Many of our everyday habits such as smoking, drinking coffee and coloured sugary drinks as well as consuming foods high in sugar and carbohydrates lead to staining and damaging the teeth enamel. Moreover, teeth discoloration is one of the conditions associated with the normal aging process.
There are many over-the-counter teeth whitening solutions, but not all of them are suitable and equally effective in different situations. The world of cosmetic dentistry does not consist only of whitening toothpastes, rinses, strips and tray-based whitening solutions; when none of these and similar products can’t help you get the smile of your dreams, you’ll certainly find the solution to your aesthetic dental problem in cosmetic dentistry. In fact, why waste your time and nerves trying all of them? Turn to cosmetic dental care, you’ll certainly get what you are looking for.
Cosmetic dental care treatments range from simple to rather complex restorative procedures that are performed with the purpose of improving the appearance of teeth. More specifically, cosmetic dentistry is a branch of dental medicine that deals with solving aesthetic dental problems such as misaligned, misshaped, discolored, worn, chipped and missing teeth as well as gummy smile, gaps in-between teeth and too narrow smile. Let’s go through the main cosmetic dentistry procedures so that it is easier for you to choose the best cosmetic dental care for your cosmetic dental problem.
Professional Teeth Whitening
This is the most common cosmetic dental procedure. As its name implies, this dental procedure includes methods for lightening the colour of the teeth enamel for several shades (depending on how stained and discolored your teeth are and the result you want to achieve). In general, teeth-whitening is performed with the use of a special bleaching gel. Also, there is a laser teeth-whitening procedure which is also known as zoom teeth whitening which can whiten your teeth for up to 8 shades for less than an hour. Pretty impressive, right?
Dental Veneers
These thin shells (about 1mm) are made from special, medical-grade porcelain; they are custom-made, which means they are made to resemble the shape and size of the patient’s natural teeth. Dental veneers are bonded to partially broken, stained, misshaped or cracked teeth. Also, these veneers are used for improving the look of teeth that have noticeable gaps in-between.
Crowns
Dental crowns are similar to dental veneers, the difference being that crowns are made to cover the entire tooth – meaning they are used for covering severely stained and damaged teeth. Your dentist might recommend you placing dental crowns if you have larger fractures or deep hairline cracks on one or more teeth. Before placing the crown, the dentist re-shapes the natural tooth, or more specifically, a part of the tooth enamel is removed in order enough space to be opened for the crown to fit naturally. Also, crowns might be used to cover dental implants.
Invisalign
If your teeth are misaligned but you don’t feel like wearing metal braces, then Invisalign is the solution you are looking for. Invisalign is in fact a system of custom-made aligners that can straighten your teeth. These aligners are almost invisible, pretty comfortable to wear and removable, which makes them a much better alternative than all those uncomfortable metal braces with wires. Aligners are made of high-quality translucent plastic material. By wearing them for 22 hours on a daily basis, the aligners will gradually move and align your teeth. The small price to pay for the heavenly smile they will help you get, you will have to visit your dentist every 2 weeks so that he can change your aligner.
