When you visit Parker & Pennington Dentistry, you will be greeted warmly and given a tour of our practice. Our upscale, modern office is fresh and clean—as cozy as home—with no antiseptic smells. Our dedicated and friendly staff will welcome you and put you at ease.
New Patient Examination
Get Ready for a Very Thorough Dental Exam
When you visit Parker & Pennington Dentistry, you will be greeted warmly and given a tour of our practice. Our upscale, modern office is fresh and clean—as cozy as home—with no antiseptic smells. Our dedicated and friendly staff will welcome you and put you at ease.
Our Approach to Optimum Oral Health
We want our patients to be in the best possible overall health, and that frequently begins with good oral health. We employ a conservative approach that achieves the best possible outcome with the least possible dentistry.
Our approach is driven by scientific results, and we implement technology and protocol that have been proven to be effective and provide outstanding results for our patients.
We consider ourselves to be strategists for your lifetime of dental health.
Initial Consultation
After being greeted and given a tour, you’ll be shown to a consultation room where a member of our courteous administrative team will sit with you and listen to why you came to the practice, what services you are interested in, and how we can help.
You’ll then be introduced to the doctor and assistant who will be providing your treatment. They will be informed of your requests and will ask any additional questions they may have.
Comprehensive Oral Examination
We’ve found that patients usually come in for one of four reasons, or a combination of these. They want to be free from pain, they want to be able to eat better, they want peace of mind about their oral health and/or they want to improve the appearance of their smile.
Part of our functional exam is checking for temporomandibular (jaw point) disorders.
Drs. Parker and Pennington provide comprehensive oral examinations to accurately diagnose any problems you may have with your teeth and gums. Prior to the examination, our doctors thoroughly review the forms you filled out prior to your visit so that we have a complete overview of your dental history.
In addition to your dental history, we want to know if you have had an unpleasant dental experience, complications with a past dental procedure, or are generally fearful of dental treatment. We will address your concerns and put you at ease.
We do a functional exam to evaluate your occlusion (bite), how the upper and lower teeth meet when chewing or at rest. Balancing your bite is an important factor for lasting treatment, as a misaligned bite can lead to wear and tear on natural teeth as well as restorations.
We examine the temporomandibular (jaw) joints for pain or tenderness, listen for clicking, popping, or grating sounds during jaw movement and look for limited motion or locking of the jaw while opening or closing the mouth. Temporomandibular issues may also be caused by a poorly aligned bite.
Our doctors will also perform a structural exam. We evaluate your mouth tooth-by-tooth, checking for signs of decay, pitting on the biting surfaces of your teeth and grooves or notches near your gum line. We check for gaps between your teeth where food may get trapped and lead to decay and gum disease.
During the periodontal exam, we look for signs of gum disease by gently probing between your teeth and gums to check the depths of the “pockets.” Deep pockets are indicators of gum disease, which should be treated immediately, as gum disease is the number one reason for tooth loss in adults.
We also evaluate your existing bone structure and assess factors that influence the predisposition for gum disease, including chronic inflammatory diseases such as diabetes and habits such as smoking.
Although oral cancer is actually quite rare, we also look for any lesions or abnormalities that may be precursors of this disease.
We will conduct a cosmetic exam where we look carefully at how your teeth fit in your face, their size, shape, condition, and position, and check lip and gum dynamics. We ask if you have any concerns about your smile that you would like to address now or in the future.
Personalized Treatment Plan
When more comprehensive care is required, your doctor will meet with you to discuss your options. We want to have a complete understanding of your needs and take plenty of time to study your case. We want to “know your mouth like the back of our hand” and often ask that you bring in photos of your high school or wedding smile.
If you are interested in correcting your dental issues, we ask that you come back in for a treatment discussion for further exploration of options available for you and the estimated costs of each. We can review your X-rays and photos with you to provide further clarification.
Digital X-Rays
Should X-rays be deemed necessary, you will be guided by one of our well-trained assistants. We use digital X-rays that are powerfully focused, yet emit very little radiation.
Intraoral Photography
Intraoral photos are delivered to a large monitor to show us—and you—exactly what issues may need to be addressed.
Meet Our Doctors
Our doctors provide experienced, comprehensive care with kindness and compassion.
Sid Parker, DMD
Dr. Parker gets rave reviews from his patients and his peers. He is known for his kind and gentle touch, friendly, easy-going manner, and his genuine concern for his patients’ well-being. Many patients warmly address him as “Dr. Sid”, and others have called him their hero. He is often referred to as a “perfectionist” by patients and peers alike.
Jeff Pennington, DMD
While attending high school, Dr. Pennington worked at Radenco Dental Lab in Millen, Georgia. He continued to work at dental labs while pursuing his Bachelor of Science at Georgia Southern University, which reinforced his appreciation of the skilled craftsmanship that is required to create lifelike dental restorations.
