A comprehensive oral exam at Seabreeze Dental is far more than a quick look at your teeth. It includes a review of your health history, a tooth-by-tooth evaluation, a periodontal (gum) assessment, a bite and TMJ check, digital imaging when needed, and an oral cancer screening. These visits are how we catch decay, gum disease, cracked teeth, and soft tissue changes while they are still small, simple, and affordable to treat. We welcome patients of every age at both of our Northeast Florida offices, located at 2520 US 1 South in St. Augustine and 100 Royal Palms Drive in Atlantic Beach. Call (904) 289-3334 to schedule your exam.
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Most people think of a dental visit as a cleaning with a quick peek from the dentist at the end. At Seabreeze Dental, we see it the other way around. The oral exam is the centerpiece of your visit, and the cleaning is the maintenance that follows. A thorough exam is the single most valuable thing we do for our patients, because nearly every serious dental problem we treat began as something small, silent, and completely painless. Cavities do not hurt until they reach the nerve. Gum disease rarely aches at all until bone has already been lost. Oral cancer often presents as a patch of tissue that feels like nothing at all. The exam is how we find those things early, while you still have every option available to you.
We provide comprehensive oral exams at both of our Northeast Florida offices, and patients travel to us from all over the region. Our two locations are at 2520 US 1 South in St. Augustine, FL, and 100 Royal Palms Dr. in Atlantic Beach, FL, and both offices are equipped with the latest dental technology and a friendly team ready to care for your smile. Whether you live in Lincolnville, Davis Shores, or out toward World Golf Village, or you are coming from Neptune Beach, Mayport, or Ponte Vedra, you can expect the same standard of care at either address.
Every exam begins with a conversation. We want to understand your medical history, the medications you take, any changes in your general health, and what you have noticed about your own mouth since we last saw you. Patients often tell us about a tooth that has become sensitive to cold, a spot that catches floss, jaw soreness in the morning, or a habit of chewing ice, and these details frequently point us toward findings before we ever pick up an instrument.
That initial conversation is followed by a thorough clinical examination, including an oral cancer screening, a periodontal evaluation, and an analysis of your occlusion, or bite. We recommend and take diagnostic films as needed, and as we take a close look at your smile, we examine your teeth, the supporting bone and soft tissues, and the surrounding areas of the mouth, head, and neck. We make note of any signs of clenching or grinding and assess your TMJ function. A comprehensive oral exam can also reveal the consequences that certain dietary choices, eating disorders, medications, harmful habits, and inadequate oral hygiene practices may have on your smile.
The periodontal portion deserves special mention, because it is the part patients understand the least. Using a small calibrated probe, we measure the depth of the space between each tooth and the gum tissue surrounding it. Healthy readings fall in a narrow range. Deeper readings, bleeding points, and areas of recession tell us where inflammation is active and where the bone supporting your teeth may be receding. Charting these numbers at each exam creates a record over time, and that record is what allows us to tell the difference between a stable mouth and one that is quietly losing ground. We also evaluate existing dental work. Fillings placed twenty years ago, crowns with open margins, and old bonding that has begun to leak all fail eventually, and finding a failing restoration before it fractures the tooth beneath it saves you a far larger procedure later.
Living on the coast shapes oral health in ways that surprise people. Our patients in St. Augustine and Atlantic Beach spend a remarkable amount of time outdoors, and sun exposure is a genuine risk factor for cancers of the lower lip, which is why we always include the lips and perioral skin in our screening. Anglers, boaters, golfers at the courses around World Golf Village and Ponte Vedra, surfers at Hanna Park and the St. Augustine pier, and anyone who works outside in Northeast Florida heat tend to reach for sports drinks, sweet tea, and flavored seltzers throughout the day. Sipping acidic and sugary beverages slowly over hours is considerably harder on enamel than drinking them quickly, and we routinely see the resulting erosion patterns on the front teeth and the chewing surfaces of molars during exams.
