the traditional perspective of a visit to the dentist due to her own dental experiences growing up. She feels fortunate to have attended Midwestern University in Phoenix, Arizona, where she earned her Doctorate of Dental Medicine. Additionally, she spent a year studying Castilian Spanish at the University of Alicante, which has improved communication with her Spanish speaking patients. After dental school, she continued her education by receiving advanced training at the La Jolla VA Hospitals General Practice Residency. Due to this experience, as well as her dedication to continual education, she takes pride in providing her patients with the highest quality, comfortable, and aesthetic dentistry with a gentle and conservative approach. She enjoys being able to help patients preserve their existing dentition whenever possible. However, for those who need alternative options, she loves working with each patient to provide an optimal replacement plan. Most of all, she loves this profession and cannot wait to take care of her patients and their family.

Dr. Bray moved to Reno with her husband, Brendon, a Reno native, in 2016. The two met in Seattle shortly after graduation and have been together since. The return to Nevada has been a joyous homecoming for the two. Brendon proudly accepted the position as the Head Swimming and Diving Coach at the University of Nevada. They once again live close to family, and welcomed their first child, a sweet little boy, now 3 years old, named Calvin and more recently welcomed their second child named Chase who was born in November 2020.

When not with her patients, Dr. Bray enjoys running, hiking, exercise at Orange Theory, traveling, spending time with friends and family, supporting the Wolfpack and is a self-proclaimed foodie. She will gladly accept or provide restaurant recommendations and tries to support the local community.

Teeth whitening is one of the quickest and easiest ways to improve the look of your smile. You can purchase your own whitening strips, or We can make custom trays that you can wear at home and re-use as many times as youd like. A normal frequency of whitening is about every year.

Discoloration can be caused by a multitude of factors. The most common is what we eat and drink. Drinking and eating stain-causing foods and drinks (such as tea, coffee, and sodas) can be the cause of many people needing to have their teeth whitened. You can also avoid this by using a straw, or avoiding these types of foods and drinks altogether.

Some people may naturally have darker teeth than others. In this case, only removing stains wont actually help you have a whiter smile. But that doesnt mean all hope is lost or that they cant brighten their teeth. Instead, they may have to ensure they take more precautions and use a stronger method than something purchased over-the-counter.

Yes and no, depending on the severity of your discoloration. If you only have stains on your teeth and not an inherited issue, you may be able to whiten your teeth a couple of shades with over-the-counter products. These may include over the counter whitening strips.

Research has shown that a light does not improve the whitening over just using the gel. We recommend following the best clinical research for any of our procedures, and whitening your teeth with carbimide peroxide gel (turns into hydrogen peroxide when placed on the teeth) is the best option.

The second option is to solely use the take home custom whitening trays with the gel, and use it every night for 2 weeks. You can spread it out and whiten every other day, or even once per week if your teeth are too cold sensitive. This, of course, will prolong the total amount of time that you are whitening and dealing with the cold sensitivity.

Another option is to use our kit of 10 upper and 10 lower disposable whitening trays. They use a similar concentration of gel as the over-the-counter whitening strips, but have a better fitting strip that contours to the teeth.

If your teeth are too stained to whiten, your dentist can still help you achieve a whiter smile. This can be done by giving you veneers or capping your teeth, which is a perfect solution for those who have permanent discoloration.

Dental Implants arethe best way to replace a missing space in almost every situation. They are also the bestwayto secure a denture! The implant is made of the highest medical grade titanium, which after placement, is accepted by the body as if it was its own. A custom crown is then fabricated and placed on the implant 3-6 months later. Atemporary tooth can be madeon the day of surgery.

We are proud to say that we use a top-grade titanium implant that made of grade 4 titanium alloy, which after placement is accepted by the body as if it was patients own body part. There are many brands and shapes of dental implants. There are many characteristics that the best dental implants have, including the following: A conical connection of the implant to the implant crown. This allows for the tightest connection possible. A conical external shape to match the root shape, which allows for a tighter fit. Aggressive thread design for a stronger hold on initial placement. A flat apical end, putting the least amount of pressure on the bone at the end of the implant. And lastly, a sand blasted and treated surface for optimal healing of bone to implant. All of these factors provide the best long-term success, which we care about deeply.

Before any implant procedure is started, we take a 3D scan of the area that will receive the implant. This allows us to properly see the width and height of bone, and know exactly where the important structures around the implant will be (sinus, nerves, etc). If there are any irregularities in the path of the nerve or sinus, we will be able to detect those and accommodate for them. A 3D scan is the standard of care for a safe implant placement.

