If your general dentist mentioned a prosthodontist at your last visit, you're probably wondering what that means and whether it's a bigger deal than it sounds. The short answer: a prosthodontist is a dental specialist. Not a generalist with extra restorative experience, but a provider who completed a separate specialty training program focused entirely on restoring and replacing teeth.
ProHEALTH Dental has two on staff. Dr. Bruce Valauri, DDS, FACP, is a Board-Certified Prosthodontist at our Lake Success office. Dr. Hayleen Moran, DDS, MS, focuses on prosthodontics, dental implants, full-mouth reconstruction, and full-arch cases in Yonkers, Yorktown Heights, and White Plains.
Have questions about prosthodontic care at our Lake Success office? Request an appointment online.
What Is a Prosthodontist?
Prosthodontics is one of nine dental specialties that the American Dental Association formally recognizes. The ADA defines it as the specialty focused on the diagnosis, treatment planning, rehabilitation, and maintenance of oral function, comfort, appearance, and health for patients with conditions associated with missing or deficient teeth and oral structures. Strip out the clinical language, and what you have is a specialty built around teeth that are significantly damaged, missing, or too compromised for routine restorations.
A prosthodontist finishes dental school and then completes three more years of postgraduate training. That residency covers implants, crowns, bridges, dentures, veneers, esthetics, and complex prosthetic work involving significant structural loss. A general dentist performs many of those same procedures. A prosthodontist's training is built around the cases where the scope or complexity calls for more.
How Is a Prosthodontist Different from Your General Dentist?
Your general dentist handles preventive care, routine restorations, and a wide range of the treatment most patients need. When a case involves multiple missing teeth, significant structural damage, a failed prior restoration, or full-arch reconstruction, the scope shifts.
That's not a reflection on your dentist's skill. Prosthodontic training is built for a different level of complexity, which is why general dentists refer. When your dentist recommends a prosthodontist, it means the work goes beyond what routine restorative care is designed to handle. They'd rather you work with someone whose training was built around exactly that.
When Might Your Dentist Refer You to a Prosthodontist?
Most referrals happen when more than one tooth is involved, a prior restoration has failed, or the structural loss is enough to require specialist-level planning.
Your dentist may recommend a prosthodontist in the following situations:
Multiple missing teeth – When several teeth are missing and treatment involves bridges, partial dentures, full dentures, or implant-supported prosthetics, a prosthodontist typically leads the restorative planning.
Dental implant restoration – A periodontist places the implant post surgically into the jawbone. The prosthodontist restores the implant with the abutment and crown. For multi-tooth or full-arch implant cases, a prosthodontist is usually involved from the planning stage.
Severely worn or damaged teeth – Teeth worn down by grinding, acid erosion, or trauma often require full-mouth rehabilitation, which means rebuilding the bite and restoring multiple teeth together as part of a single coordinated plan.
Failed or complex crowns and bridges – When prior restorations have failed repeatedly, or when a case calls for close attention to how bite force distributes across multiple teeth, prosthodontic training is what that work calls for.
Full-arch reconstruction – Replacing all or most of the teeth in an arch involves coordinated prosthetic planning and fabrication that falls within prosthodontic specialty care.
Your dentist will explain why a referral applies to your situation before you go anywhere.
What to Expect at a Prosthodontic Appointment
The first appointment is an evaluation: bite, existing restorations, bone and tissue support, remaining teeth. Your prosthodontist works through what's there before recommending anything.
From there, you'll receive a treatment plan that outlines your options, including the expected advantages, limitations, and timelines for each. If other specialists are part of the case (a periodontist for implant surgery, for instance), your prosthodontist coordinates with them throughout. Nothing is decided before your prosthodontist has the full picture.
Prosthodontic Care at ProHEALTH Dental
When a general dentist at our practice determines that a case calls for prosthodontic care, they refer the case to one of two professionals.
Dr. Bruce Valauri, DDS, FACP, is a Board-Certified Prosthodontist with a long-standing collaborative relationship with periodontist Dr. Neil Karnofsky at the ProHEALTH Dental Implant Center. That partnership is built around complex implant cases. Dr. Karnofsky oversees the surgical phase, Dr. Valauri manages the restorative side, and both are involved from the planning stage through the final result.
Dr. Hayleen Moran, DDS, MS, focuses on prosthodontics, dental implants, full-mouth reconstruction, and full-arch cases.
If your dentist has mentioned a prosthodontist, the situation is more involved than a routine fix. That's not an emergency. It means your dentist knows what the case requires and is sending you to someone whose training was built around exactly that kind of work. Our prosthodontists handle these cases often.
To learn more about prosthodontic care in Yonkers, Yorktown Heights, White Plains, or Lake Success, book an appointment online.