We also care for a large population of retirees and seasonal residents in St. Augustine, along with military families and veterans connected to Naval Station Mayport near our Atlantic Beach office. Older adults frequently take medications for blood pressure, cholesterol, depression, allergies, or an overactive bladder, and a great many of these cause dry mouth. Saliva is the body's natural defense against decay, and when it diminishes, cavity rates can climb quickly, often at the gumline and around the roots of teeth that have never had a problem before. Recognizing that pattern during an exam lets us intervene with fluoride, prescription-strength home care, and a modified recall schedule rather than simply treating cavity after cavity.
Snowbird patients present another consideration. If you spend half the year here and half somewhere north, dental care can become fragmented, with records split between two practices and small problems going unmonitored for six months at a stretch. We are glad to serve as your Florida dental home, coordinate with your other dentist, and time your comprehensive exams around your seasonal schedule so nothing falls through the cracks.
We recognize that a healthy smile is more than just an attractive asset; it is also essential to one's overall well-being. Harmful conditions affecting your teeth, gums, jaws, and the structures in and around the oral cavity can impact your general health, and as we perform an oral exam and check for common dental conditions such as tooth decay or gum disease and screen for oral cancer, we also take note of any signs of health issues that may have originated elsewhere in the body. Researchers continue to establish more and more links between poor oral health and systemic disease.
In practical terms, this means your exam sometimes produces information that matters to your physician. Gum inflammation that resists ordinary treatment can be an early clue to undiagnosed or poorly controlled diabetes. Enamel erosion on the tongue side of the upper front teeth can point toward acid reflux. Certain soft tissue changes, unexplained bleeding, and patterns of bone loss are all worth discussing with your medical provider. We are not diagnosing medical conditions, but we are often the first health professional to notice something, simply because we are looking closely at tissue no one else examines.
Screening for oral cancer is a standard part of every comprehensive exam we perform, not an add-on and not something we reserve for high-risk patients. We inspect the tongue, including its underside and borders, the floor of the mouth, the soft palate, the tonsillar area, the inside of the cheeks, and the lips, and we palpate the lymph nodes of the neck.
For an additional layer of detection, we offer advanced adjunctive screening technology. A VELscope oral cancer screening offers our professional team a simple, painless, and thorough way to check for tissue abnormalities that may indicate the presence of oral cancer or premalignant dysplasia. As part of a patient's checkup, we perform routine oral cancer screenings, complemented by a VELscope examination to check for any questionable tissue changes. The reason we take this so seriously comes down to timing. Although oral cancer remains one of the ten most frequently occurring cancers worldwide, advances in research, prevention, detection, and treatment have enabled more and more people to experience positive outcomes, and when oral cancer is detected in its earliest stages, the survival rate exceeds 80%. A screening takes a couple of minutes. The difference those minutes can make is enormous.
Digital radiography allows us to capture detailed images with substantially less radiation than traditional film, and those images appear on screen instantly so we can review them with you chairside. Seeing the dark shadow of decay between two molars on a monitor tends to be far more convincing than hearing a dentist describe it. For more complex situations, our offices are equipped with CBCT three-dimensional imaging, which gives us a volumetric view of bone, sinuses, nerve pathways, and tooth roots. This is invaluable when we are evaluating implant sites, assessing impacted wisdom teeth, investigating unexplained pain, or planning any procedure where knowing the precise anatomy matters.
We also use intraoral cameras to photograph individual teeth and soft tissue findings. These images become part of your record, which means that at your next exam we can compare a suspicious area to how it looked six months ago rather than relying on memory. Documentation of this kind is one of the quiet advantages of keeping a consistent dental home.
