I send my whole family to Clementon Family Dentistry. It's a warm place to bring your family. The staff is the nicest I have ever dealt with. I love the fact that you never have to wait for your appointment. I think in the 9 years I have brought my family to the office, not once have I waited more than 5 minutes past my appointment time. The doctors are always careful with the kids and my husband doesn't even complain about going anymore. I can honestly say this is the best place to go if you are looking for a pleasant dental experience.

If any layperson can consider themselves an authority on the subject of dental implants, it's got to be me. My knowledge comes from the closest possible source: first-hand experience. Implants runs in my family. My dad tried some of the early ones, back in the eighties. Unfortunately, they offered him little relief for securing his loose dentures. Dentistry has come a long way since then. I currently boast eight dental implants. They provide the strength necessary to replace all of my teeth. For what they cost me, I should charge them rent. Don't get me wrong. I am very happy with them. They live, chomp and feel as if they were my own true teeth in every way. Unfortunately, I paid for them! At the time I sought treatment, dental implants were expensive. Today, it is much more affordable. Technology and ease of treatment have cut down on much of the expense. The work I had done in 2001 cost me substantially more than it would cost me today. What are dental implants anyway? Implants are actually no more than small titanium screws that are placed into the jawbone. They act as an anchor for a false tooth or in my case, a set of false teeth. Many times, implants are stronger than your natural teeth, having 100 percent better chewing efficiency. My hereditary gum disease managed to cause problems in my ailing teeth, a phenomenon known as the “domino effect”. This prevented me from adequately chewing my food. I chose to secure my teeth via a fixed dental bridges supported by four dental implants per jaw. The result was an immovable set of teeth that gives me the confidence to chew literally anything. Dentures and removable bridges can be loose and unstable. Implants are both functional and aesthetic and anyone in reasonable health is a candidate for dental implants. I won't say implants are painful because everyone's threshold varies. I didn't experience true pain, but I did have some discomfort. Dr. Soffer provided me with the adequate medications both during and following the procedure. I chose him because he was someone I felt comfortable with and it was very convenient to get all of the work done in one office. If you are wondering if implants ever fail, research indicates that very few of them do. The success rate depends very much upon where the implants are placed and what they will be called upon to do. They work best in the front portions of your jaw where success is close to 100 percent. In other areas of the mouth, success rates range between 85-95 percent. My eight implants remain healthy and strong, and all I have to do is keep them clean and check in at the dentist every six months. It seems a small price to pay for not having to put my teeth in a glass at night. Whether we eat our meat rare or well done are matters of personal preference. Speaking for myself, I like to chew my food before it makes it’s way down. That's the important thing. If you don't think so, consider the alternative!

I have to tell you about the tooth I had created in 1 hour by Dr. Soffer. I broke a side tooth last week at the gumline. It didn't hurt because I had a root canal several years back but it looked horrible. I called Dr. Soffer's office that night. The office was closed so I followed the instructions on the answering machine and dialed the emergency number. To my amazement Dr. Soffer answered the phone. He told me to come in 7:00 am the next morning. When I got there in the morning, he took me immediately and numbed the area up for treatment. I never felt the needle!!! Then he did some creative work to build up the tooth for strength and took a 3D picture of the tooth. It was incredible! I sat there as Dr. Soffer created a tooth for me on the computer. I watched the whole thing as he explained to me the computer uses the data it gets from the surrounding teeth to create a tooth that looks and feels as close to your original tooth as anything out there. I left the office at 8:15 with a new tooth. It was awesome!

I am a retired dentist who practiced for over 40 years. Frequently, I encountered patients who had lost, or were losing, one or more teeth. Often I recommended replacement with dental implants. Unfortunately, being a dentist did not immunize me from dental disease. So when I realized I was going to have to lose several teeth, I decided to take my advice and get dental implants. Over the years I have had multiple dental experiences for cleaning, cavities, caps, extractions and gum surgery. Each of them has left me with a profound appreciation for just how uncomfortable dental procedures can be. Perhaps my story will help you -- it certainly has helped me. I am 68 now. About one year ago I began to notice my front teeth were loose. So I went to the dentist who took over my practice, Dr. Ken Soffer. He examined me and took some X-rays and recommended that the teeth be removed. Loathe letting these teeth be taken from my head. Protected by the Hippocratic oath I took several decades ago, no way could this be happening! But my teeth didn’t seem to care that I had spent a lifetime helping others. They became progressively looser and I was forever wiggling them back and forth (testing to see if they were becoming more solid in their position). I could not forget it -- not for an instant. So about three weeks later I returned to the office. This time he placed a thin pointed ruler down alongside the roots of the loose teeth as far down as it would go and took an X-ray with the ruler in place. It went down, down and down until it was almost even with the end of the root of my tooth. The bone between my upper teeth had, indeed, quietly and painlessly vanished into thin air. Resigning myself to the inevitable, about one month later I had the four loose teeth removed as easily as you might lift a marshmallow out of the bag. I immediately felt as if I was 90 years old. I had this gaping space and sounded worse than Elmer Fudd. A temporary bridge (which looked great) was prepared to fill in the gaping hole between my upper-front teeth. When a dental implant fixture is inserted it has to be placed in mature (hard) bone. So I was advised that I would have to wait 10-12 weeks before the bone where the teeth were removed had reformed in the sockets left by removing the four teeth. Three months later, the receptor sites for the dental implants were sufficiently healed and he was prepared to do the surgery for implanting the fixtures. Implant placement was performed in office and took approximately two hours. This included local anesthetic, placement of four dental fixtures and precise contouring the gums. I am writing this story three days after the surgery was completed; I have no pain at all. Up to now, I have taken three Advil® every six hours. I admit I needed one stronger pain pill when the initial Novocain wore off, but the discomfort was much less than I had expected. In all, I had only 24 hours of moderate pain, which was completely controlled by my medication. For the next 3-6 months, the receptor site bone will heal around the newly inserted implant so that the implant fixture and the bone become one. This process is called "osseo-integration." When it is complete the implant becomes rooted as solid as a rock and the dentist will be called upon to create the replacement tooth upon it. Just about every oral surgeon, periodontist and select general dentists have the expertise demanded to insert dental implants. I can think of a half dozen within ten miles of me that can perform this service. The cost of a single implant and the replacement tooth which is fitted on the implant varies. Many specialists charge up to two or three times more than general dentists. I was fortunate to have Dr. Soffer and the staff at Clementon Family Dentistry in my corner. Being certified in all aspects of implant dentistry means more convenience for me. No need to travel to a specialist’s office and that means fewer visits in all. Four months and only four trips to the dentist and I was the proud owner of something I could literally smile about.