Multnomah Village Dental Care

The clinic provides comprehensive dental care for children and adults, spanning general and restorative dentistry, periodontal treatment, cosmetic dentistry and orthodontics. It has served families in Portland and surrounding communities since 2005, and states that its care is focused on prevention and patient education. The clinic is at 7717 SW 34th Ave, Portland, Oregon 97219, and lists (503) 246-2564 for scheduling an appointment.

The clinic states that crowns or onlays — partial crowns — are needed when there is insufficient tooth strength remaining to hold a filling, and that crowns are most often used for teeth that are broken, worn, or have portions destroyed by decay. A crown caps the portion of the tooth above the gum line and becomes its new outer surface; the clinic notes that porcelain is most often preferred because it mimics the translucency of natural teeth and is very strong.

Unlike a filling, which applies restorative material directly in the mouth, the restoration is fabricated away from the mouth. The clinic takes an impression of the tooth, and the restoration is created in a laboratory, which allows the technician to examine all aspects of the bite and jaw movements. It is then sculpted so that bite and jaw movements function normally once the restoration is placed.

Both are tooth-coloured. The clinic describes bonding as a conservative repair for slightly chipped, discoloured or crooked teeth: a white filling is placed on the tooth, bonds to it, and comes in a range of tooth-coloured shades; it can also replace silver amalgam in fillings and is usually completed in one visit. The clinic also states that bonding stains and breaks more easily than porcelain veneers, and that a chipped bond can generally be patched or repaired in one visit.

Treatment depends on severity, and the clinic states it always starts with the least invasive, non-surgical options. The first is scaling and root planing: an ultrasonic device removes plaque and tartar below the gum line and around the root, and the roughened tooth and root surfaces are then planed smooth so gum tissue can reattach. Where bone or tissue is too damaged for that, surgical options include pocket depth reduction, regeneration with a bone graft or a tissue-stimulating protein, and soft-tissue grafting.

Tenure is long. A hygienist has been with Multnomah Village Dental since 2011, starting as a dental assistant under the previous owner and returning as a hygienist after graduating in dental hygiene in 2015. Another team member began as an assistant in 2008, moved to the front desk in 2012, and graduated from a dental hygiene program in July 2016. The dental assistant has been in post since July 2013 and the front desk coordinator, who handles scheduling, billing and insurance, since October 2015.