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Planning treatment around the season, not against it
Splitting a case across two addresses
One bridge, and what it means for appointments
There is one road on and off this island from Toms River: Route 37 East over the Thomas A. Mathis Bridge going out, the J. Stanley Tunney Bridge coming back. No alternative. Everything on this page follows from that single fact.
Planning treatment around the season, not against it
An implant plan runs over months. On the island, months are not interchangeable.
The New Jersey Department of Transportation treats this openly in its own bridge work: construction on the Mathis Bridge is confined to November through April, and three lanes are kept open in both directions from about May 1 through October 31. The state schedules around the summer because the summer is the constraint. So should your treatment.
What that means practically:
- November to April is the good window. The surgical appointment, which is the longest one and the one you least want to be late for, belongs here if the timing is yours to choose.
- May to October, take the early slot. Morning appointments cross the bridge before the day's traffic builds. A mid-afternoon appointment on a July Friday is a different journey from the same appointment in February.
- Healing checks are short and flexible. These are the ones to schedule around your own calendar rather than ours.
If you tell us at the consultation which months you are actually on the island, we build the sequence around it instead of handing you dates that do not work.
The state will not do construction on the Mathis Bridge between May and October. Plan the long appointments for November to April.
If you are here for part of the year
Housing units outnumber year-round residents in Seaside Heights, Seaside Park and Lavallette. Mantoloking has a few hundred year-round residents and an estimated summer population around 5,000. A lot of people reading this have two addresses and a dentist at the other one.
That is workable, and it is worth being deliberate about rather than improvising.
An implant plan splits naturally into a surgical phase and a restorative phase with a healing gap in between. If you are here May to October, placement in early season and the crown work in the autumn before you leave fits inside one stay. If you are here for the winter, the November to April window covers a single implant comfortably.
What does not work well is starting somewhere else and finishing here, or the reverse, with no records passing between. If you are mid-treatment with another practice, bring the scan and the notes. We would rather read them than start again.
Who is actually on the island
The year-round population here skews older than the county. Median age is around 61 in Lavallette and Seaside Park and around 50 in Seaside Heights, with households of roughly two people. Mantoloking's last published median age was in the mid sixties.
In practice that means the work we do for island patients is weighted towards replacing failing bridges and old partials, stabilising lower dentures, and looking after implants that were placed years ago. There is very little pediatric demand and a lot of long-term maintenance. If you already have implants and have not had the bone level around them checked in some years, that is worth an appointment on its own, because bone loss around an implant is painless until it is advanced.
Storm history and dental records
This is a practical point rather than a clinical one. A number of island households lost paperwork in 2012 and rebuilt afterwards, and dental records from before then are often gone along with the practice that held them.
It does not hold anything up. A current 3D scan shows what is in your mouth now, including implants placed decades ago and what they are attached to. If you do not know what brand of implant you have or who placed it, that is common and it is usually identifiable from the scan. Bring whatever you do have and we will work from there.
If something happens on a Saturday in August
Worth saying plainly, because the bridge cuts both ways.
After implant surgery, some swelling and soreness for a few days is normal and is managed with what we send you home with. Call us, rather than setting off, if there is bleeding that does not stop with firm pressure, swelling that is still increasing after the third day, a fever, or numbness that has not returned by the next morning.
Most of these are sorted out on the phone. Making the call first means you do not sit on the bridge for forty minutes to be told to take an anti-inflammatory.
Getting here
Route 35 to Route 37 West, over the Tunney Bridge, and we are on the right shortly after you come off, on the eastbound side of Route 37. From Mantoloking and the northern end, Route 35 south runs the length of the island. From Seaside Park and South Seaside Park, Route 35 north.
South Seaside Park residents: you are administratively part of Berkeley Township, but for appointments you are an island patient. We are considerably closer to you than your own township hall is.
Parking is on site, which on this side of the bridge is not nothing.
Common questions from island patients
Can the whole implant be done between November and April?
A single implant usually can, at about three to four months from placement to final crown. A full arch with grafting may run past that. We map the dates at the consultation so you know before you commit.
I spend winters in Florida. Can treatment be split between two practices?
It can, but it works best when one practice owns the plan and the other follows it, with the scan and notes shared. Splitting a case with neither side holding the plan is where things go wrong. Tell us at the consultation and we will structure it deliberately.
How bad is the bridge in summer, really?
Bad enough that the state will not do construction on it between May and October. For appointments, that means take the first slot of the day in those months and give yourself more time than the map says.
I have implants from years ago and no idea what they are. Is that a problem?
Usually not. The scan shows the implant and its connection, and most systems are identifiable from that. Bring any old paperwork if you still have it, but do not delay the appointment over it.
Do you see people who are only here for the summer?
Yes, regularly. The honest caveat is that implant treatment takes months, so a two-week stay is enough for a consultation and a scan, not for a finished result. A consultation now and a plan for the next stay is a reasonable way to start.
Not sure where to begin?
Four short questions about your teeth. What you tell us here decides what we set up in advance, which is worth doing before a bridge crossing.
- No cost, no obligation. Answering the questions does not book anything.
- One visit covers it. The 3D scan, the exam and the plan happen in the same appointment.
- About 10 to 20 minutes from the peninsula over the Tunney Bridge on Route 37.
Your answers go to our Toms River office. We do not share them.
Book from Barnegat Peninsula
Call or book your complimentary 3D scan and consultation online. Tell us where you are coming from and we will schedule around the drive.
Advanced Smile Dentistry2224 Route 37 East, Toms River, NJ 08753
Coming off the peninsula or from the mainland? The towns we see patients from are listed with distance and route.