What’s the best type of crown for your tooth? – Some new graphics.

March 1, 2012 Posted by admin

Learn about the different types of dental crowns.When a tooth requires the benefits that a crown can offer, there really is no suitable substitute.
But, by no, means does that mean that just any type of crown makes a good choice.

Each type of crown has inherent advantages (great strength, excellent cosmetics, durability, etc…),
and therefore typically excels in providing some types of benefits while possibly being quite mediocre in providing others.

We’ve created some new graphics that help to explain the advantages and disadvantages of different types of crowns (all-ceramic, porcelain-fused-to-metal, and all-metal).

Use this link to access our Types of Crowns graphic.
The above link will open in a new browser window.

Use the links in that graphic to access our other new dental-crown graphics that discuss crown types individually.

What’s the best type of orthodontic retainer for you?

February 22, 2012 Posted by admin

Choosing the right type of orthodontic retainer for you.Having your teeth straightened may be the biggest battle but it’s not the only one an orthodontic patient has to deal with. After their active treatment has been completed, the “retention” phase of their treatment begins, immediately.

The landscape is littered with past orthodontic patients who, at some later point, have allowed the alignment of their teeth to relapse. And, of course, it’s simply because they chose not to wear their retainers.

At least a part of this failure can have to do with the fact that the type of retainer chosen for them didn’t suit their needs or expectations.

We’ve created a number of new slide-show graphics that provide details about, and show examples of, the various types of dental retainers (fixed, Hawley, Essix). Using the following link, you’ll find the rest of the graphics easy enough.

What’s the best type of orthodontic retainer for you?
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Invisalign® attachments, and buttons and elastics.

February 15, 2012 Posted by admin

Continually, since its inception, it seems that there has been a trend where Invisalign® practitioners have become more aggressive in their case selection. They now treat cases that before they wouldn’t.

We’re all for that. But it also seems that in doing so that it comes at the expense of needing to use more attachments and elastics (although we have no hard data about this supposition).

We absolutely do understand the convenience for the patient of having treatment using removable braces. But the use of attachments and elastics seems to rather negate the “invisible” aspect of this technique. We just wonder how many patients fully understand this beforehand?

Anyway, just so prospective patients have an clear idea of what to expect, we’ve added pictures of attachments and elastics to our content.

What are Invisalign® attachments and buttons?
(Scroll on down the page for the pictures.)

We’ve also mentioned this issue in this slide-show graphic.

What are the tip-offs that you’re wearing Invisalign®.

Both links will open in a new browser window.

A new graphic that helps to illustrate the limitations of the Invisalign® system.

February 15, 2012 Posted by admin

As good as the Invisalign® system is, it’s not really suited to treat all types of orthodontic cases. That’s because it’s not always so easy to accomplish certain types of tooth movements with removable aligners.

We’re recently completed revamping our “Invisalign® disadvantages” section. On this page we’ve added a slide-show graphic that can help to give someone an idea of they types of orthodontic conditions that a removable-braces system
typically isn’t so adept in handling.

Here’s the link, look for the new graphic at mid-page level:
Invisalign® treatment limitations and considerations.
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New graphics explaining Invisalign® dental braces.

February 4, 2012 Posted by admin

Comparing Invisalign® to traditional braces.Invisalign® and the similar invisible/removable braces products ClearCorrect® and Simpli 5® have become become popular alternatives to having traditional metal braces.

We’ve recently added a number of new graphics to our Invisalign® pages that better explain what it’s like to have invisible braces treatment.

Look for these new graphics on these pages:
The Invisalign® system.
How noticeable are invisible braces?
What’s the process of getting Invisalign®?
How does Invisalign® work?
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More new graphics about dental braces.

January 19, 2012 Posted by admin

We’ve added two more slide-show type Flash graphics to our topic Dental Braces. One illustrates details and points out issues associated with Clear Braces. The other does the same for Gold Braces.

Look for these new graphics on these pages:
What are Clear dental braces?
What are Gold dental braces?
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New graphics about dental braces.

January 17, 2012 Posted by admin

Using colored elastic bands on braces.We’ve started to roll out a number of new graphics in our Dental Braces section. A lot of them can be found on the pages listed below.

All of them are Flash graphics that operate like side shows. Some of them are informational, like explaining the pro’s and con’s of different types of orthodontic brackets (gold, ceramic, stainless). Others are just for fun. For example, one allows you to see how using different colored elastic ties on braces will look.

Look for our new graphics on these pages:
Personalizing metal dental braces.
Types of dental braces.
These pages will open in a new browser window.

New graphic explaining dental paresthesia.

January 13, 2012 Posted by admin

“Tis the season,” or at least the tail end of it. Oh, we don’t mean the winter holidays, we mean wisdom tooth-removal time.

A couple of years ago we created a pair of graphics that tried to nail down when most people get their wisdom teeth out. And after summer vacation, winter break seemed to be the second most utilized time period. This makes sense since most patients having this procedure performed are late high school or college age and therefore want to get their teeth removed when school is out.

Something else that makes sense is that we’ve noticed an increase in traffic to our page that discusses paresthesia (a nerve-damage complication sometimes associated with wisdom tooth removal). Obviously, that’s because during those times when more people are having their teeth out, a larger number of people will experience this complication.

In response to this increase in website traffic, and as a way of better explaining to people when this problem might occur, we’ve created a new graphic.

