What Can Cosmetic Dentistry Do For You?
A lot. White and healthy teeth will always come across as a sight to behold during a smile. The most natural and healthiest form of white teeth we can ever get comes with teething, a process that starts around the first 6 months of life. After this period, it’s a downhill turn from white to the various shades of teeth we see around. Many factors contribute to this with the main culprit being the food, drinks, and drugs we have all had to consume down the years. Proper oral hygiene helps to maintain teeth color but it is just one of many other things we should do. Seeing a cosmetic dentist near you is another. So what is cosmetic dentistry?
Cosmetic dentistry is exactly what you think it is. The major focus is on creating and maintaining the appearance of a healthy set of teeth, gums, and the mouth in general. Better still, it does not stop there. Some procedures in the field help to preserve the structure and integrity of the teeth. Several procedures are relatively quick services that can be offered in one or two appointments, while others are more complex than that. A cosmetic dentist in Breckenridge can a wide range of these services. Let’s see what they are.
Professional Teeth Whitening
There are many options available to you for teeth whitening over-the-counter. We have kinds of toothpaste, whitening strips, mouthwashes. However, many of them can not give you the result you desire, assuming they provide any results at all. You would have to wait for weeks before any real changes. Worse still, there can be some sensitivity to and irritation from these products. With professional teeth whitening gotten from a cosmetic dentist near you, these are not issues to bother about.
Teeth whitening at a dental clinic is a basic and affordable way to get a bright smile. After plaque, tartar, and other debris are cleaned from the surface of each tooth, the process will begin. Your cosmetic dentist will use products with higher bleaching strengths than what obtains over-the-counter. Don’t be surprised if the teeth get lighter than their natural color. Teeth whitening isn’t permanent. Over the years, teeth can become stained and worn from food, drinks, drugs, and lifestyle choices like smoking. Regular oral hygiene is important. You can make a return trip to the dentist’s office for the procedure in two-three years.
Inlays And Onlays
They’re also known as indirect fillings. The tooth in question has little or no structure to support a filling, hence this method. This is common with mildly to moderately decayed teeth. Indirect fillings can be made from gold, porcelain, and composite materials. If there is no damage to the tooth cusps, the inlay is placed directly on the tooth surface. With an onlay, there’s damage to the tooth cusps hence it covers the entire tooth surface. An onlay will include one or more points of the tooth or covers the biting surface. Inlays and Onlays are created in the dental lab and molded onto your tooth by a dentist.
Beyond their cosmetic function, they serve to preserve what’s left of healthy teeth and provide support to strengthen teeth.
Dental Bonding
Cosmetic bonding takes 30-60 minutes per tooth. This means two to three teeth can be completed in one appointment. Here, a durable plastic material which is a tooth-colored resin is applied to the tooth and hardened with UV or laser light. This bonds the material to the tooth well. After this process, your dentist will trim, shape, and polish the tooth. Cosmetic bonding is a great way to fix decayed, chipped, cracked, or misshapen teeth.
Dental Crowns
A dental crown or cap can be made of metal, porcelain, ceramic, resin, or porcelain-fused-to-metal. They are used on the misshapen, decayed, or discolored tooth. The crown fits over the entire tooth above the gum line to cover the tooth. They can hold a cracked tooth or keep a weak one from breaking down finally. A dental bridge is made of crowns for the teeth on either side of a gap with false teeth in between.
So, are your teeth stained or discolored? Chipped? Broken? Misaligned? Misshapen? Get cosmetic dentistry near you for a solution.