A smile can be the most eye-catching feature of your face.
Even a subtle change can make a big difference in the way
you look and feel. New techniques like bleaching,
bonding, enamel
shaping, veneers, and white
fillings allow us to create a beautiful smile with,
at times, only minimal changes to existing teeth.
Bleaching
(Whitening) is a very popular procedure in cosmetic
dentistry. It is a relatively easy and effective technique
for obtaining a dazzling, whiter smile, at home, in a matter
of days.
Bonding
is a procedure where tooth-colored composite resin material
is placed to "fill in the blanks." One of the
most frequent uses of the bonding technique is to fill in
a gap between front teeth.
Enamel
Shaping (Contouring) is the process of shaping natural
teeth to improve their appearance. Shaping can be used to
correct minor cases of crowded or overlapping teeth, smooth
rough edges, or make small adjustments to the shape of a
tooth.
Veneers
are laboratory fabricated, porcelain facings that are bonded
to the front surfaces of teeth to whiten teeth, close spaces,
straighten teeth, or repair chipped or worn teeth. The veneers
are only about 1 mm thick (the thickness of a fingernail).
That same thickness is "shaved" off the natural
tooth surface so when the veneer is bonded to the tooth,
the tooth doesn't feel or look "thicker".
Crowns
(Caps) are rarely used for cosmetic correction any
more, since the advent of veneers, but in some cases a crown
may be necessary for a particular tooth. A tooth with a
bad fracture or a large
filling that is breaking down,
or has decay around it, may be a candidate for a crown instead
of a veneer. This patient has veneers on top, but one of
the front teeth had a large filling and had to be crowned.
White
fillings replace silver or gold fillings with a
more natural looking tooth-colored material. Since teeth
are translucent, dark fillings cause the whole tooth to
appear darker when viewed from the side. Replacing older
dark fillings with white fillings will keep your smile glowing!
