Cosmetic Dentistry restores both your smile and your self-confidence. Cosmetic repair of your teeth is usually more than just cosmetic because it fixes teeth that are cracked, broken, misaligned or crowded. Having a tooth treated early can cut down on its chances of becoming infected. Cosmetic dentistry helps you eat and speak better, alleviates the pain that can result from decaying teeth, and improves your overall appearance. Together, all of this can give you a better outlook on life.
Cosmetic dentistry requires that your dentist not only be a dental technician but an artist. The cosmetic dentist must take into account the size, shape, textures, contours and color of your tooth relative to your other teeth. Did you know that women’s teeth are not only smaller than men’s but they also tend to be more round? A skilled cosmetic dentist will consider your age and gender when developing your treatment plan.
There are many options that your cosmetic dentist can utilize to treat your teeth. One option is dental implants. Dental implants can be a longer, multistage process that requires a commitment from you and your dentist. The first step in creating a dental implant is for your dentist to create a post in your jaw that will serve as an anchor for the new tooth, and the jaw bone will need to grow around this post. Once the post is set, your dentist will insert a new, artificial tooth into the post to give you a natural looking tooth.
Another cosmetic option is porcelain veneers. These are very thin shells that are placed on teeth that are crooked, misaligned or marred in some way. Your dentist will generally abrade a layer of enamel from the surface of your tooth, then bond the veneer to the tooth with an acrylic resin.
Inlays and onlays are also part of cosmetic dentistry. Your dentist makes a cavity in a bad tooth, then fills it with resin or even gold for an inlay. For an onlay, the tooth is filled in and the cusps of the tooth, or the biting surface, are also covered. Onlays also help prevent a weakened tooth from cracking. Onlays and inlays are often made out of alloy of metals like silver, platinum or gold, or a tooth-colored porcelain or resin.
Your cosmetic dentist can also build partial or full set of dentures for their patients as well as bridges. A bridge is a crown that is anchored to healthy teeth surrounding an empty spot caused by a missing or extracted tooth.
Thanks to the advancements in cosmetic dentistry, your dentist can make a crown that matches the size, shape and color of your other teeth that only your dentist and you will know that the tooth isn’t natural. While approximations and “eyeballing” were methods of the past, dentists now use laser imaging to create a near-perfect match.
At Broadway Smiles, our cosmetic dentists will make your smile more radiant and contribute to your overall health.
