Dental Services in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn

Prevention is cheaper than repair, in every sense. A regular exam and professional cleaning let us find decay while it is still a small filling rather than a crown, and clear away tartar before it starts costing you gum tissue. If it has been years since your last visit, you are in good company here; a surprising number of our long-term patients began with one cautious appointment.

Fillings are done in tooth-colored material. A crown covers a tooth that is too weak to hold an ordinary filling — after a root canal, for example, or a fracture. A bridge replaces one or several missing teeth by anchoring to the neighbors. Partial and complete dentures remain the answer for patients who have lost more teeth and are not choosing implants.

We see adults and teenagers. The practice is a family one in a practical sense too: parents and teenage children can book back-to-back on the same day.

“I want a better smile” can mean a dozen different things, and the right answer is often smaller than patients expect. A shade or two lighter with whitening. Old gray fillings swapped for cosmetic ones. Only occasionally does it call for veneers. We begin with two questions: what exactly bothers you, and are the teeth underneath healthy enough for the change you have in mind.

Zoom whitening is done in the office, under the dentist's supervision, in a single visit. Cosmetic fillings rebuild the shape and shade of a tooth so it blends with the ones next to it. Porcelain veneers are thin shells bonded to the front surface of the teeth — the answer for stains that don't respond to whitening, small chips, gaps, and uneven edges.

Whatever the method, the finished smile should look like it belongs to you. Before any cosmetic work we agree on the target with you, shade, shape and proportion, and we say plainly what whitening can achieve and where veneers or a crown become necessary. The least invasive option that does the job is usually the right one.

A deep, throbbing toothache, sensitivity to heat, a swollen gum — these are the classic signs that infection has reached the pulp, the living tissue inside the tooth. Root canal therapy removes the infected tissue, cleans and seals the canals, and then restores the tooth, usually with a crown. The goal is to keep your own tooth rather than extract it.

The reputation of this procedure is decades out of date. Today it is performed under local anesthesia, and for most patients the visit is far less eventful than the toothache that brought them in. We also treat infections inside the tooth and retreat teeth where an earlier root canal did not hold. Because a treated tooth is more brittle, it usually needs a crown afterwards; we tell you that up front, so the full plan and its cost are on the table from the start rather than revealed in stages.

A dental implant is a titanium post placed in the jawbone where a tooth is missing; once it fuses with the bone, it becomes the foundation for a crown, a bridge, or a denture. For you, that means a tooth that looks and works like your own — without grinding down the neighboring teeth, as a traditional bridge requires, and without taking anything out at night.

Dr. Kozyra-Mejia completed the Fellowship in Implant Dentistry at New York University and is a member of the International Congress of Oral Implantologists. Implant treatment is planned from an examination and imaging; the amount and quality of bone, the health of the gums, and your general health all matter. Not everyone is a candidate right away — sometimes the gums need treatment first, or the bone needs to be rebuilt — and we tell you that plainly.

The whole process usually takes several months, because bone needs time to fuse with the implant. At every stage you know what comes next and why.

Invisalign straightens teeth with a series of clear, removable aligners made to fit your teeth. They are nearly invisible, come out for eating and brushing, and are checked every few weeks. It is the option most often chosen by adults who do not want metal braces at work or in daily life.

The consultation starts with an evaluation of your bite and an honest answer to whether aligners will be enough — some cases are still better served by fixed braces, and if that is yours, we will say so. Treatment time depends on how far the teeth need to move and on how consistently the aligners are worn.