At Aesthetic Dentistry & Implants, you’ll discover dental care at the highest level possible: technology, advanced training, and compassionate service blended perfectly together. Dr. Michael Schaake carefully selects technologies proven to deliver the finest experience to his patients. This means comfortable procedures and predictable results. A winning formula, you’ll find that contemporary dental care with Aesthetic Dentistry & Implants leaves you smiling.
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L-PRF

If you have ever heard of or experienced a "dry socket", then you know it is something you don't want after an extraction. Recent advancements in dental technology, largely thanks to the French, Dr. Joseph Choukran allows us to use your body's own growth factors to prevent dry socket, the common term used for alveolar osteitis, following a dental extraction. We also sometimes use PRF when placing dental implants. This new technology is not always necessary when performing dental surgery, but we will let you know if you would benefit from its implementation. The technology works in a few simple steps when performing surgical procedures.

  1. At the beginning of your dental surgery, we draw a few small vials of blood from your arm (just like if you were having blood drawn for labs at your physician's office)
  2. Next, we place the vials in a medical centrifuge and spin the blood down, this causes you body's growth factors, fibrin, and white blood cells to separate from the plasma and forms the consistency of a gelatin "plug"
  3. Third, we cool the gelatin plug to a lower temperature while we are finishing your dental procedure
  4. Lastly, after completing your dental procedure, Dr. Schaake places the gelatin plug as a kind of bandage over the surgical site. This helps reduce the risk of post-operative pain or swelling and decreases the time to heal.
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Photography

Dr. Schaake uses a high quality DSLR camera to capture photos of your smile and your teeth and how they fit into your face and profile to fully understand your dental needs. These photos allow us to have more in-depth conversations around any esthetic concerns you may have.
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Intra-Oral Scanning

Intra-oral scanning has become the standard of care for many offices. It is more accurate than the old fashioned "goop" impressions that most patients are accustomed to. Taking an intraoral scan uses zero radiation, is painless and takes less than 5 minutes. It captures all of the intricate details of your teeth and at Aesthetic Dentistry & Implants we use intra-oral scanning for a wide range of applications ranging from clear aligners (orthodontics) to veneers, to implant procedures.
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Facial Scanning

Facial scanning is a relatively new technology that has only been implemented in dentistry over the last few years. We use a Metismile facial scanning camera that emits zero radiation while it scans the features of your face (nose, lips, chin, cheekbones, eyes, etc) and allows Dr. Schaake to fully take into account the nuances of your facial structure that make you, you! This scan is married up with the intra-oral scan mentioned above. This allows him to craft teeth that look beautiful but also fit your face. For example, some people need wider teeth and others need shorter or longer teeth. Facial scanning allows us to digitally design your smile with the most accuracy.
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Photogrammetry

This is perhaps the most exciting innovation in digital implant dentistry and happens to be an aspect of dentistry that Dr. Schaake is the most passionate about. It's all about accuracy. This technology was first developed for scientific applications such as mapping the ocean floor from research vessels. In dentistry, we use it to precisely relate the position of dental implants to each other when doing All-on-4 or all-on-x procedures. This allows the fixed hybrid prosthesis (the bridge part) to fit perfectly and securely.
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3-D X-Rays

Scanning the part of your teeth that lie above the gums is really just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we offer to provide the best care for our patients. Dr. Schaake uses a Cone Beam Computed Tomography scanner (usually abbreviated and commonly known as a CT or CAT scan) that he uses for mapping vital structures when planning for complex surgeries. Our priority is patient safety and dental work that looks great, feels great and lasts a long time.
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Implants

Dental implants can really be thought of as a 2-part prosthetic device. The first part is the white tooth part that people see when you smile. The second part is hidden under the gums and anchored solidly in the bone. Dr. Schaake uses the Grand Morse Helix implant system developed by Neodent. It is on of the most trusted implant brands in full-arch dentistry with excellent long term patient clinical data. These implants are milled from grade 4 titanium and the implants are kept in a sterile decarbonizing solution until the moment they are placed in the bone to make their surface extremely attractive to your bone cells to help with solid integration (growth) of bone to the implant. The most important feature of these implants that set them apart from many other implants on the market is the special design that prevents bacteria from adhering to the implant. Bacteria are the most common culprit for implant failure. Check out the Dental Implant section of our website to learn how to care for your implants and prevent bacterial colonization.