Benefits Cosmetic Dentistry

By enhancing your appearance with a scintillating smile, cosmetic dentistry can also lift your mood and boost your self-confidence. When you’re looking good, you feel good, and aesthetic dentistry can provide a highly effective, less expensive alternative to plastic surgery procedures like facelifts.

Modern dentistry has evolved from simply filling or extracting damaged teeth to offer multiple cosmetic options, most of which will also benefit your oral health, and a cosmetic dentist can work with you to improve the appearance of your smile with one or more of these aesthetic procedures.

A key benefit of cosmetic dentistry is that it can fix a broad range of problems that may spoil your looks. Cosmetic dentistry can restore your smile and eliminate embarrassment in cases such as:

  • Missing teeth.
  • Damaged teeth.
  • Stained or otherwise discolored teeth.
  • Misshapen teeth.
  • Gapped teeth.
  • Crowded teeth.

Issues like these can be addressed by a variety of cosmetic dental procedures, including:

  • Teeth whitening.
  • Veneers.
  • Crowns.
  • Dental implants.

Some dentists also offer Botox treatments to combat facial wrinkles.

Teeth Whitening

Few people are fortunate enough to have naturally sparkling-white teeth, and your teeth tend to become tarnished over time through factors such as the aging process, dark-colored drinks and foods, and poor oral hygiene.

Professional teeth whitening is much faster and far more effective than whitening products and DIY kits you can get from drugstores.

Cosmetic dentists have access to whitening materials with stronger bleaching agents, and your treatment is carefully monitored during each stage of the whitening process to protect your mouth.

Whitening toothpastes may get rid of surface stains but most can’t lighten deeper staining – and they can be tough on tooth enamel. Over-the-counter teeth bleaching kits are designed to treat deeper stains but, like whitening toothpastes, may not be enamel-friendly, and could irritate your gums.

Teeth whitening by a dental professional lightens discoloration of both enamel and the underlying dentin to produce dramatic results with teeth many shades whiter.

Getting your teeth whitened also provides a strong incentive to maintain a good routine of oral hygiene to keep your smile sparkling.

Veneers

Dental veneers are tooth-colored ultra-thin ceramic shells that are bonded onto the front of teeth. They’re individually made for each patient to match the shape and color of adjacent teeth and are effective in:

  • Reshaping or resizing teeth.
  • Making teeth appear straighter.
  • Closing gaps between teeth.
  • Fixing minor teeth crowding.
  • Masking cracks, chips and stains.

Veneers are the cosmetic dentistry treatment of choice for many celebrities. In addition to giving you a Hollywood smile, veneers will protect your teeth from damage, and they can be combined with other treatments to create comprehensive cosmetic results.

New materials have made veneers even thinner, which avoids the need to trim back the surface of the tooth.

If your teeth are basically healthy but are showing signs of general wear and tear, veneers can provide a perfect cosmetic dentistry option – as long you don’t tend to grind your teeth.

Crowns

Dental crowns are tooth-shaped caps that are fitted over the remaining section of a damaged tooth to improve both appearance and functionality.

Crowns are custom-made to blend with surrounding teeth in shape, size and color, and are often used to enhance the appearance of front teeth.

Applications of dental crowns include:

  • Adding width or length to a tooth.
  • Securing a bridge or dentures.
  • Improving the appearance of a tarnished filling.
  • Covering a dental implant.

Some dentists can provide same-day ceramic crown treatment, thanks to computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) technology, which avoids the need for messy impressions and a temporary crown.

Like veneers, ceramic crowns look natural because they reflect light in the same way as tooth enamel.

Dental Implants

Whether you’ve lost one tooth or more, dental implants can restore your smile with multiple advantages over other tooth replacement systems.

Dental implants are small titanium rods that are surgically inserted into the bone socket of missing teeth. They fuse with bone in the jaw to form a replacement tooth root to anchor artificial teeth.

Implants look, feel and work just like natural teeth, and are unique in dentistry in encouraging bone growth to maintain facial structure.

They can be used instead of dentures or bridges, or as the foundation for a dental plate, and, because implants become part of your jaw, they provide a permanent solution to end unsightly gaps in your mouth caused by tooth loss.

Implants can also be used in conjunction with the TeethXpress system that eliminates the problem of dentures constantly becoming loose and requiring expensive adjustments.

Cosmetic Dentistry Botox Treatments

We’re all susceptible to developing facial wrinkles, fine lines, folds and creases as our skin loses its elasticity as we get older, and many people opt for Botox treatment as a minimally invasive alternative to plastic surgery.

Botox blocks chemical signals from nerves that cause muscle contractions, so it can reduce or eliminate issues such as crow’s feet, eyebrow furrows and frown lines. Cosmetic dentistry Botox injections provide a temporary solution to these issues and can be repeated every few months.

Botox treatment entails a simple injection procedure that generally takes full effect within a week and relaxes muscles for three to four months.

Botox contains the same toxin that causes botulism food-poisoning, but administered in small, targeted doses it’s proven to be an effective anti-wrinkle remedy with a good safety record. In fact, Botox was originally used for medical purposes before it evolved into a cosmetic option.

Improving Your Smile – and Your Life!

The core benefit of cosmetic dentistry is that it improves your quality of life by restoring your self-esteem with a healthy smile you can show off with confidence in professional and social interactions.

Modern cosmetic dentistry embraces innovative technology to maximize quality of treatment, and these cutting-edge procedures are now appealing to an increasing number of people who want to feel better about how they look.

Although the main focus of cosmetic dentistry is on enhancing appearance, it goes hand in hand with ensuring optimum functionality of your teeth and bite function. In fact, the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (AACD) emphasizes that aesthetic dental treatments should also safeguard oral and general health.