8 Cosmetic Dentist Treatments To Help Get Your Smile Back

Jan 31
09:04

2011

Andrea Avery

Andrea Avery

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A good cosmetic dentist can help you get your smile looking its best. Whether you've got chips, cracks, missing teeth or discoloration, they've got a treatment that will work for you.

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Your smile is one of your most important assets. If you've got cracks,8 Cosmetic Dentist Treatments To Help Get Your Smile Back Articles chips, discolorations or missing teeth, a cosmetic dentist can get you looking your best again. New technologies in dentistry help to make it even easier and more painless. Here are 8 of the most popular treatments.

Dental Implants. If you've got missing teeth, this is a great way to replace them and nobody will even know. With implants, your dentist actually installs roots that go into your jaw so that they function like real teeth. Then, it's capped with a realistic cap so that it looks completely natural.

Inlays And Outlays. These are an improvement on the old concept of fillings. Like fillings, they're used to fill cavities or areas of your teeth that have damage. Unlike fillings, which are metal and put in during a dentist visit, these are made of porcelain. This gives them some advantages over the metal ones. They're also made with molds created in a laboratory.

Tooth Whitening. One of the most popular cosmetic dentist treatments is tooth whitening. Over the years your teeth naturally start to lose their white shine, and this treatment gets that blazing smile back. There are a number of different methods, but most of them use a bleaching agent. The most common technique is to use a tray that is placed in the mouth and bleaches the teeth white.

Enamel Shaping. This is a technique where the dentist actually shaves off some of your tooth's enamel to correct a chip or crack. It only takes a little bit of enamel shaping to get it looking natural again so that nobody will know. It's also known as enameloplasty, odontoplasty and slenderizing.

Dental Veneers. Usually made of porcelain, these are shells that are placed over cracks and chips so that they can't be seen. Not only do they hide imperfections, they can also make your teeth look whiter. This is often a preferred method to enamel shaping, which is irreversible once it's done.

Composite Bonding. Like veneers, these are shells that are placed over chips and cracks, but the procedure for making them is more involved. It can be used for chips or cavities. It's placed where it needs to be and then shaped and hardened by a highly focused light so that it blends perfectly with the rest of the teeth.

Teeth Straightening. We've come a long way from the old metal braces that we used to wear when we were kids. New technologies let dentists shape nearly invisible wire-based braces that help to actually straighten your teeth over time with no tightening necessary. There are lots of different options here, but all of them can allow you to straighten your teeth, even if you're an adult who is shy about letting the world know about it.

Dental Bridges. These are alternatives to dentures for filling in missing teeth. They are attached to the real teeth on either side of the false one and they don't have to be taken out and cleaned. They offer a permanent replacement.

These are just a few of the treatments your local cosmetic dentist can offer. No matter what's wrong with your smile, they can get it fixed with a minimum or headache to you.