One month later we have the patient in for a quick x-ray and checkup. If all is healing well on the implant, we give an estimate on the time frame to take the impression to make the custom abutment and crown. It usually takes 3-6 months after having the implant placed until the implant is ready to have an abutment and crown made and placed on the implant. This 3-6 month period is called the osseointegration time, where the bodys bone grows onto the implant and fixes it in place. After the 3-6 months time, an impression is taken to make a custom abutment and crown. An abutment is a titanium-milled cone shaped device that serves as the connection between the implant and the crown. Rather than a stock abutment that comes in a generic shape and size, we use a custom titanium abutment to assure that the patient has the ideal angle and shape of crown attaching to the implant. The implant crown is made of zirconium oxide, the toughest dental crown available, and we match the color of the crown to the rest of the teeth.

Most people who have dentures agree that they are not as secure and strong as the natural teeth. To improve the stability of the dentures and improve chewing and speaking, implants are used to attach to the denture, eliminating the need for denture adhesive. There are multiple ways of attaching dentures to implants.

Two implants are placed on the lower jaw (4 implants for the upper jaw), and small metal healing caps cover the top of the implants. A new denture is made previously and delivered on the day of the implant placement, or the patients existing denture is still used and given back to the patient to wear immediately after the surgery. The implants are not attached the denture in any way for the first few months after placement. This is to ensure that bone grows onto the implants and they have a long-term success.

One month after implant placement, we have the patient in for a quick x-ray and checkup. If all is healing well on the implants, we give an estimate on the time frame to have the patient back to place the attachments on the implants that will be used to secure it to the denture.

The attachments we use are called LOCATOR attachments. They are fixed onto the top of the implants after a few months from implant placement. They are about 2-3mm in height protruding out of the gums. Small holes are made into the denture to accommodate the LOCATOR attachments, and a small cap is cemented into each hole of the denture. The denture with the caps cemented inside will then click on and off the LOCATOR attachments. For an upper denture, the palate portion of the denture can be removed to have a horseshoe-shaped denture. This allows for a much more comfortable speech and tasting of food. If we are using the patients existing lower denture, the lower denture usually works long term. The average lifespan of a denture is about 10 years. For a patients existing upper denture, the horseshoe shape is much weaker and can break after long term use or heavy use. A new upper denture, with a metal base on the inside and pick acrylic and white teeth on the outside, is recommended for the horseshoe-shape, to provide the long-term stability and use.

A removable denture should be taken out every night and scrubbed with a toothbrush or denture brush. It should then be soaked in a denture cleaning solution in a denture container throughout the night. One brand of denture solution tablets is Polident. In the morning, the denture should be rinsed and placed back in the mouth.

For an All on Four (Hybrid Denture) the patient should be brushing their denture in their mouth twice daily as if it was their natural teeth. A waterpik, or floss should be used underneath the denture to clean out any debris. The patient needs to return once per year to have the denture removed by the dentist, cleaned, and replace the small screws attaching it to the implants.

The good news is when you get your dental implants done, the dentist will administer anesthesia so you wont feel much during the procedure. The injection for the local anesthesia may hurt or pinch a little.

If youre really afraid of pain, something to consider is IV sedation. While you wont be unconscious for the procedure, itll work much quicker than local anesthesia and enables your dentist to adjust the levels as they work on your implants.

In general, patients are surprised at how little pain and discomfort there is. Naturally, there will be some post-surgery pain and discomfort, but for the treatment itself, you should have nothing to worry about.

In general, the success rate for dental implants is anywhere between90% to 95%. If you experience dental implant failure, it can happen either right after you have it done, or it can be months or years later.

But if your dental implants are successful, they should last you a lifetime. Because of the high success rate and how durable they are, dental implants are something you should highly consider if you need to replace your teeth.

Dental implants provide the root in which replacement teeth can be placed. If youve always felt self-conscious because of your missing teeth, getting dental implants can be the beginning to regaining your confidence. By placing artificial teeth on top of your implants, you can smile with bright pearly whites and not have to worry about signs of premature aging.

Dental implants will also allow you to regain full function of speech and eating. If you have issues with either one due to your lack of teeth, dental implants can significantly improve your quality of life.

With any procedure comes the potential of disadvantages. In the healing process, the implant site may swell, bruise, and have minor bleeding, as well as pain. But this pain is usually manageable with over-the-counter medications, such as Tylenol.

Another downside is dental implants can be expensive (see the next section for prices). On top of that, if theres no bone in your jaw for the implant to anchor to, then your dentist may have to do bone and gum grafting. This can add to your costs.

Yes, you can. While dentures cant be turned into dental implants, you can certainly get the latter to support the former. For those who currently have dentures that are perfectly fine, you can ask your dentist if dental implants would be a good choice for you.