Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

We agree with the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics that children should see a dentist when their first tooth comes in or when they reach the age of one, whichever comes first.

These early visits are important for a few reasons:

• They establish the dentist’s office as a familiar and safe place early on in life.
• They give you and Dr. Compton the opportunity to discuss your child’s health before any problems develop so that we can hopefully head them off.
• They give us early insight into your child’s development so that we can have a complete record as they grow.

Your child and Dr. Compton will have the opportunity to develop a trust-based relationship. Dental anxiety is a huge problem among adults and we believe that establishing this trust early on in life helps to reduce fear and make it more likely that your child will stick with good health habits throughout life.

Many dental problems start early on and it helps us to know a child’s history. Is your family prone to cavities and gum disease? Does your child use a pacifier or suck his or her thumb? Has your child ever had a dental injury? This information will help guide our care later on in your child’s life. 

Dental insurance can be confusing. It’s not exactly the same as medical insurance where you pay a copay and they generally pick up the rest of the bill.

Each dental insurance plan has different rules and provides coverage in different ways. Some do offer plans similar to medical insurance, but others act like more of a discount plan. Others cover preventive care 100% but require you to pay a higher percentage of restorative procedures or other treatments. Some insurance companies limit which dentists you are allowed to see or require that you see dentists working for a particular group.

Our practice is fee for service. We file with all insurance companies and help negotiate for you—as long your insurance plan doesn’t take away the right to see the doctor of your choice.

We are happy to look at your insurance plan and help you understand it better. We will do our best to help you maximize your insurance benefits and help you get the care you need. 

How long your teeth stay white and bright following a teeth whitening treatment depends on a number of factors. Some of these include:

• Which type of whitening treatment you choose
• Your lifetime habits
• Your home hygiene habits
• Your professional cleaning routine

While no whitening treatment can offer permanent results, the results can last from several months up to a year or more.

You can increase the duration of your results by:

• Using professional, in-office treatments
• Having a cleaning before your whitening treatment
• Consuming less coffee, tea, red wine, and other dark, staining foods and beverages
• Not smoking
• Brushing twice each day using good technique

You can maintain your whitening results with Opalescence Go. This professional whitening option uses preloaded trays that adjust to fit your teeth, making whitening convenient – no matter how busy your life gets!

Dr. Compton can recommend a touch-up schedule for you so your smile can stay youthful and healthy looking. Retouching every six months is usually sufficient for most people.

We don’t recommend drugstore teeth whitening kits to try to extend your results. These products don’t have the same strength as professional products, so you won’t get the same results. Additionally, many types of whiteners sold in drug and grocery stores rely on abrasive ingredients that can damage your enamel.

Because teeth whitening is sometimes referred to as “bleaching,” misconceptions about how the process works can be common. Teeth whitening is also used frequently as a vehicle for laughs in movies and sitcoms when a character has their teeth whitened to the point where they are unnatural and weird looking.

Actual professional teeth whitening is not like that at all.

The active ingredients in Boost are hydrogen peroxide and carbamide peroxide. These ingredients are able to penetrate your enamel and your dentin. Once inside the tooth, they break apart and break down the colored molecules that cause discoloration in your teeth. Because only the colored molecules are targeted, your teeth can not be whitened beyond their own natural shade.

Teeth whitening with Boost is not painful because the product also contains potassium nitrate which reduces sensitivity. This means that you can whiten comfortably and get the results you want. Because the product is chemically activated, you don’t have to sit under an uncomfortable, hot light like you would with other products.

Your safety and comfort are incredibly important to us, and we’ve compared all the available products to choose the one that we think is the best for our patients.

Crowns can be made from a number of materials. In the past, you commonly saw all-metal crowns or “porcelain-over-metal” crowns. While the porcelain-over-metal crowns were an improvement over all-metal crowns, they did have one problem—the metal at the edge of the crown by the gumline shows. This looks like a dark ring around your tooth.

At Generations Family and Cosmetic Dentistry, we use all-porcelain crowns. This gives your restorations a seamless appearance and eliminates the problem of the dark ring.

Do you have an old crown? It might be time to replace it. While crowns are designed to be long-lasting and durable, they generally don’t last forever. Dr. Compton is happy to assess the health and stability of your crown and make sure that it’s still doing its job. If you’re unhappy with the appearance of your older crown, we can discuss that as well and replacement with a new all-porcelain crown might be an option.

We believe that your dentistry should be both functional and aesthetically pleasing. The appearance of your smile is important and it’s one of the first things that people notice when they meet you. Every treatment at our office is done with an eye toward both function and aesthetics.

Please give us a call to learn more.

Dental implants are an increasingly popular tooth replacement option and more and more patients are realizing just how useful implants can be. Not only do they look just like a natural tooth, they also feel and function like one.

Most people are good candidates for dental implants. In the past, people who had been missing teeth for a while and had diminished bone structure were not good candidates, but advanced procedures like bone grafting and smaller implant sizes are making it easier for even those people to get dental implants.

When we are determining whether implants are right for you, we will be taking a few things into consideration:

• How is your overall health? If you are in pretty good general health, dental implants are probably a good choice.
• Do you have periodontal disease? Periodontal disease does not make you a poor candidate for dental implants, but we will need to get the disease under control.
• How’s your home care routine? Getting a dental implant is a financial investment and a long-term commitment. Taking good care of your teeth and continuing to visit our office regularly will help keep your dental implant healthy and looking good.

We would love to discuss your options with you, so call our Arvada dental office today to request a dental implant consultation.

Advances in dentistry are happening all the time. At Generations Family and Cosmetic Dentistry, we track those advances carefully to determine whether they are a good choice for our patients.

We have chosen to offer laser dentistry to our patients because the advantages are quite clear. By using lasers, we can:

• Shorten treatment time
• Improve comfort
• Reduce healing time
• Reduce or eliminate bleeding
• Reduce the risk of complications
• Increase precision and efficiency

Lasers allow us to precisely remove only damaged tooth structure in the case of cavities and only damaged gum tissue in the case of periodontal disease. This means that we can preserve more healthy tissue and provide more conservative and less invasive dental care.

We’ve also found that dental lasers tend to reduce anxiety because they eliminate the need for many scary looking and loud instruments. When we can reduce anxiety, we can make it easier for patients to get the routine or emergency care they need to stay healthy.

Would you like to learn more about laser dentistry? We invite you to call our Arvada dental office and schedule an appointment with Dr. Lindsay Compton.