New patients often ask how long to plan for and what will actually happen. Here is how a first appointment generally unfolds at either of our offices:
We review your medical and dental history, current medications, and any concerns or goals you want to discuss
We capture the diagnostic images appropriate for your situation, which for most new patients means a full series of X-rays
We complete the comprehensive exam, including periodontal charting, tooth-by-tooth evaluation, bite and TMJ assessment, and oral cancer screening
We discuss findings with you directly, show you the images, and answer questions before any treatment is recommended
We outline a personalized plan with priorities, sequencing, and cost estimates so you know exactly what you are deciding about
During your first visit, we take the time to get to know you and your dental history, and you will receive a comprehensive exam, X-rays if needed, and a discussion of any necessary treatment plans to keep your smile healthy and strong. We never pressure patients into same-day decisions about elective treatment. If something is urgent, we will tell you plainly. If something can be watched and reassessed in six months, we will tell you that too.
Most patients benefit from seeing the dentist every six months for a routine cleaning and exam, though your schedule may vary based on your individual oral health needs, and we recommend a personalized plan during your visit. Patients with a history of periodontal disease, those with dry mouth, smokers, patients undergoing orthodontic treatment, and those with a high cavity rate often do better on a three or four month interval. Patients with consistently stable readings and excellent home care may do perfectly well on the standard six month rhythm for decades. The interval should reflect your biology, not a generic rule.
We offer gentle and comprehensive dental care for children, including exams, cleanings, fluoride treatments, and sealants to promote healthy dental development. A child's exam includes everything an adult exam does, plus close attention to eruption patterns, spacing, habits such as thumb sucking, and the developing bite. Catching a crossbite or crowding early often means simpler orthodontic treatment later. For our beach-town families whose kids play sports year-round, we also talk about mouthguards, because a custom-fitted guard is meaningfully better protection than a boil-and-bite option from a sporting goods store.
Our exam is the gateway to comprehensive care, and one of the advantages of our practice is that whatever the exam reveals, we can typically treat it in-house. We provide a full range of dental services, including cleanings, fillings, extractions, implants, cosmetic dentistry, periodontics, and same-day crowns, and our multispecialty team is equipped to handle nearly all dental needs under one roof. Our preventive offerings extend well beyond the exam itself. We provide comprehensive preventive care, including dental cleanings, fluoride treatments, digital X-rays, dental sealants, and oral cancer screenings to maintain optimal oral health.
On the restorative and cosmetic side, our capabilities include the following:
Same-day crowns using CEREC technology, along with inlays and onlays, bridges, and full or partial dentures
Implant dentistry, including All-on-6 full-arch restoration, supported by CBCT imaging for precise planning
Cosmetic treatment such as teeth whitening and Zoom whitening, porcelain veneers, composite bonding, and complete smile makeovers
Invisalign clear aligner therapy, laser dentistry, air abrasion, periodontal care, and emergency dental treatment
With a full-service laboratory on the premises, we can customize a comprehensive range of dental restorations and prostheses, including inlays and onlays, veneers, crowns, bridges, partial or full dentures, and other appliances, and by working hand-in-hand with our onsite dental lab we are able to craft restorations that blend seamlessly with your smile while achieving healthy, functional, and long-lasting results. If you happen to damage or lose a restoration or appliance, you can rely on our office and in-house lab for prompt replacements or repairs. For patients whose anxiety has kept them away from the dentist for years, we offer IV sedation to reduce anxiety and help eradicate any fear surrounding the dentist.
Not every exam is routine. If you break a tooth on Anastasia Island over the weekend or wake up with facial swelling, you need a focused evaluation immediately, not in three weeks. We offer emergency dental services for issues such as toothaches, broken teeth, lost fillings, or trauma, and if you are experiencing a dental emergency we ask that you call our office right away so we can help as soon as possible. We offer same-day appointments, late evening and early morning hours are available, and we are also open during weekends for emergencies. A problem-focused exam concentrates on the source of your pain, but we will still note anything else that needs attention and recommend a comprehensive exam once you are comfortable again.