Here’s the link: Dental Paresthesia.
The page will open in a new browser window.

Animated-Teeth.com’s Dental Quizzes for Students of all Ages.

January 12, 2012 Posted by admin

One of Animated-Teeth.com's Dental-Health Quizzes.Animated-Teeth.com features a number of free (and advertising-free) dental quizzes for students of all ages. Each quiz features a pretest study page with graphic. The home page of our Dental Quiz section organizes the quizzes by both subject and skill level (age group).

An evaluation of this section’s statistics shows that these quizzes are utilized consistently throughout the school year but especially during February (National Children’s Dental Health Month).

Our logs also indicate that referral traffic to the quizzes comes from grade schools, dental assisting schools and even some institutions with dental hygiene programs. We hope that more instructors/teachers become aware of and utilize our quizzes.

Here’s the link: Animated-Teeth.com’s Dental quizzes for students of all ages.
The page will open in a new browser window.

New Wisdom-Teeth graphics.

January 10, 2012 Posted by admin

Types of impacted wisdom teeth.We’re in the process of updating a lot of our Wisdom-Teeth illustrations, as well as adding some new ones. Our new Flash graphics are especially dynamic. We’ve utilized real-life x-rays to explain wisdom-tooth facts and details.

For example, this topic’s Home Page contains two new Flash graphics. One illustrates which molars are the wisdom teeth. The other shows the different classifications of impacted wisdom teeth.

Here’s the link: What are impacted wisdom teeth?
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‘Penguin Teeth Whitening’ animation.

January 5, 2012 Posted by admin

Penguin Teeth Whitening animation.The holidays are over but winter is still here and that reminded us of our “Penguin Teeth Whitening” animation.

We made this short thinking that it could be a way for a person to hint to someone (by emailing the animation’s link) that they might consider whitening their teeth. You can use this movie for that purpose. For us, we just like listening to the tune and watching the penguins sway.

Here’s the link:
Our Penguin Teeth Whitening movie.
The page will open in a new browser window.

‘Cosmetic dentistry on a shoe-string budget’ Digital Makeovers.

January 5, 2012 Posted by admin

No doubt you’ve seen at least one of the makeover shows on TV. They take a person, suck some fat out of some places, stick some silicone in others and tighten up all of the skin in between. When they’re done, voila, a new upgraded human has been created, style type 2012.


A lot of these episodes throw in a dental makeover for the person too. It’s usually a set of crowns or porcelain veneers.

It amazes us how these shows expect that everyone has a spare $50,000 to spend on their mouth for a makeover. How about making a show for the rest of the world who want an improvement but just don’t have those types of resources?

Here on Animated-Teeth.com we do that. We have a Digital Dental Makeover section where we simulate for people who have submitted their picture how a minimum of cosmetic dentistry might be used to make big changes for them. (We call it “Cosmetic dentistry on a shoe-string budget”.) A kind of greatest bang-for-the-buck type approach.

Here’s the link:
Cosmetic Dentistry on a Shoe-String Budget Smile Makeovers.
The page will open in a new browser window.

Testing yourself for bad breath.

January 5, 2012 Posted by admin

Do you know if you have bad breath? Do you know how to test for it?

Sure, there’s the age-old way of cupping your hand near your mouth and redirecting your breath to your nose. But did you know that if a human smells an offensive odor for long enough they will eventually stop noticing it?

This process is called smell adaptation. And that’s why people, even those with the most offensive cases, are usually unaware of it.

Actually, testing yourself for bad breath isn’t difficult at all. It just takes having a little knowledge about the nature of bad breath. And what’s best is that once you have an understanding about why this type of testing works, it makes knowing how to cure your halitosis really simple and straightforward.

Here’s the link:
How to accurately test yourself for having bad breath.
The page will open in a new browser window.

The ‘Dentist’s Office’ quiz – for young children.

January 4, 2012 Posted by admin

Animated-Teeth.com has quite a few free dental-related online quizzes/activities for school-aged children.(They’re advertising free too.)

This one is titled the “Dentist’s Office” quiz. It tests about some of the tools and equipment found in a dentist’s office. The quiz and its study page might be used by a parent or teacher as part of a young child’s introduction to events that will take place during their up coming dental check up.

Here’s the link:
The Dentist’s Office quiz and pre-exam study graphic.
The page will open in a new browser window.

Search the contents of Animated-Teeth.com

January 2, 2012 Posted by admin

You’ll find two types of search boxes on our website.

Each individual page of Animated-Teeth.com features a Search Box up on top. So, if you’re looking for information about a specific dental topic, especially one that’s pretty obscure, using the page-top Search Box option is a great way to find what you’re looking for.

In comparison, a second type of Search Box is found in the left-hand menu of each page of this blog. This box only searches through the content of the blog, not Animated-Teeth.com.

If you would just like to browse through a listing of the dental topics we cover on Animated-Teeth.com you might use the indexes found on our Home Page or else on our Directory page.

The Animated-Teeth.com Directory

January 2, 2012 Posted by admin

If you have an idea of the type of dental content you’d like to read about, you might find our Animated-Teeth.com Directory useful.

This directory contains an alphabetical index of dental topics and organizes the individual pages of Animated-Teeth.com by subject. It also lists the title of each page so you can get an idea of the type of content that it contains.

Here’s the link:
The Animated-Teeth.com Website Directory.
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