Dental FAQs: clear answers about your care

Look for a dentist who explains the diagnosis behind every recommendation and shows you the evidence. Ask what they examine at a first visit, whether they look beyond your teeth at your gums, bite, and airway, and how they choose between treatment options.

At SMILES ON 35th, Dr. Shahid shows you what she sees on screen, including X-rays, 3D scans, and test results, and explains why each step is recommended. You decide with the full picture in front of you.

Longevity dentistry is dental care planned to keep you healthy for decades, not only to fix the tooth that hurts today. At SMILES ON 35th, that means finding what drives disease and wear in your mouth and airway, treating the cause early, and following one plan over time.

Healthy gums, a stable bite, and good sleep help you eat well, stay comfortable, and live without dental pain as you age. Your teeth are one part of that picture.

Diagnosis-driven dentistry means every treatment plan starts with a diagnosis, not a procedure. Before recommending anything, we ask why a problem is happening: what is behind the decay, the gum inflammation, the cracked tooth, or the worn edges.

Care that stops at the tooth in front of it often repairs the damage and leaves the cause in place. Treating the cause along with the damage makes it less likely that the same repair fails again.

Dr. Rubecca Shahid, DMD, owns SMILES ON 35th and set its approach to care. She is a graduate of the Kois Center in Seattle, an advanced program in comprehensive diagnosis, risk assessment, bite function, and treatment planning.

She completes nearly eight times the continuing education Washington requires every year.

Start with a comprehensive exam, and tell us how you feel when you book. However long it has been, and whatever plans you set aside before, you won't get a lecture here. We look at where your mouth is today, explain what we find, and agree with you on what to address first.

Appointments are unhurried, and our comfort menu includes weighted blankets, heated neck wraps, and gold under-eye masks. Oral sedation is available for patients with dental anxiety; Dr. Shahid will talk through whether it suits you.

We share pricing openly, alongside the diagnosis behind each recommendation, so you can plan your care without surprises.

To help lower the cost of care, we offer financing and an in-house membership plan, and we help you make the most of your dental insurance benefits.

A comprehensive dental exam at SMILES ON 35th looks at your teeth, gums, bite, jaw joints, and airway, and reviews your medical and dental history. It includes a Kois risk assessment, handheld digital X-rays, and a 3D scan of your teeth.

When the findings call for it, Dr. Shahid adds 3D CBCT imaging or T-Scan bite analysis. She then walks you through what she found, what it means, and which steps come first.

A Kois risk assessment measures your risk of future problems in four areas: your gums, the strength of your teeth, your bite and jaw, and how your teeth and smile fit your face.

Knowing which risks are high tells us where to focus. It also sets how often you need checkups and cleanings, so your schedule fits your mouth rather than a fixed calendar.

Salivary and blood testing look for the bacteria, inflammation, and nutritional gaps that can drive gum disease and decay. An exam shows the damage; testing helps show what is causing it.

The results shape your treatment. Gum care, for example, can be targeted to what your saliva test finds instead of following one standard approach for everyone.

CBCT (cone beam computed tomography) is a 3D X-ray that shows bone, roots, nerves, jaw joints, and the airway in detail a standard 2D X-ray can't. Not every patient needs one.

Dr. Shahid uses CBCT when your diagnosis calls for it, such as planning an implant, looking closely at a tooth's roots, or evaluating your airway.

T-Scan is a thin digital sensor that measures the timing and force of every contact when you bite. Marking paper, the usual way to check a bite, shows where teeth touch but not how hard or in what order.

That measurement helps explain why teeth crack, wear down, or keep breaking fillings, so the cause can be corrected along with the damage.

Gingivitis is the earliest stage of gum disease: inflammation of the gums caused by bacteria in plaque along the gumline. Common signs are gums that bleed when you brush or floss, and gums that look red or swollen.

Caught at this stage, gingivitis can usually be reversed with professional cleaning and consistent care at home. Left untreated, it can progress to periodontitis, which damages the bone that holds teeth in place.

