How Cosmetic Dentistry Resolves These 5 Dental Challenges

People who have discolored, stained, gapped, worn, misaligned, broken, or misshapen teeth need the help of a cosmetic dentist to improve their smile. Cosmetic dentistry pertains to a specialization of dentistry that involves dental procedures that aim to provide patients a better smile and improved appearance.

Some of the cosmetic dental procedures include teeth whitening, dental bonding, dental veneers, inlays and onlays, dental crown, and dental implants. The differences between general dentists and cosmetic dentists include the additional clinical experience the latter need to gain and additional certification to become qualified to perform cosmetic dental procedures.

In this article, you’ll learn how cosmetic dentistry resolves the following dental challenges:

1. Missing Teeth

People experience missing teeth or permanently absent teeth because of different reasons, such as injury or tooth extraction due to severely damaged or infected teeth. When you have missing teeth, the empty gum space may leave a lasting impact on your personality, especially if they’re obviously seen in the front part of the mouth.

The best solution for a missing tooth is replacing it with a dental implant. A cosmetic dentist, such as Mona Vale cosmetic dentist, can perform dental implants to fill in missing teeth so you can chew your food properly and bring back your self-confidence.

Here are the important things you need to know about dental implants for missing teeth:

• What Are Dental Implants? Often made of titanium, they replace tooth roots. These are inserted into missing teeth’s bone sockets. When the area heals, the jawbone grows around the implanted metal post to anchor the implant securely in the jaw and provide a foundation for the replacement tooth.
• Phases Of Dental Implant Surgery: The three phases of dental implant include placement of the implant (incising the gum and exposing the bone for the implant), attaching the abutment (metal base), and fitting the crown.
• Duration: The entire duration of the dental implant procedure and waiting period may take a few months because the jawbone needs to heal first before the actual crown fitting.

2. Discolored Or Stained Teeth

Poor dental hygiene, food, drinks, and medications are just some of the reasons why the tooth enamel becomes discolored. This dental challenge can affect a person’s appearance and self-confidence, especially during job interviews and public speaking engagements.

The best cosmetic procedure to solve this problem is teeth whitening. While teeth whitening kits are available for home use, teeth whitening performed by a certified cosmetic dentist is the most effective procedure to whiten discolored or stained teeth.

In-chair teeth whitening involves applying a highly concentrated bleach solution to the teeth, wherein an ultraviolet light activates the solution. Because this procedure is under the supervision of a cosmetic dentist, you can make sure that it’s safe.

3. Decayed Or Fractured Teeth

Decayed teeth are often a result of untreated dental condition that caused them to erode and decay. On the other hand, teeth grinding, chewing hard foods, and blows to the mouth are the common causes of fractured teeth.

The solution to this dental challenge includes inlays and onlays. A dental inlay involves fitting a pre-molded filling into the tooth. This procedure often restores cavities or dental caries that haven’t suffered from extensive tooth decay. On the other hand, a dental onlay repairs a decayed or fractured tooth with more extensive damage. The damage already spreads to the biting surface or cusp.

4. Gaps In Between Teeth

Improper teeth development may cause gaps in between teeth. This dental issue can affect your overall appearance. Dental veneers can help resolve this dental challenge.

Dental veneers or dental porcelain laminates refer to wafer-thin, customized shells that aim to improve the teeth’s appearance by covering their front surfaces. The cosmetic dentist bonds the thin shells to the front part of the teeth to change their color, size, shape, or length.

5. Chipped Or Cracked Teeth

Dental bonding can help restore the appearance of chipped or cracked teeth caused by blows and other types of injuries. The cosmetic dentist will apply a putty-like resin to the chipped or cracked tooth to mold and smooth it to the preferred shape. A blue light or laser hardens the resin material. The entire procedure may last 30 to 60 minutes.

Conclusion

Cosmetic dentistry is a crucial aspect in providing health and wellbeing to patients with stained teeth, or any unsightly look and condition of the teeth and gums. While people can still leave with these dental challenges, these conditions may affect their self-confidence, career, and entire life. Hence, undergoing cosmetic procedures can change an individual’s life drastically.