An Esthetic Dentist Discusses a Smile Makeover

A restored smile is the goal of your esthetic dentist. Your smile is your calling card to the world around you. Imperfections due to tooth damage, poor oral health, or other factors can have a huge impact on your self-image. Even something as small as a single missing tooth can impact how others perceive and treat us.

Restoring missing or damaged teeth

Dental esthetics realizes the importance of restoring a person’s natural, brilliant smile. There are several ways in which esthetic dentists can help patients. The dentist can restore damaged or missing teeth. Whitening treatments can give a patient a more youthful appearance. Other treatments target the gums or restoring parts of the mouth and face damaged by injury or disease.

People can have damaged teeth for many reasons. Diseases can cause visible defects. It is also possible to break or chip a tooth. Esthetic dentists can create caps, crowns, and bridges that look like the patient’s other teeth. Many of these restorative treatments are long-lasting. Patients can also eat and drink normally, with few exceptions.

When one or more tooth is missing, esthetic dentists work with patients to determine which treatment will be appropriate for them. Patients with healthy jawbones could get an implant. The dentist will fix a metal post in the jawbone and place a cap made to look like the other teeth. If a person does not have a healthy jawbone or is missing multiple teeth, there are other options. Bridges connect to at least one other tooth and position an artificial tooth or teeth in the gap. An esthetic dentist can also craft partial or full dentures that look and function like real teeth.

Whitening and reshaping

A person’s smile is a combination of oral health habits and genetics. Some foods and drinks can stain a person’s teeth over time. Other people might not have practiced good oral hygiene at some point in their lives. People are also often self-conscious about the shape or length of teeth.

Alignment and teeth crowding

Another barrier to a great smile for many is teeth alignment. Misalignment can cause teeth to rotate or move out of place. Overcrowding can push teeth in front or behind others. Dental esthetics offers patients several effective options when it comes to correcting alignment. Some patients do well with traditional or hidden braces, while others have more success with alignment trays.

Some patients experience extreme overcrowding. Esthetic dentists may opt to extract one or more teeth. Extracting a tooth can allow more space for other teeth to move into alignment. It can also improve oral hygiene for the patient, making it easier to clean the teeth.