Two Coastal Offices, One Standard of Care
With two convenient locations in St. Augustine and Atlantic Beach, we are proud to be Northeast Florida's go-to destination for comprehensive dental care, and our practice combines the comfort of old-school values with the innovation of modern technology. Our St. Augustine office on US 1 South is convenient for patients coming from St. Augustine Beach, Crescent Beach, Butler Beach, Vilano Beach, Hastings, Elkton, Palencia, and the surrounding St. Johns County communities. Our Atlantic Beach office on Royal Palms Drive serves Neptune Beach, Jacksonville Beach, Mayport, Ponte Vedra Beach, Queen's Harbour, San Pablo, and the greater Jacksonville beaches area. Our state-of-the-art practice upholds the strictest sterilization standards and safety protocols to protect our patients' health, we understand that dental care sometimes evokes anxiety and do our best to alleviate those feelings and ensure patient comfort at every visit, and as dedicated providers of care we also believe patient education is essential for maintaining good oral health.
We want cost to be a solvable question rather than a barrier. We accept a wide range of insurance plans and offer flexible payment options, we are proud to be in-network providers with most major PPO insurance and discount plans, and we proudly partner with Veteran Affairs and accept VA benefits with all Seabreeze Dental providers. We also offer an in-office Dental Savings Plan and convenient same-day crowns. New and uninsured patients frequently ask about introductory pricing, and new patients can take advantage of our $99 exam and full X-rays, while for urgent needs we provide a $49 emergency exam with X-rays.
An oral exam is a small investment of time that pays for itself many times over, in avoided root canals, in teeth that never needed to be extracted, in gum disease caught during its reversible stage, and occasionally in something far more consequential found early enough to matter. We want every patient to enjoy the benefits of a healthy and beautiful smile, and you can rest assured that your oral exam is performed with the utmost care and that every member of our team is sensitive to your needs. If it has been six months, six years, or longer since anyone looked closely at your mouth, we would be glad to see you, without judgment and without lectures. At Seabreeze Dental, your smile is in expert hands. Call (904) 289-3334 or book online to schedule your comprehensive oral exam at our St. Augustine or Atlantic Beach office, and find out why our patients say every visit feels like a breeze.
Yes. We always welcome new patients and their families for care. Feel free to give us a call or reach out to us online to schedule a first visit or for any additional information on our office. We look forward to hearing from you!
Routine dental checkups and professional cleanings help ensure your smile remains in tip-top condition and that any developing problems receive the prompt care they require. While it's a good idea to schedule a checkup and cleaning twice a year, longer or shorter intervals between routine visits depend on your specific needs.
We understand that life gets complicated and busy, and for various reasons, you haven't been able to get to the dentist for care. Don't worry; it's always a good time to get back in touch with the health of your smile.
At Seabreeze Dental, we offer skilled and compassionate care to address a wide range of dental needs. Whether you need a simple checkup and cleaning, restorations, periodontal treatment, root canal therapy, or the replacement of missing teeth to get your smile back into shape, we provide precise, gentle, stress-free treatment to give you a smile that is as beautiful as it is healthy.
Give us a call today; we're happy to address all your questions and concerns about getting your smile back in tip-top condition.
For pregnant women, practicing good oral care and seeing the dentist to maintain a healthy smile is considered an important component of prenatal care. Researchers have found that pregnancy not only increases the risk of oral health problems, but these problems may also lead to pregnancy complications. At the office of Seabreeze Dental, we provide the skilled and compassionate care required to help expectant mothers keep their teeth and gums in tip-top condition. While certain procedures are not recommended during pregnancy, we provide the necessary care and take all the necessary precautions required.
Thanks to advances in modern dentistry, teeth that have been affected by a range of imperfections or that have sustained damage from trauma or dental decay can be restored to produce a naturally beautiful looking and functional smile.
As skilled and experienced providers of care, our office can effectively improve and enhance the appearance of teeth that are stained, discolored, misshapen, chipped, fractured, gapped, crowded, or broken down due to dental decay. At the office of Seabreeze Dental, we offer a comprehensive selection of the leading-edge cosmetic solutions from teeth whitening procedures, dental bonding, tooth-colored fillings, and veneers, to prosthetic solutions and dental implants to rebuild complete and beautiful smiles.
Contact our office to learn more about the many ways we can help you create the smile you've always wanted.
