
Want to Improve Your Smile?
Cosmetic dentistry is a professional method of oral care that primarily acts on improving the appearance of your teeth, which in turn improves the appearance of your face. Although the procedures involved in cosmetic dentistry is more of an elective kind than an absolute necessity, some exceptional cases and treatment also provide corrective benefits. It’s about time we find out about the benefits of braces, crowns, teeth-whitening bridges, implants, gum shaping, or even a complete dental makeover can do to your smile. !
Dental Bonding
The procedure in which a layer of tooth-colored resin is applied and hardened under a special light is called bonding. It improves a person’s smile and the structure of the tooth. It is one of the easiest and the least expensive dental procedures that are available. Bonding can improve or repair cracked or chipped teeth, lessen or fill gaps, and improve the shape of the teeth. This process can also be used as a cosmetic alternative for silver amalgam fillings for your tooth.
Veneers
Veneers are customized shells that are designed to cover the frontal surface of the teeth. They are hard and paper thin. They are meant to bond to your teeth, also changing their shape, size, and color in the process. Veneers are usually made of porcelain or resin composite. Irreversible in nature, this process also provides a conservative approach to changing a tooth’s color or shape as compared to dental crowns.
Crowns
A crown is almost like a cap for your weak or damaged tooth. It provides external to your tooth and improves its shape, size and appearance. Most dental crowns are known to last from five to fifteen years. These caps or crowns are usually made of metals, porcelain amalgamated with metals, resin. Or ceramic. Before the positioning of the crown, the existing teeth is filed down a little bit, and only then can the crown can be cemented over it, encasing it completely. Onlays and three quarter crowns cover the underlying tooth to a lesser extent, pretty much like the name suggests.
Enamel Shaping
Contouring, also called enamel shaping is a quick, and most importantly painless process of shaping natural teeth to enhance their appearance. It is usually used to rectify smaller imperfections like uneven teeth or a set of teeth that are slightly overcrowded. Results are usually immediate in nature, and can often be combined with other procedures like whitening, veneers or bonding.
Orthodontics (Braces)
Braces are primarily designed to correct crooked or misaligned teeth. It can also the overall health of the teeth and the appearance of the smile, in both children and adults. Braces function by exerting consistent pressure over time to eventually move the teeth into the correct alignment. With the teeth moving to their correct alignment, the bony tooth socket also changes shape as the pressure is applied.
Types of Braces
Besides metal braces, which are a kind of visible, they can also be as conspicuous as you would want them to be. Brackets or the part that gets attached to each tooth. Can be clear, tooth-colored or even multi-colored. They can also be attached to the back side of the tooth to keep them out of plain sight. There are also invisible braces available in the market, which are kind of like plastic molds to gradually shift the teeth into alignment.
Teeth Whitening
Who doesn’t appreciate a bright smile? A large variety of teeth-whitening products and techniques are available in the market including toothpastes and mouth rinses, gels, strips , trays and other teeth whitening agents. Having said that, whitening isn’t for everyone. It is usually meant for people who have healthy, unrestored teeth and gum conditions. Individuals with yellow tones to their teeth, respond best, unlike the ones with grey tones. It is always better to consult your dentist to know if you and teeth whitening are suitable for each other.
Composite Fillings
Pre-existing fillings often happen to require replacements owing to wear, chipping and cracking. People often like to use this opportunity to replace their old fillings with new ones comprising tooth colored composites. The reasons might both be aesthetic, or concern over the safety of amalgam fillings, which are known to contain mercury. However, composite fillings tend to wear out much sooner than the silver fillings over larger cavities, although they also perform well for smaller cavities.
Gum Reshaping
Gum reshaping can improve a “gummy” smile in which teeth appear too short, or where the gum line appears uneven. A small amount of gum tissue — and excess bone tissue if necessary — is removed and contoured to expose more of the teeth. This procedure can be done to one tooth to even the gum line, or to several teeth to expose a natural, broad smile.
Implants
Millions of Americans suffer from the loss of teeth, much of which is due to tooth decay, gum disease, or injury. Dental implants – replacement of tooth roots which are built of titanium — provide a significantly strong foundation for the attachment of permanent or removable artificial teeth(crowns).In place of individual crowns, certain patients might already have attachments on their implant that would support a removable denture.
Dentures
Removable artificial replacements for a missing tooth and the surrounding tissue are called dentures. These dentures come in two different types: complete and partial. Complete dentures come into play when almost all the teeth are missing, whereas partial dentures are used when the number of missing teeth is combatively lesser.
Bridges (fixed partial dentures)
A fixed or permanent bridge replaces one or more teeth by stationing dental crowns on the teeth either side of the gap, and attaching artificial teeth above them. The dental bridge is then cemented into place. A cantilever bridge is used when there are teeth on only one side of the open space. Maryland bonded bridges have porcelain teeth supported by a structural framework.
Gum Grafts
Tooth roots that are exposed due to gum recession may be sensitive to hot and cold foods or liquids, and they make teeth appear longer. Gum recession or erosion can put you at risk of developing a cavity on the tooth root, and may lead to bone loss, eventually resulting in the loss of tooth. Soft tissue grafts, which relocate or shift healthy gum tissue from one corner of the mouth to another corner, can stop gum recession or erosion, and bone loss and improve the aesthetics of the gum line as a whole.
Smile Makeovers
It is a combination of more than one dental technique or procedure that can be used to achieve a great smile.
In this process, porcelain veneers and crowns rectify crooked teeth, an uneven gum line, and other chipped, worn, and discolored dentistry. While cosmetic dentists can make a dramatically significant variation in a person’s smile and overall oral health conditions, the procedure must be carefully planned — though for many the elaborate and costly production is worth it in the end, mostly because of the results.
Conclusion
If you’re looking forward to getting a cosmetic dentistry procedure done on yourself, it’s important to find a cosmetic dentist who specifically offers the option or options that you’re interested in. They will provide you more guidance and assistance on which procedures would be best suited for your dental and cosmetic needs.