People love cosmetic and implant dentistry because both can literally transform your smile. Whether patients come in with merely discolored teeth or missing, chipped teeth in need of more serious implant work, cosmetic and implant dentists have a number of tools at their disposal to improve the appearance and function of patients' dentition.
Cosmetic and Implant Dentistry: Complementary Disciplines
Both cosmetic and implant dentistry have the ability to transform your appearance, but each discipline does so using different techniques.
Although there can be significant overlap, a cosmetic dentist makes use of techniques like bleaching, contouring and reshaping to enhance the appearance of a patients' current set of teeth. Cosmetic dentists can, in short, help with:
- Bleaching
- Veneers
- Crowns
- Bonding
- Contouring
- Reshaping
Implant dentists replace individual teeth as well as several teeth with the use of impressions and bridges. Some implant dentists even utilize implant-fortified full bridges as well as "upper" and "lower" dentures to give patients suffering from the effects of periodontal disease or severe tooth decay a new lease on life. Implant dentists essentially complement many of the techniques used in cosmetic dentistry and help with:
- Fixed bridges
- Single-tooth crowns
- Retained dentures
- Removable complete dentures
- Removable partial dentures
In light of the fact that the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research has shown that upwards of 90 percent of U.S. adults have tooth decay on some or all of their permanent teeth, there's never been a more pressing time for people to find out more about implant dentistry.
Getting your smile back with a bridge, crown or dentures offers hope and a second chance to millions of Americans suffering through the effects of edentulism and tooth decay.
Why People Love Cosmetic Dentists
One of the first things that patients associate with cosmetic dentists is the practice of bleaching.
Bleaching
Partly through the celebrity adoption of this practice and partly due to the overnight, transformative different that bleaching can make to a smile, bleaching has definitely come into vogue recently.
Bleaching is a safe process that chemically whitens teeth and turns patients' teeth many shades whiter. Discoloration in a patient's enamel - the tooth's surface - can occur for a number of reasons.
Coffee drinkers and cigarette smokers often experience a yellowing of their permanent adult teeth, but tooth whitening might provide a touchup to older adults whose teeth become discolored due to age, tooth decay or genetic factors.
Contouring
Another reason that patients love cosmetic dentists is because cosmetic dentists can contour and reshape chipped or crooked teeth. Contouring is also a helpful procedure for patients who want longer teeth shorter, or shorter teeth longer, and an even set of upper and lower teeth.
A recent study even shows that approximately one-third of U.S. adults isn't happy with his or her smile because of crooked or misshapen teeth.
Among this one-third that felt unhappy with their smiles, many felt that their smiles were exercising a detrimental effect on their social life and some even untagged photos of themselves on social media because of the stigmatizing effects of possessing a less-than-stellar smile. Contouring and reshaping procedures offer hope.
Veneers
Veneers are a thin piece of porcelain or resin that can be bonded to the front of a patient's front teeth to improve her smile. Some patients use veneers as a painless alternative, or complement, to bleaching in so far as both procedures improve discoloration and enhance patients' smiles.
People Also Love Implant Dentists!
A lot of the miracles currently going on in modern dentistry are taking place in the offices of implant dentists. That's because implant dentists can painlessly replace a single tooth with a bridge, or replace a whole set of upper or lower teeth with dentures.
Bridges and Crowns
Even with laudable dental hygiene and attention to detail, some patients suffer tooth loss as a result of aging or periodontal disease. Missing many adjacent teeth can result in a sunken-cheek appearance and even erode the confidence of some adults.
In fact, missing teeth can also result in late-onset speech impediments and a poorer digestion of food. Not good things.
Bridges can help by anchoring a realistic-looking, synthetic tooth into the gap between two natural teeth. Bridges and crowns can improve patients' quality of life, sense of self worth and overall confidence.
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Removable and Retained Dentures
Dentures have really come a long way over the last generation and can now be anchored onto the jaw arch and colored to a patient's underlying gum color. Painless, sedated surgery and snap connectors can also give patients a permanent set of retained dentures.
So, do you think your smile could benefit from cosmetic and implant dentistry?
