It is important to maintain your oral health with routine preventive care – both in-office and at home. Though you may be taking all necessary steps to keep your smile healthy, everyday wear and tear can lead to discoloration or blemishing. While this may not directly affect your oral health, it likely affects your confidence and satisfaction with your grin. In today’s blog, your Lake Orion, MI dentist takes a closer look at cosmetic dentistry and explores the different avenues a person may take, depending on their surface-level smile needs.
The Role of Cosmetic Dentistry
From how often you attend routine checkups and cleanings to how thorough your at-home routine is, your dental health is dependent on a lot of different factors. Even nighttime teeth-grinding can impact your smile’s structural integrity, leading to increased risk of infection, serious damage, and more.
When you experience a surface-level issue with your smile that does not directly affect your health, however, your dentist may recommend a cosmetic dental treatment to help you achieve your smile goals. Cosmetic procedures often involve non-invasive or minimally-invasive treatment to help improve the health of your smile. Moreover, our team recognizes the individuality of your smile’s needs, and thus has different options to help meet many needs. From surface-level chips and cracks to noticeable stains and discoloration, we provide custom-tailored treatment to address all of your goals. For more information, reach out to our office today.
Addressing Stains and Discoloration
Your teeth are some of the strongest bones in the human body, and with proper care, they can last a lifetime. Over the years, however, your teeth come into contact with various substances that can cause staining and discoloration. For instance, beverages such as coffee and tea contain pigment that cling to enamel and cause spots to develop. Habits such as smoking and alcohol consumption can cause discoloration over time as well, producing a dull yellow hue.
In an effort to enhance one’s appearance, many turn to over-the-counter or store-bought smile whiteners. Oftentimes, these options lack the potency needed to achieve desired improvements. Fortunately, our team can assist you with non-invasive and convenient in-office or take-home dental whitening care.
When you attend your teeth-whitening visit with our office, we will apply a special whitening agent and activate it using a special light. From here, the material sets to work breaking apart difficult stains. We also offer take-home kits so that you can enhance your grin at your convenience. Learn what option best suits your needs by calling our team.
Tooth Bonding
Due to the lifelong impacts of routine tasks such as eating and drinking, most adults can benefit from dental whitening at some point in their lives. Though whitening can address stains and discoloration, it is no match for chipped teeth or hairline cracks. If this is more along the lines of what you are dealing with, your dentist may then recommend bonding.
Tooth bonding utilizes a tooth-colored composite resin to improve cosmetic flaws and promote symmetry. If a structure is chipped and presents an uneven appearance in your smile, the composite material can be used to fill the open area and correct the issue. Bonding can also be used to cover surface-level cracks and provide a near lifelike finish with the help of tooth-colored resin.
Gum Contouring
Sometimes a cosmetic insecurity may not come from how your teeth appear, but rather, having a gummy smile. In addition to appearance, gummy smiles create circumstances that may lead to health and other complications. These include difficulties cleaning your teeth properly, an increased risk of gum disease due to excess tissues for bacteria to hide beneath, and bad breath.
Gum contouring can help improve your chances of maintaining a healthy smile and to address your surface-level concerns. This process consists of utilizing laser dentistry for precision and minimizing impact. Different issues that can be treated with gum contouring may consist of removing excess tissue to lengthen your teeth, correcting imbalances for a more even appearance, and smoothing areas where the tissues appear uneven or bumpy.
A Symmetrical Smile with Lifelike Veneers
Your smile is just as unique as you are, and as such, cosmetic treatment is not a one-size-fits-all. While you may seek to address a chipped tooth, you may also want to enhance the brightness of your grin. Instead of pursuing all cosmetic treatment options and undergoing significant treatment, a simpler approach may be to consider porcelain veneers.
Veneers are thin shells constructed from dental porcelain to produce a lifelike restoration that minimizes changes to your tooth structure. Not only is the material used to make the veneers incredibly strong, but it is an effective option for treating multiple noticeable blemishes at once.
To place your veneers, your dentist will sculpt a minimal amount of enamel away from each structure undergoing treatment, then will bond the porcelain shell to the front of your teeth using dental cement. And that is all there is to it! Reach out to our office to learn more about the ways veneers can improve your smile’s appearance.
Learn More Today
You deserve to look and feel your best, and our team is ready to help you achieve your smile goals with cosmetic treatment. To schedule your appointment with our office or to learn more about cosmetic treatment we offer, contact Lake Orion Family Dentistry in Lake Orion, MI by calling (248) 693-6213 today.
