Fillings, crowns and root canals in Vernon.

Keeping your own teeth

Restorative dentistry is the work of repairing teeth damaged by decay, cracks, wear, or old dental work that has reached the end of its life. Most of it falls into three kinds of treatment, and which one a tooth needs depends on how much of it is affected.

Fillings

When decay or a small fracture affects part of a tooth, the damaged part is removed and the space is filled. Fillings are the most common restoration and are usually done in a single visit. The fee depends on which tooth it is and how many of its surfaces are involved.

Crowns

When a tooth has lost too much structure for a filling to hold up (after a large cavity, a crack, or a root canal on a back tooth), a crown covers and protects what's left. How many visits it takes depends on the material and how the crown is made; your plan will say.

Root canal treatment

When the nerve and blood supply inside a tooth (the pulp) is infected or badly inflamed, root canal treatment removes it, cleans the canals inside the root and seals them. The aim is to keep the tooth rather than remove it. Signs a tooth may need one include lingering sensitivity to hot or cold, pain when biting, or swelling nearby, though sometimes there are no symptoms and it shows up on an x-ray. If a tooth hurts now, see what to do about dental pain.

How the decision gets made

You sit up, beside your dentist, and look at the tooth together, on x-rays and images on the screen between you. We explain what we see, what the options are (including doing nothing for now, and what that would mean), and what each one costs.

Then it comes back as a plan in plain English: what it is, why it matters and what it costs, with every fee written on it before you agree to anything. If the numbers change partway through, the plan comes back to the screen before we continue. Bigger plans can be staged, this year, next year, one tooth at a time, around your budget and your calendar.

Why we don't quote these over the phone

Fillings, crowns and root canals vary by tooth, by surface and by what we find once we can see properly. A number given over the phone or from a website would be a guess, and a guess is the thing this practice is built to avoid. Exam and x-ray fees are published on our fees page; treatment fees come in writing after the exam, before any work.

Where your plan allows it, we bill your insurance directly and you cover only your portion. To book an exam, call (250) 545-2169, Monday to Thursday, 8:00 to 5:00.