A dazzling smile and healthy teeth reflect good health and youthfulness. Beautiful uniform teeth also add to a person’s attractiveness. Cosmetic dentistry offers various treatments to correct dental issues like discoloration and misalignment of teeth. Cosmetic dentists transform the shape, color and size of your teeth to give them a stunning, yet natural looking appearance. This sort of dental treatment can go a long way in optimizing your oral health as well.
Dr. Zachary Linhart, a top cosmetic dentist from Manhattan has provided some deep insights into the topic in an interview on my Beauty Doc podcast. Read on to find out more about dental aesthetic treatments and also who might be a good candidate for it.
Different types of Cosmetic Dental treatments.
Healthy teeth are extremely important for our looks. Dr. Joel Kopelman says, “with age, however, our teeth not only get discolored, but also lose their strength.”
Our teeth may darken or start yellowing due to several reasons- poor dental hygiene, consuming stain-causing food, advancing age, tobacco consumption or too much fluoride in the water.
Teeth whitening is a very common aesthetic procedure to whiten discolored teeth. It uses bleach or Hydrogen Peroxide to help restore the natural, pearly white appearance of teeth.
Filling of cavities too is an important dental treatment. But cavity fillings can often result in a mouthful of unsightly silver fillings. To avoid this cosmetic dentists use composite resin. This is a very natural-looking material which has the exact same color as that of real teeth. It is also a tough plastic material, strong and easy to apply while filling up cavities in the teeth.
Enamel Bonding is another restorative technique to modify the shape and size of misaligned of teeth. It is done with a white composite resin bonding material, which is the same as filling material. The process of dental bonding involves drilling into the tooth structure and then placing the bonding in it. Dental bondings last for almost 5 years.
Porcelain Veneers Last Much Longer.
Porcelain Veneers are a very popular dental treatment performed to cover up chipped and discolored teeth. These veneers are made of thin shells of beautiful translucent porcelain. They are bonded to the teeth to bring out dazzling smiles that display white, uniform teeth.
Handcrafted by lab technicians and specialists, porcelain veneers are literally just half a mm thick. When bonded to the teeth, these veneers make them very strong and hard. Veneers are also extremely durable and last for decades.
Dr. Zachary Linhart points out that “the problem is that we’re seeing an increasing amount of tooth sensitivity and ‘erosion’. Erosion is where the tooth is actually melting away, much like the Wicked Witch of The West in the Wizard of Oz, when water is spilled on her, teeth melt away when exposed to acid.”
It may take a person at least two visits to a cosmetic dental clinic to get porcelain veneers done. In the first visit, the teeth are prepared to get their impression or mold taken. This is done either digitally or through placing the impression in a putty. Porcelain veneers are then modeled exactly on those impressions, sent to the lab to be made and perfected. This is done after having detailed discussions with patients. Veneers, when bonded to decaying teeth last anywhere between ten to twenty years creating lasting, beautiful and youthful smiles.
Need For Redoing Veneers
People have come to expect near-perfect smiles from veneers which typically last for 15-20 years. But veneers are not reversible. They can, however, be redone in 10 to 20 years again. More often than not, veneers are redone when the gums recede with age to display darkened teeth.
Veneers last long because they do not get stained by coffee, tea or even fluoride in water as do real teeth. This is because porcelain, unlike tooth enamel, is not porous. But after five or more years, the margins might start showing stains. For this very reason, dentists try to put the edges of the veneers along the side of the teeth.
Dental practitioners have got phenomenal results with porcelain veneers. They have also constantly strived to improve the strength, durability and aesthetics of these veneers. The most common veneers today are either made of Zirconia which is a very strong material. It is often used for sportspersons who are used to grinding their teeth under pressure. Or there are veneers that are made of E-max, a disilicate lithium which is much more commonly used.
Veneer bonding also happens to be a highly technique-sensitive procedure. The veneer has to be bonded in a way that it’s a perfect seal so as to prevent any kind of fungus or bacterial growth that can further cause tooth decay.
Chiclet teeth or Natural Looking Ones?
The look that you want from veneers is not opaque white but translucent enough to reflect light just like a real tooth. A lot of patients who come in today have what is called chiclet teeth, which basically means that their teeth are a little too white to be natural looking. But cosmetic dentists are now trying to achieve more natural-looking results for most of their patients.
Dr. Linhart says that “cosmetic dentists try their best to achieve the right size and natural color of teeth which fits with the patient’s own skin tone, personality and sex. Therein lies the art of cosmetic dentistry.”
The ‘Art’ in Cosmetic Dentistry
Restoring damaged teeth is as much art as medical expertise.
The impression of the teeth are assessed by lab experts and aesthetic dentists. The veneers are made after creating several such mock-ups. This involves a deep discussion with the patient about different models and options available to them. If the patient is not happy with the mock-ups, the veneers don’t go in.
There are many ways in which cosmetic dentists achieve the perfect look with veneers. Colors, for example, can be manipulated subtly to make the teeth look a certain length. According to Dr. Linhart, working with different materials also affects the making of veneers. Zirconia for instance, is strong but doesn’t have that translucence.
Cosmetic dentistry has also taken the advantages of latest technology. 3D printing and Internal scanners are used to create digital 3D models of teeth for greater precision. Older ways of taking the impressions of the teeth along with 3D digital models help in making the perfect veneers.
Cosmetic Dentists Also Use Botox.
Teeth form the structure of the mouth. Dr. Kopelman says that, as people age, the lips can also sink in or have wrinkles and lines because of tooth decay or receding gums.
Dentists in such cases are certified to use botox to uplift or enhance the lips to overall recreate beautiful smiles. Botox can also help with gummy smiles. It is a quick and easy solution to help uplift the upper lips.
Implants For Completely Broken Teeth
An implant is a replacement of a lost tooth. Implants can be done by cosmetic dentists. Dr. Linhart points out that, ”If you get hit by, say a baseball bat tomorrow and you lose a tooth, we can actually replace that tooth with an implant. A root is made into the bone, and then a temporary is put in. Six months later, the implant integrates with the bone and then we put in a permanent tooth.” An implant happens to be much better than temporary replacements, which need more care.
Restoring teeth to their natural function and appearance is the ultimate goal of aesthetic dental treatments. A good deal of it involves orthodontic work. Cosmetic dentists often work closely with regular dentist or dental experts like orthodontists, root canal and gum specialists. This makes the field of cosmetic dentistry quite interdisciplinary.