If you're visiting Seabreeze Dental for the first time, it is helpful that you contact your former dental office and have your records sent over to us. Make note of any problems you may have so that you can discuss them with your dentist.
To provide efficient service, we ask you to please bring your insurance card, an ID, plus any referral slips or diagnostic records given to you by another office. If you are taking medications, please note or make a list of what they are as you will need to provide that information.
Yes! We assure you that both you and your family will be in good hands at the office of Seabreeze Dental.
We do our best to make sure every patient who steps into our office for care is put at ease. We provide precise and gentle care and our skilled, compassionate team strives to make every visit stress-free. You can rest assured that your smile is in the best of hands and that we are doing all we can to ensure your comfort throughout every procedure. While we always take the time to explain every step in care, feel free to ask us any questions about local anesthesia and methods of dental sedation.
At the office of Seabreeze Dental, we strive to provide the highest quality of care to address all your dental needs. Once we've had the opportunity to examine your smile, we can give you a clear picture of any dental issues that are present, along with a quote for what the cost of treatment will be. The cost of care all depends upon the extent and complexity of issues affecting the health or appearance of your smile and the types of procedures that are required. Our goal is to make dental care more affordable so that you can begin treatment without any additional stress or delay.
Keep in mind that with routine dental checkups and periodic care, we can help prevent dental disease while treating emerging problems early in their onset to avoid larger issues and more expensive care down the road.
Routine dental checkups and preventive care procedures may be covered under your dental insurance plan requiring little to no out-of-pocket expense. We invite you to check our financial information page or give us a call to find out if our office participates with your plan, and if you have any other questions about dental insurance, dental savings plans, forms of payment, or financing options. We welcome your inquiries and do our best to help you begin care without additional stress or delay.
If you've lost a tooth due to injury, decay, gum disease, or any other reason, we recommend dental implants to replace missing teeth. Dental implants come the closest to replicating the look, feel, and function of your natural teeth.
Absolutely! Both flossing and brushing regularly are equally important to maintain your oral health. While brushing cleans the surface of your teeth, flossing cleans in between them. Flossing is important to prevent plaque buildup, which can cause gums to recede and lead to periodontal disease.
Even if you have dentures, it is still necessary to see a dentist! Dental checkups help ensure that your dentures are comfortable, fitting properly, and that there are no other problems. Beyond assessing your dentures, our dentist will also perform a thorough examination of the jawbone, and surrounding soft tissues both inside the mouth, the face, and neck, to confirm that you remain in good oral health.
Emergency dental care is a service we hope you'll never need- but if you do, the office of Seabreeze Dental is here for you!
Whether you're suffering from a chipped tooth, toothache, or any problem affecting your oral health, you can be sure to get the prompt attention and compassionate care you require at our office. Patient care and comfort are our top priorities, and we offer a comprehensive range of the most advanced services to address a broad spectrum of dental needs.
While the pain of a toothache is one of the more common reasons that patients come to our office for emergency dental care, we also promptly treat emergencies that are not necessarily painful like crowns that have been dislodged and broken dentures that leave embarrassing gaps in one's smile.
You can rest assured that your oral health is in the best of hands at our office. We'll quickly determine exactly what's wrong, explain your treatment options, and then provide the precise and gentle care you require to alleviate your discomfort and get you back on the path to oral health and wellness.
Your health and comfort are our top priorities. If your dental emergency is painful, if it affects the appearance of your smile, or if you suspect that an infection is present, our office will make every effort to see you as soon as possible for care.
At the office of Seabreeze Dental, we welcome patients of all ages for care and offer a comprehensive range of services designed to help every member of your family maintain a beautiful and healthy smile. Whether you or a loved one needs a routine checkup and cleaning, fillings, same-day crowns, a cosmetic smile makeover, the replacement of missing teeth or require the services of a skilled and compassionate emergency dentist, you can rely on our office for the highest quality care.
For more information on our office and the many services we provide, or to schedule an appointment for care, give us a call today.
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