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Drs. Michael Blasek andPaul Laurito of AestheticDentistry in Maple Glenprovide a full spectrum ofgeneral dentistry services

for patients of all ages by LESLIE FELDMAN

photography by KIM BILLINGSLEY

LifelongCare

Michael Blasek, D.M.D., andPaul Laurito, D.D.S., are the mindsbehind Aesthetic Dentistry, the successful Maple Glen-based practice that has been treating families fromsoutheastern Pennsylvania at their current locationsince 2000. In reality, the practice has been treatingpatients even before that; the practice itself was start-ed by Dr. Blasek’s father, Lee Blasek, D.D.S., who isnow retired, in 1971.

Drs. Blasek and Laurito have known and respect-ed one another as professionals for even longer than2000—30 years, in fact, 17 of which they have spentpracticing together in Maple Glen. They met while atdental school, as the two men were in the same grad-uating class of Temple University’s Maurice H. Korn-berg School of Dentistry.

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After graduating, Dr. Blasek joined his father’spractice. When his father was ready to retire, heinvited his old classmate to join him in practice.Dr. Laurito had established his own successfulpractice in the Kensington/Port Richmond areaof Philadelphia, but when the opportunity to joinDr. Blasek arose, Dr. Laurito decided it was toogood an opportunity to turn down. Now, theyhave been neighbors for the last 16 years.

From working in a setting focused largely onfillings and root canals, Dr. Laurito moved on tomore cosmetic work and less extractions.

Dr. Blasek completed extensive postgrad-uate studies at the Las Vegas Institute for Ad-vanced Dental Studies (LVI). “I did a ton of train-ing with [LVI],” he notes. “I’ve done countlesshands-on training workshops. LVI is probablythe biggest investment in my dental training,”Dr. Blasek continues, noting the skills helearned included placing veneers and crowns,realigning bites, handling complicated jaw is-sues, relieving jaw pain and changing smiles,all of which can change people’s lives. Now,both dentists are well versed in a variety of treat-ment options for patients of all ages.

Treatment for the Whole Family“We cater to families,” says Dr. Blasek. Aesthet-ic Dentistry’s range of services includes clean-ings, sealants, fluoride and preventative dentistry,as well as nonsurgical gum treatments includ-ing scaling and root planing for bacteria and tar-tar removal and early detection of problems tominimize needed treatment.

“We do see a lot of families, and I take pridein that,” Dr. Laurito adds. “Seeing the whole fam-ily, and keeping them as patients for a long pe-riod of time to see how things progress, allowsus to see before, during and after; we can mon-itor patients as they grow up. We can help themgrow into their smile, so to speak.”

This “lifetime of care” philosophy benefitsthe patients greatly as with many issues, ear-lier is better than later when it comes to de-tection and treatment. Orthodontia, for exam-ple, is one area where it is possible to interveneearly for effective treatment.

“We can determine at a young age whetheror not orthodontics are in order,” Dr. Lauritosays. “It’s pretty gratifying when we can guidepatients and their families as to what may benecessary to make sure their bite is correct andtheir teeth are healthy.”

A Spectrum of ServicesAt Aesthetic Dentistry, Drs. Blasek and Laurito of-fer a host of general dentistry services, as wellas the placement of crowns, restoration of im-plants, veneers and orthodontic treatment.

The doctors stay informed of the latest ad-

vances in the field and, as such, can offer mate-rials that are light-years ahead of the materialsoffered just 10 or 20 years ago. “We have a lotof new materials that allow us to provide a re-sult that looks more lifelike,” Dr. Laurito notes.

Additionally, for issues such as alignment,Aesthetic Dentistry can offer patients ClearCor-rect, a means of aligning a patient’s bite with aseries of, as the name suggests, translucent cor-recting trays called aligners. “Again, that’s been

very gratifying,” Dr. Laurito says of his orthodon-tic work. “We’ve been very successful in theClearCorrect area. For someone who doesn’tneed to move a lot of teeth around per se, ordoesn’t wish to have brackets and wires,ClearCorrect offers a chance to have [their teethaligned] without those brackets and wires.”

The Aesthetic Dentistry team has been par-ticularly successful in the field of cosmetic den-tistry. One way the team succeeds in helping pa-tients is via technology. Machines such as the

CEREC™ (Chairside Economical Restoration ofEsthetic Ceramics), for example, use CAD/CAM(computer-aided design and computer-aidedmanufacturing) to manufacture crowns in theoffice while a patient waits.

“The CEREC machine is an in-house crownmaker,” Dr. Laurito explains. “We can have acrown cemented for a patient in one visit,which saves an extra trip and saves the patienthaving to wear a temporary crown.”

While this technology can’t necessarily beused in all cases, it has sped up treatment andrecovery times for many patients. Anotherpiece of advanced technology at Aesthetic Den-tistry’s disposal is the CAD/CAM equipment.

The in-office technology can be used to cus-tom fit a crown for a patient and can also be usedfor single onlays or inlays. “We can makecrowns in the office while patients wait,” Dr.Blasek says. “It usually takes about an hour toan hour and a half.”

Perhaps even more remarkable than thetechnology available to the Aesthetic Dentistrypatients is the warm and welcoming environ-ment the office strives to maintain.

“From an expertise standpoint, I thinkwe’re really good and tech-wise, we always keepup,” Dr. Blasek says. “And our staff, our team,is really excellent.

“We provide treatment in a comfortable at-mosphere where people are joking, laughing,”Dr. Blasek continues, adding with a laugh,“Sometimes I have to remind people they’re atthe dentist’s office.”

Dr. Blasek explains that, at Aesthetic Den-tistry, the team tries its best to keep consistentwith scheduling patients with the same doc-tor for each visit so the practice can “keep a‘country doctor’ feel.”

“Nobody likes getting teeth worked on,” Dr.Blasek says, “but especially in cosmetic cases,we can change lives.”

“Working with people and helping them isvery gratifying,” says Dr. Laurito, who was in-spired by his grade school basketball coach topursue a career in dentistry. “That certainly isthe best part of it for me—when someonecomes in [to the office] in pain or for whatev-er reason and I’m able to help them and theyare relieved and happy.” n

Drs. Blasek and Laurito invite the readersof Suburban Life to experience whatthousands of patients have enjoyed formany years.

Dr. Michael Blasek

Dr. Paul Laurito

AESTHETIC DENTISTRY520 Limekiln Pike Maple Glen, PA 19002215-643-0666www.mapleglendentist.com

31PHILADELPHIA LIFE/SUBURBAN LIFEJUNE 2015

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