Look in a lit mirror, at normal speaking distance, while showing a broad, happy smile:
- Are your upper teeth crooked, crowded, or uneven ?
- Are there spaces between your teeth ?
- Do your teeth look dark, discolored, or yellow in appearance? Some beauty consultants suggest that your teeth should match the color of the whites of your eyes to look naturally healthy.
- Do you have stains on your teeth, or irregular brown or whitish spots?
- Are the edges of your upper teeth pointed or worn perfectly flat . Flat worn teeth can make you look old. Sharp pointed teeth can give you a harsh "Dracula look".
- Have your teeth worn or your bite collapsed over the years, causing your chin-to-nose distance (vertical dimension) to decrease? If so, this can cause a sunken appearance, premature wrinkles, and sometimes jaw joint (TMJ) problems.
- Do you show 2/3 or more of your teeth when you smile? Or do you show mostly gums when you smile, or show very little of your teeth?
- Bite your teeth together. Do all of your upper teeth slightly overlap your lower teeth, both vertically and horizontally? Do some teeth stick out or appear crowded out?
- Do you see any front teeth with old dark fillings or gray looking side teeth?
- Now with your mouth open, look at the teeth in your lower jaw. Do your lower front teeth appear crooked or chipped? Do you see a lot of dark, discolored, unsightly old silver fillings in your back teeth ? This is how people see you when you talk or laugh.
- Do you have any missing teeth?
- Floss between all of your teeth, then smell the floss. Do you have bad breath? We can help.
How did you do? If there are any areas of your mouth or smile that you feel need improvement, let's go over what we can do about it! Below is a list of corrective procedures that can dramatically improve your smile. Usually they only take one or two appointments. |
| The Smile Makeover |
Cosmetic Bonding
In most cases of crowded, chipped, gapped, discolored, or unsightly teeth, we can bond a special composite resin tooth colored material over the teeth, covering up most defects. This procedure is also used to close spaces and gaps between teeth. Many times, we can bond crooked teeth and it will give the illusion that they look straight, without doing braces! We call this "Instant Orthodontics" . Bonding is an easy procedure and is done in one appointment. Bonding may require periodic polishing and can occasionally stain or chip, but it is a relatively economical and conservative treatment.
Orthodontics
Crooked, crowded teeth that are too severely out of line to correct with bonding, veneers, crowns, or recontouring, may need braces instead. Orthodontics is a popular procedure even with adults. It now is done with "clear" braces and isn't the hassle that many people think it used to be. Many of our adult patients have undergone orthodontics and love the results.
Bleaching
This procedure can dramatically whiten your teeth easily while you are at home, at work, or while you sleep! Bleaching gets rid of deep discoloration in teeth, as well as years of stain from smoking, foods, beverages, and yellowing caused by natural aging of teeth. We use custom-made soft rubber mouthguards that evenly coat your teeth with a special American Dental Association approved bleaching gel. You do this simple procedure at home for only 30 minutes per day for 1-2 weeks. OR, we can whiten your teeth in our office with the new ZOOM! whitening in about one hour! We have seen teeth brighten 8-14 shades lighter!
Dental Cleanings
The quickest and easiest way to brighten your smile is to have them cleaned and polished! Stain builds up over time and toothbrushing won't get it all off. A professional dental cleaning uses hand instruments and a special abrasive cleaning paste to polish up your smile. Hard to clean stains and tartar can gently and painlessly be removed with our ultrasonic cleaning wand to make your mouth squeaky clean and fresh!
Cosmetic Recontouring
This is a great corrective procedure for evening out irregular or chipped edges on upper and lower teeth. We can painlessly reshape the tooth edges with special instruments to soften your smile, getting rid or crooked, jagged, or uneven edges. Sometimes crooked teeth that may look like they need braces can be magically transformed into a beautiful even set of healthy teeth with a quick Cosmetic Recontouring procedure. It is very comfortable and economical.
Gingival Recontouring
If you have a “gummy” smile or short looking teeth, we can re-sculpt the gum line around the necks of the teeth to expose more visible tooth surface. The result is longer, more natural looking teeth. This works great where the gum line around one tooth is higher or shorter than that of the other teeth. This simple procedure can make the teeth look even in length and give you a beautiful smile!
Porcelain Crowns
We now have the ability to make a lifelike all porcelain crown that looks so close to a natural tooth, it's hard to tell the difference. Crowns provide needed strength and are done on weak or broken teeth, or teeth with large old fillings.. They also do a beautiful job of masking out everything underneath.
White Fillings In Back Teeth
We can replace old, unsightly silver fillings in back teeth that show when you talk or laugh. Old silver fillings age over the years, eventually corroding and turning black. The new posterior composite resin fillings are as strong as the old silver ones, yet they don't corrode, and they blend in with your natural tooth color. Get rid of that old silver "metal mouth", and have a new young natural look.
Do you Have Any Missing Teeth?
IMPLANTS: If you have a missing tooth, sometimes an implant can be placed. This is a metal "socket" that is surgically placed in the jaw. We can then attach a crown to the implant. These are excellent, time tested restorations that look, feel, and function like real teeth.
BRIDGES: Another way we can replace missing teeth to restore a "broken" smile, is with a variety of bridges. A bridge is a false tooth that fills in a missing tooth and attaches to the adjacent teeth. It "bridges" the gap. The latest type of bridge procedure involves a non-metallic, porcelain/composite bridge called the Targis/Vectris bridge. These bridges have great esthetics with no metal shadows and require minimal tooth preparation. It is essentially a false tooth attached to the tongue side of the adjacent two teeth. The attachment is completely hidden and smooth to the touch. It feels like a real tooth and you do not take it out.
HIDDEN CLASP PARTIAL DENTURES: Unlike most partial dentures you may have seen, we now have the technology in many cases to hide the metal clips that hold them in place. In some cases we can make "claspless" partials, and in others we have partials with flexible rubber-like tooth-colored clasps for maximum esthetics.
CUSTOM LIFE-LIKE DENTURES: Replace your old worn dentures with new youthful, natural looking dentures. We can change your tooth color, shape, size, and other features to give you a younger, more beautiful smile.
There are so many things that can be done to improve your smile and appearance. So why let time and age take its toll? Call us for an appointment for a SMILE CONSULTATION so we can go over your specific situation and see what we can do for you!
Do you Have Bad Breath?
Once you get a smile makeover, don't forget to check your breath. Bad breath can be a real social turn off! We have new breath products available to tame many mouth odors. These toothpastes and rinses breakup the bacterial sulfur compounds in your mouth that cause bad breath. We also go over special oral hygiene techniques to keep mouth odor away.
