How Cosmetic Dentists Improve Tooth Sizes and Your Smile

Cosmetic dentists have more to them than just working with one’s appearance – due to the stereotypes associated with cosmetic dentistry; many people can often assume that cosmetic dentists don’t work with their patient’s health or consider the implications of their treatments. However, that assumption is far from the reality of everyday cosmetic dentists working with patients. For patients receiving treatment, cosmetic dentists often have to combine both the oral health implications and their cosmetic desires, using an amalgam of technical and artistic skills to create a smile that’s both beautiful and healthy. This is particularly important when it comes to reshaping tooth sizes and altering the appearance of their smile drastically.

Why Cosmetic Dentistry Isn’t Just Superficial

Cosmetic dentistry focuses on enhancing one’s smile through various restorative and cosmetic techniques, including veneers, crowns, implants, and tooth whitening treatments. While many may perceive patients as having perfect smiles already, the truth of the matter is that many who do come in often experience misshapen, chipped, or gap-filled teeth for various reasons. Some of those reasons may be hygienic, other genetic, and some may experience traumatic accidents and other circumstances that ultimately lead them to their current smile. These factors may facilitate the need for cosmetic procedures, as cosmetic procedures are sometimes the only options these patients have towards correcting these problems in the first place.

For those with misshapen teeth, their overall health can be greatly impacted by it as well. Gaps in a person’s smile or chipped teeth can often cause issues with maintaining good oral health, leading to the development of bacteria along with the enamel, which increases the risk of other conditions, such as cavities, gum disease, and severe tooth decay that requires extractions.

Improving Tooth Size and Shape Through Cosmetic Dentistry

Various procedures, therefore, can be discussed and performed to help create the changes needed to protect the patient’s health and provide them with an aesthetically pleasing smile. These procedures can range widely depending on the person’s needs, but for correcting tooth shape and size, these methods are more often used:

• Dental Bonding: Dental bonding is considered the most conservative method, as it removes small areas of the enamel and adds bonding material to reshape the tooth back to a healthy state.
• Inlays and Onlays: Inlays and onlays work similarly to crowns as they attempt to replace a significant portion of the tooth by covering it with an indirect restoration, specifically to prevent further cavity damage.
• Dental Veneers: Veneers are often considered one of the most popular methods due to their ability to transform smiles immediately. By only removing a small portion of enamel, the veneer can work to cover imperfections and maintain mouth integrity visibly.
• Dental Crowns: Crowns work in numerous situations where cavity damage has been severe enough that that tooth crown needs to be replaced. These mainly work for molar teeth and canines.
• Dental Implants: As the most innovative option, dental implants replace teeth severely damaged and helps support healthy jaw function.

Cosmetic dentistry, therefore, is a field of dentistry that attempts to correct these problems through effective, affordable means while also taking the patient’s health in mind. If you experience any signs of misshapen, gapping teeth, then your cosmetic dentist is the first solution towards a better, healthier smile.