You may have heard of cosmetic dentistry if you’ve visited your local dentist often enough. You might even know that it can transform all sorts of smiles for the better! However, perhaps you aren’t sure if it’d be helpful for your own teeth. Who’s to say whether you’d need its treatments or if you’d qualify in the first place? Well, settling the matter is easier than you’d think. Read on to learn about cosmetic dentistry’s main uses and its methods for helping smiles.
Why Get Cosmetic Dentistry in the First Place?
The first thing you should keep in mind is cosmetic dentistry’s purpose. After all, it’s specifically meant to improve the appearance of your teeth and gums. Unlike preventive or restorative work, the field focuses more on aesthetics than oral health.
Given these facts, an ideal treatment candidate would be someone with one or more of the problems below:
- Stained or discolored teeth
- Tooth fractures, cracks, or breaks
- Misshapen, misaligned, or otherwise crooked teeth
What are Some of its Treatments?
Cosmetic dental treatments can enhance your teeth’s looks through various methods. Among them, some of the most popular are:
Porcelain Veneers
Veneers are porcelain layers applied to the teeth’ front surfaces. Dentists use them to cover and hide smile flaws, including tooth stains, cracks, fractures, and misalignment.
Veneers’ ceramic material makes them look exactly like natural teeth. They seamlessly blend with enamel to enhance your smile. Due to being highly customizable, they match the shape, color, and size of each tooth.
Gum Recontouring
Sometimes, an appearance challenge involves your gums instead of your teeth. When that happens, people will often say that a smile looks “gummy.”
If you have this issue, you’ll want to seriously consider gum recontouring. The procedure uses a dental laser to remove excess gum tissue from your mouth. In doing so, it exposes more of your teeth’s enamel and emphasizes your smile’s shape and whiteness.
Invisalign
Invisalign is a procedure that uses clear, plastic-like aligners to align teeth over a year or so. To ensure steady progress, the straightening process has patients switch out these aligning trays every few weeks.
Compared to braces, Invisalign has several advantages. For one, its trays are removable and thus don’t interfere with eating or teeth-cleaning. The treatment is also subtle and discrete, not involving things like metal brackets and wires.
To learn more, feel free to talk with a local dental provider. They can guide you on which (if any) cosmetic procedure would meet your needs.
About the Author
Dr. Lauri Barge is a dentist based in Flower Mound, TX. She and her team are committed to providing patients with the best dental care possible! To that end, they offer preventive, cosmetic, and restorative dentistry, even performing emergency treatment as necessary. Dr. Barge is also a certified provider of dental sedation and Invisalign clear aligners. As of now, she practices at her self-titled clinic and can be reached at her website or by phone at (972)-539-3800.