Smile Design - The Latest in Cosmetic Dentistry
In today’s culture, being embarrassed about your smile can leave you lacking confidence around your friends, family, and colleagues. Our smiles represent not just our mood, but our overall health, confidence, and social status. If you feel like your smile isn’t representing the true you, we can help.
The latest in cosmetic dentistry is called “smile design” - a comprehensive approach to restoring and improving your smile to its best. Together with your cosmetic dentist, you can “design” the ideal smile that will radiate health and happiness. Because it’s an all-inclusive approach to understanding your dental needs and goals, our experts will have a thorough discussion with you about your concerns and priorities, your likes and dislikes, and your desired results.
Once we agree on the desired results, we’ll prepare a customized treatment plan to put you on a path to having your best possible smile.
What Is Involved in the Evaluation Process?
The new and improved smile should look dazzling and also natural. That’s why we’ll conduct a comprehensive evaluation to consider your tooth size, tooth alignment, mouth symmetry, facial shape, skin complexion, and smile dimensions. In addition to a visual examination, we’ll use X-rays, dental photography, and detailed measurements to help guide our treatment. Our smile analysis will address esthetic and functional concerns and provide a complete oral health evaluation.
Which Dental Problems Can Smile Design Treat?
Designing your ideal smile means imagining your ideal smile. Whether you’re concerned with stained and discolored teeth, worn down teeth, chipped or broken teeth, misaligned teeth, irregularly shaped teeth, or gaps between your teeth, our complete approach to re-inventing your smile will address these concerns and more.
What Are the Common Techniques Used in Smile Design?
A variety of techniques are available for designing the perfect smile. The extent of the treatment all depends on your needs and goals. Most often, the process includes tooth whitening and porcelain veneers, and sometimes a dental crown. At our office, we can match your individual preferences and ideals with realistic and effective treatment options.
- Whitening: A peroxide-based material is applied directly to teeth to reduce staining and discoloration.
- Veneers: A custom-made thin shell of tooth-colored material (usually porcelain) is permanently cemented to the front surface of a tooth to repair tooth discoloration, chipped teeth, and gaps between teeth.
- Crowns and bridgework: A tooth-colored material is used to cover and restore heavily damaged teeth or replace missing teeth.
- Bonding: A tooth-colored resin is applied to chipped, broken, or decayed teeth and hardened and bonded with a special light. The procedure is less involved than dental veneers.
- Enamel shaping: Small amounts of enamel (the tooth’s outer layer) is removed to reshape the tooth to an ideal form.
- Orthodontics: Using Invisalign® or traditional braces, the teeth are re-aligned into the proper position.
- Implants: To replace a missing tooth, a titanium post is surgically implanted in the jaw and a crown (an artificial tooth) is attached to the post.
- Gum contouring: In a minor surgical procedure, the position of the gum tissue and sometimes the underlying bone is altered to improve the look of the gum line around the teeth.
Learn More about Porcelain Smile Design
For more information about smile design and smile makeovers, we invite you to contact our dental care centers today. Our dentists have served thousands of patients in the Boston area for more than 20 years. We look forward to meeting you and learning how we can help you achieve the smile of your dreams.
