A veneer is a thin layer of restorative material placed over a tooth, either to improve the appearance of worn, discolored or misaligned teeth, cover cracks or chips, or to protect a damaged tooth surface, giving a patient a new, long-lasting, bright and straight smile.

Lumineers(R) are dental veneers made of a unique porcelain known as Cerinate that allows them to be easily removed.  Unlike traditional porcelain veneers, Lumineers don't usually required modification of the tooth.  While the procedure can be less invasive that other veneers, consultation with a dental professional experienced with veneers is important.

The earliest toothbrushes were simply small sticks, eventually mashed at one end to increase their cleaning surface. Ancient Roman patricians employed special slaves to clean their teeth. Toothbrushing formed part of some ancient religious observances. The bristle brush was probably invented by Chinese; it came to Europe during the seventeenth century and soon was widely used. French dentists, who were the most advanced in Europe at the time, advocated the use of tooth-brushes in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Dentists urged pre-Revolutionary Americans also to use bristle toothbrushes in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Nylon has replaced natural bristles in modern brushes.

Q: I have TMJ and have constant cracking, popping, aching and headaches because of it. I grind my teeth and clench my jaw while I sleep and sometimes during the day. I wear a mouthguard at night, but it doesn't stay in during the night. What are other ways of fixing this incredibly painful problem?

A: I empathize with your pain and discomfort; unfortunately, there is no easy cure for facial pain brought on by conditions associated with the temperomandibular joint or the muscles associated with it. Ongoing research will ultimately identify improved treatments for craniomandibular disorders (CMD), formerly known as TMJ. Surveys indicate that many dentists believe that CMD is a result of some type of trauma and/or stress. Even the "microtrauma" caused by clenching and grinding of teeth can eventually lead to CMD.

In primitive societies teeth have been extracted with a chisel-shaped piece of wood held against the tooth and pounded with a mallet. Early Chinese tooth-pullers used their fingers, strengthening them for the task by spending hours pulling nails out of planks. The ancient Greeks used double-level forceps 300 B.C. while the Romans used forceps of various designs, including a thin-root forceps, and pliers to remove small pieces. Abulcasis (963-1013), an Arab surgeon from Spain, illustrated a number of dental extraction devices in his eleventh-century Treatise on Medicine and Surgery, including elevator chairs, forceps, and lancets for loosening the gum.

Cocaine was widely used as a local anesthetic after Carl Koller (1857-1944) demonstrated its effectiveness in 1884. By the end of the 1800s, however, the addictive properties of cocaine had been recognized. Doctors, realizing they needed to develop substitutes for cocaine's active anesthetic ingredient, carefully studied the exact chemical structure of cocaine. Many of the first synthetic cocaine products that were developed were to irritating to be of any practical use. The first successful substitute was Ernest Fourneau's (1872-1949) stovaine, discovered in 1904.

Although teeth-straightening and extraction to improve alignment of remaining teeth has been practiced since early times, orthodontics as a science of its own did not really exits until the 1880s. It had its origins in the first comprehensive treatise on dentistry, The Surgeon Dentist , published in 1728 by Pierre Fauchard (1678-1761). This volume devoted an entire chapter to tooth irregularities and ways to correct them. The French dentist Bourdet followed Fauchard in 1757 with his book The Dentist's Art, again devoting a chapter to tooth alignment and appliances to correct it. The causes and treatment of dental irregularities were dealt with for English-speaking practitioners in the 1771 book by John Hunter, The Natural History of the Human Teeth.

The gas nitrous oxide was first identified by Joseph Priestley in 1772. Years later, in the late 1790s, the British chemist Humphry Davy began experimenting with the effects of inhaling nitrous oxide. He noted it exhilarating effects, and the way it made him want to laugh-which gave the gas its popular name of "laughing gas." Davy published his findings in 1800, remarking that "As nitrous oxide...appears capable of destroying pain, it may probably be used with advantage during surgical operation.