Samuel Ofori-Attah – General And Aesthetic Dentist

A spotlight on our experienced Ipswich dental team.

At the Foxhall Dental Practice, we offer both private and NHS dentistry as well as a range of cosmetic treatments that help patients to have the best smile possible. In our blogs, we have discussed many of these treatments and tried to offer useful general dental information for our patients.

In today’s blog, we are going to take a look at the roles that one of our dentists plays within our team and we will continue this topic for other members in later blogs.

Dr Samuel Ofori-Attah has worked both in private and NHS dental practices and takes pride in his ability to restore patient’s mouths so that they can eat and chew normally. In addition to this, he loves to help patients have more attractive teeth. This includes the use of white fillings, teeth whitening and crowns; three areas that we will take a look at now.

White teeth fillings

Traditionally, the filling of a tooth has been carried out using a dark coloured material known as amalgam. This is made from a combination of metals including silver, tin, copper and mercury. This does provide a strong filling and has been used for a very long time. There are disadvantages to it though, in addition to its dark colour. It sometimes requires significant amounts of natural tooth material to be removed so that it can be securely placed. It can also shrink over time, exposing tiny gaps that can allow bacteria to enter and potentially lead to further decay.

Amalgam fillings also contain mercury compounds and there has been some debate about its use in fillings for some time. The advice is that mercury is safe to use but it is also encouraged that its use is reduced over time and this is partly due to concerns about the harmful leaking of mercury into the environment. By using white composite fillings, this issue is avoided altogether.

White fillings have very strong bonding qualities which can often mean that we don’t need to remove as much tooth material when placing them. From an aesthetic perspective, the fillings can also be made to match the colour of your natural tooth, providing a natural looking and strong filling.

Crowns

Dental crowns have long been used in dentistry to restore badly decayed or damaged teeth. They can also be used to complete both an implant placement or following root canal surgery. Crowns are produced at a special laboratory from information supplied by us after we’ve taken impressions of your teeth. This allows the laboratory to produce a dental crown that looks like one of your natural teeth, both in shape and colour. Whether as part of an implant, a root canal treatment or restoration of a damaged tooth, crowns offer a great option for having a strong  functional tooth again.

Teeth whitening

As with many other practices across the country, the most popular cosmetic treatment choice of our Ipswich patients is teeth whitening. This affordable, non invasive and quick acting treatment has enabled many patients to have a much more attractive smile in just a short period of time.

At the Foxhall Dental Practice, this period of time is very short indeed, and typically takes just one hour from start to finish. Following the treatment, your teeth can look up to 8 shades whiter than they were before.

Although this is a non-invasive treatment, there are some very minor risks involved (hence why this can now only legally be carried out by a registered dentist). For example, the ‘bleaching’ agent can cause burning to the soft tissue of the gum and lips if the treatment is not carried out correctly. Samuel and our other cosmetic dentists will make sure that the soft tissues of your mouth are fully protected to minimise any risk of burning.

These are just a few of the treatments that Samuel takes pride in performing. Like other dentists at our Ipswich practice, he makes sure to keep himself up to date with developments in the dental world so that patients can benefit from new methods. In addition to individual interests, we also make sure that our dentists undergo ongoing training so that we can provide the best possible service for our Ipswich patients.

Whatever your oral health requirements, you can be sure that Samuel and the rest of the team will take good care of you and make sure that you receive the correct treatment, whether restorative or cosmetic. We will never put any pressure on you to have a procedure that you don’t want, especially where this is purely for cosmetic reasons.

If you live in the Ipswich area and would like to find out more about what we can offer, you are very welcome to arrange an initial consultation with Samuel or another dentist. If you would like to make an appointment, you can do so by calling the Foxhall Dental Practice on 01473 258396.