Dental Services

With New York University College of Dentistry and Montefiore Medical Center training, Dr. DeSantis is equipped to handle all your prosthodontic needs...

Prosthodontists are ADA certified dental specialists that focus on the restoration and replacement of teeth, and are one of only 9 dental specialties recognized by the American Dental Association. Whether you want to enhance your smile, protect weakened teeth, or replace missing teeth naturally, you owe it to yourself to see how a qualified specialist can help you.

Prosthodontists receive extensive training in veneers, crowns, bridges and the correction of esthetic imbalances of a smile. With this extensive training and more than 30 years of experience, Drs. DeSantis offers a variety of techniques that can renew, restore and even reinvent your smile.

You need the care of a prosthodontist if:

  • You are missing one or more teeth
  • You are interested in dental implants
  • You wear dentures or partial dentures
  • You want to improve the esthetics of your smile
  • You require expertise in restoring your teeth to their proper form and function

Our practice also incorporates the latest dental technologies including digital radiographs, digital impressions and digital CT scanning for dental implants

Metal Braces

The strongest appliance compared to ceramic braces and aligners

Clear retainers are worn after active treatment is over

  • Color o-ties can be changed every visit
  • Cavities on all teeth need to be fixed prior to starting
  • If the patient has gum/bone issues, they must be sent to a periodontist first; moving teeth that have periodontal disease could make them worse
  • Each visit new color-ties are given, some visits the wire changes, some visits rubber bands are given, some visits calculus is removed from teeth. each visit there is a different requirement so the experience will differ each time
  • On average, treatment lasts 18-24 months unless the doctor states otherwise. If there is an impacted tooth, it may be closer to 32 months
  • Home tooth care is monitored each visit and is extremely important to finishing treatment on time with good results
  • Compliance with elastics is also highly important to fix the bite itself (how upper and lower teeth touch)

Clear Braces

For all intents and purposes, these work exactly the same as metal braces

Clear retainers are worn after active treatment is over

The two main difference are-

  • these braces are made of ceramic so they are translucent
  • the actual brace itself can break- so strict adherence to the braces diet needs to be followed
  • same average treatment time
  • you can still get color rings with these
  • the wire is still metal so that can be seen

Clear Aligner Treatment

Everyone knows Invisalign, but that is just a company. A company which charges by far the most money to create the aligners, costing the doctors and the patients more. There are many aligner companies, so we participate with more than Invisalign to fit everyones budget.

Aligners are plastic set of custom made trays that snap around your teeth. They need to be worn 22hours per day every day or they don’t work.

There are tooth colored bumpers attached to teeth, so no one should expect totally invisible treatment. Rubber bands may still need to be worn to fix the bite, light re-contouring between teeth may be necessary.

Average treatment time- 24 months

  • Additional aligners after the first set is often necessary to get optimal results
  • Aligners are better at: controlling teeth that are more open in the front
  • Aligners are worse at: pulling teeth, so there are some things that braces will be better and faster at

There are no emergency visits for aligners, no poking wires, and no dietary restriction. They are also more hygienic

Phase 1 Treatment

2x4 Appliance

6-8 braces on some adult and baby teeth. Used to get front teeth out of crossbites, pull upper flared teeth back so patients don’t injure them

Expander

cemented on 6 year molars, grows the upper jaw to correct crossbitesor gain space for adult teeth

Habit Appliances

Tongue Cribs+ Expander

If you need to stop a patient habit like tongue thrust or finger habit, this blocks that AND corrects cross bite

Tongue Crib

If a patient keeps their tongue resting forward, or sucks their thumb this plus myofunctional therapy will retrain the tongue so it sits in the right spot and spots affected teeth

Face-mask

often used with an expander and 2x4 appliance, if a young patient 8 or under comes in with an underbite, they wear this device when they are home from school and asleep to pull their upper jaw forward. If this is needed, often you will be with the patient for 10+ years to continually fight the patients growth pattern.

Space Maintainers

Upper Space Maintainers

Lower Space Maintainers

When primary teeth need to be extracted early, that space they were holding for the adult teeth begins to shrink these devices are places and held in the mouth until the adult teeth erupt and then are removes 6-12month maintenance checks are required after insertion

Dento-facial Orthopedics

Appliances such as the one shown above (Mandibular Anterior Repositioning Appliance) can be used to comfortably posture a growing patients jaw forward to correct a small lower jaw and help coordinate facial bones

Retainers

Permanent Fixed lingual retainers

Permanent, glued to the back of front teeth only recommended if patients start with spaces/rotated teeth
AND
have excellent oral hygiene
Need to be checked 2x yearly be general dentist/orthodontist can break if not careful
patient cant floss anymore- needs floss pick/waterpik

Essix (Clear) retainers

Worn full time 3months after braces removed, every night for 1 year, then 1-3 nights weekly for life
Cleaned with 1/2 cold water 1/2 hydrogen peroxide
Retainer program: 4 sets for 7 years
if maintained well, should last 3-5 years before needing replacement

Mini Orthodontic Implants

Comfortable titanium implants with the intention of achieving treatment results that would otherwise be impossible without surgical intervention

Hours of Operation

Monday:

9:00 am-5:00 pm

Tuesday:

9:00 am-5:00 pm

Wednesday:

12:00 pm-7:00 pm

Thursday:

9:00 am-2:00 pm

Friday:

9:00 am-6:00 pm

Saturday:

Closed

Sunday:

Closed