General Dental Care

With 28 years of experience, Dr. Peter Harnois uses the most aesthetic and biocompatible materials on the market today.

PORCELAIN FULL COVEREGE CROWNS CHICAGO

Your Life Smiles offers state-of-the-art IPS Empress e.max, ZirCAD and Lava All Porcelain Crowns—a new standard in cosmetic dentistry.

That standard is founded in the strength, esthetic, and efficiency these crowns provide. Each crown’s fabrication makes them extremely durable and provides outstanding natural results.

Full-coverage crowns offer maximum coverage, saving 2 to 3 mm of dentin, with minimum invasion. The creation of a beautiful smile often includes porcelain crowns rather than the prototypical porcelain veneer restoration.  Preexisting large fillings or crowns, a history of teeth grinding, challenging ‘bite’ problems and significant lengthening of teeth are some of the reasons why a crown would be preferred. Crowns without a metal core inside offer the best esthetics because of the way they reflect light and the ability to manage the dark (blue) line that can be present at the gumline edge of porcelain fused to metal crown.

Based on 28 years of experience, Dr. Harnois finds the best results are achieved with All Porcelain Empress and “Lava” Crowns.  Lava crowns offer considerable strength over the typical all porcelain crowns due to an inner core made from zirconium.  This core is ‘milled’ through a CAD/CAM process and is carried out at only a select few dental laboratories in Southern California.  Historically; porcelain crowns were significantly weaker than conventional PFM (porcelain fused to metal) crowns and cosmetic dentists were concerned about them breaking.  Also, if the underlying tooth was dark, the typical all porcelain crowns might show this darkness through the crown, making it difficult to match adjacent teeth properly.  The strength and transparency issues are addressed with Lava crowns.  Metal-based crowns have also been known to erode along the gum line, exposing a dark line of metal at the base of the tooth.

At Your LifeSmiles, we use only metal-free crowns in our restorative dentistry procedures. Our Chicago patients often report that friends and family can’t tell their crowns from their natural teeth, and that they are confident their bite is stronger because of the porcelain crowns.

DENTAL BRIDGE RESTORATION CHICAGO

Metal-free bridges are also offered at Your Life Smiles. The Lava restoration can even be used for small bridges; giving dentists an opportunity to replace missing teeth without using any metal.

LUMINEERS 360º CROWNS

When you want full coverage and you want to preserve tooth structure with minimal soft tissue irritation, rely on new LUMINEERS 360 full-coverage crowns.

LUMINEERS Cerinate Porcelain is a unique formulation of pressed feldspathic porcelain that gives you the strength of pressed and the beauty of feldspathic.

This same durable porcelain is available in 360 full-coverage crowns.

LUMINEERS 360 Crowns are one of the most minimally invasive crowns available, giving you one more tool for conservative dentistry.

APPLICATIONS:

• Severely fractured teeth
• Acid-worn teeth
• Ideal for small, narrow teeth
• Dark stained teeth

METAL-FREE COMPOSITE FILLINGS CHICAGO

Restorative dentistry is an important aspect of our practice. Not only do we want to improve your smile, but we also want you to have functionally strong teeth. If you have cavities or have experienced decay, your teeth may need some form of restorative dentistry. At Your LifeSmiles, our metal-free dentistry services give the Chicago area patients the option to preserve the beauty of their natural teeth, while repairing the function of their bite. Cosmetic Dentist, Peter Harnois, both produces restorations that not only protect the tooth structure, but maintain the original beauty of the smile. To find out more about our restorative metal-free dentistry services, contact Your LifeSmiles today.

When plaque and bacteria erode tooth enamel, they can form cavities and areas of decay in the tooth structure. Left unchecked, this can destroy the sensitive nerves and root structure of teeth. Our composite resin fillings are placed in order to stop cavities and restore the bite surface. During the procedure, the decay and only a minimal amount of the original tooth structure will be removed. Composite resin fillings appear natural and are virtually undetectable in your smile. Even if you have previously placed metal fillings, they can be removed and replaced with composite tooth-colored fillings that are beautiful and metal free.

ABOUT VELSCOPE

Your Life Smiles – Chicago’s Newest Oral Cancer Screening Center

We now have a new safe and effective way to perform the only FDA approved Oral Cancer Screening for our patients. The American Institute of Cancer recommends that all dental patients have this safe and effective exam once per year. You will have the results of the test immediately.

• Velscope is the only system with full FDA approval.
• The safe blue light source we use allows us to see things we could not see before with the naked eye, there is no radiation or side effects from this exam.  The Velscope looks like a hand held flashlight.
• Although most cancer rates are declining, oral cancer is only one of three that is on the rise.
• Oral cancer attacks 3 times as many people as cervical cancer. Many of the oral cancer victims are non-smokers. Alcohol use is a contributor along with being sexually active, history of cancer in your family and stress.
• Oral cancer is dramatically rising in women, young people and non-smokers, both men and women.
• Testing is completely safe – Early detection saves lives.
• The bad news…When discovered in late stages, the 5-year survival rate is only 22%.
• The good news….When  discovered in the early stages the survival rate leaps to 80% or higher
• Recent research has now demonstrated a strong link between oral cancer and the Human Papiloma Virus

Regular exam and early detection saves lives!