Yes. Research links gum disease, a form of chronic inflammation, with heart disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer's disease. These are associations: studies have not shown that gum disease directly causes these conditions, and they share some risk factors, such as smoking.

Because of those links, we treat gum inflammation as part of your overall health. When findings reach beyond your mouth, we bring in your physician or one from our network.

We build a gum disease plan from your exam and saliva test results rather than giving everyone the same deep cleaning. Depending on what we find, care can include scaling and root planing (a deep cleaning below the gumline) with ultrasonic scalers, CO2 laser therapy, antimicrobial rinses, Perio Protect trays, targeted prescriptions, and home-care tools.

After treatment, gum maintenance visits are scheduled according to your risk, so inflammation stays under control.

Tooth decay needs four things at once: bacteria that make acid, sugars and other fermentable carbohydrates for them to feed on, a tooth surface that the acid can weaken, and time. Reduce any one of them and your risk falls.

That is why our cavity prevention starts with salivary testing to understand your decay risk. Prevention can then include hygiene coaching, fluoride, and CariFree home-care products.

Often, yes. When decay is caught early, before it breaks through the enamel surface, Curodont can help rebuild the weakened enamel without drilling.

Whether it suits your tooth depends on how far the decay has gone, which Dr. Shahid checks first.

How often you need a cleaning depends on your risk. Rather than one fixed schedule for everyone, we set your cleaning and checkup interval from your gum health, decay risk, and exam findings.

Someone with active gum inflammation may need visits more often than someone whose gums are stable.

Start by finding out why you snore. Snoring can be harmless, but loud, regular snoring can also be a sign of obstructive sleep apnea, where the airway repeatedly narrows or closes during sleep.

Our comprehensive exam includes an airway evaluation. If the findings suggest sleep apnea, we coordinate with a sleep physician, who makes the diagnosis. For mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnea, a custom oral sleep appliance can help keep the airway open while you sleep.

A dentist can treat sleep apnea with an oral appliance, but a sleep physician makes the diagnosis. Dr. Shahid screens the airway during the exam, provides oral appliance therapy for mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnea, and works in partnership with sleep physicians throughout.

She is a member of the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine (AADSM).

Morning jaw soreness, flattened or chipped teeth, and fillings that keep breaking often point to clenching or grinding. Grinding can be connected to sleep and breathing problems, which is why we look at your bite, jaw joints, and airway together.

We measure your bite with T-Scan, evaluate your jaw joints, and then address the cause. Depending on what we find, that can include a night guard, bite correction, or orthodontics with clear aligners.

Biomimetic dentistry repairs teeth in a way that keeps as much healthy tooth structure as possible and mimics how a natural tooth handles biting force. Instead of cutting a tooth down, we remove only what is damaged and bond the restoration to the healthy tooth that remains.

The aim is to lower the chance of future fractures and root canals. Dr. Shahid holds a mastership in biomimetic dentistry from the Alleman Center.

A biomimetic crown is a conservative restoration that covers only the damaged part of a tooth rather than the whole tooth. It is bonded to the healthy structure that remains, so more of your natural tooth is kept.

Yes, in many cases. With CEREC, we design and mill your biomimetic crown in the office during the same appointment, so you don't need a temporary crown or a second visit.

Yes. Along with conventional implants, we offer metal-free ceramic (zirconia) implants. Every implant is planned in 3D with in-office CBCT imaging, which shows the bone and nerves before anything is placed.

Dr. Shahid explains which type suits you once your exam and imaging are complete.

A smile built on inflamed gums or an unstable bite doesn't last. We bring gum disease, decay, and infection under control first, then save what we can, correct what is causing breakdown, restore what has been lost, and improve how your smile looks.

Most patients need some of those steps, not all of them, and your diagnosis decides which ones and in what order. Your cosmetic goals are part of the plan from the start; they come later in the sequence so the result holds up.

Right after whitening, limit dark and staining foods and drinks, such as coffee, tea, red wine, and berries, and avoid tobacco. Teeth pick up stains more easily in the first days after treatment.

Some sensitivity after whitening is common and usually temporary. Let us know if it lasts or makes eating uncomfortable.