Change Your Smile With Help From a Cosmetic Dentist

Imagine if your cosmetic dentist could have a direct impact on the way people view you, improving your social interactions and making it so you always make a perfect first impression. In a sense, that is exactly what a cosmetic dentist intends to do by improving your smile in a number of different ways. Why is a smile so important? The smile is probably the most used of all our facial features. We use it to portray interest, friendliness, competence, and a range of other emotions. We sometimes even smile when we need to pause to think about something before we speak. As such, the smile is an important part of our non-verbal language, especially when it comes to first impressions.

We have found that people make first critical judgments very quickly. In fact, first impressions are usually made within the first 15 seconds, sometimes as quickly as seven seconds, after meeting someone new. In this brief interlude, there is not much for a person to go on, and so the smile becomes of paramount importance. Fifty-three percent of people who were polled in a recent study stated that the first thing they notice about a person is their smile. Eighty-nine percent of the participants reported that a great smile is one of the key elements that makes a person more attractive to them. When you consider how important a first impression is in a situation like a job interview, it becomes imperative that you have a great smile that only your cosmetic dentist can help you achieve.

As a cosmetic dentist, we have a broad range of tools and procedures at our disposal to help you achieve your smile goals. Typically, we will start our relationship with a detailed consultation that will examine the goals you have, do a full examination of your mouth, and set a plan in motion to get you to your perfect smile. It is important to have questions and an idea of where you want to go with your smile as we talk. This allows us to pick procedures, set a timeline, and have a clear understanding of what you want to accomplish. For some things that need correcting, the procedures may take a little longer. An example of this is malocclusion, also known as crooked teeth, which could require braces or even oral surgery to correct, treatments that can last for months to a year or longer. Other treatments tend to be shorter in nature and work faster towards a better-looking smile. Of these, teeth whitening has become increasingly popular, so much so these days, it has spawned a multibillion-dollar, do-it-yourself industry that allows you to even do teeth whitening in the comfort of your own home. Another very popular tool a cosmetic dentist uses to correct stubborn stains, discoloration, damaged enamel, and even small chips and cracks are dental veneers. These ultra-thin pieces of porcelain are quick fixes to a number of issues and can be placed to give you a better-looking smile in one or two visits.

Implant Dentist  >  Oral Surgery

Dental Implants Have Revolutionized The Process of Replacing Teeth

Dental implants have done a great deal towards changing how people view tooth loss. For too many years losing a tooth meant that you would have to deal with wires, dental cement, and gooey adhesives to hold your false teeth in place. Today dental implants have created a system that not only gives you a new fake tooth, which is known in dentistry as the crown, but also replaces the root of the tooth that has been lost as well. This makes dental implants the most sophisticated, and the most stable, way to replace your teeth when they have been lost to diseases, age, or accident. Since this is a new technology for many people, there is often a number of questions that patients have regarding dental implants. Mostly this springs from wanting to understand how the technology works, what is the process for getting dental implants placed, and if you as a patient are eligible for receiving dental implants. For the last question, it is a little bit more involved than a simple yes or no answer. Simply put virtually anyone can get a dental implant if they are able to meet certain physical requirements.

It is important to remember that dental implants are placed by an oral surgeon or a periodontist because it is a surgical procedure to place the dental implant directly into the jawbone. In addition, there are a few conditions that may preclude you from getting dental implants. Some of these include people who have untreated periodontal diseases, patients who are undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, and people who have a heavy addiction to cigarettes or alcohol.

From a success perspective, dental implants are among the most highly rated devices available for tooth loss. While conservative estimates place the success rate of dental implants between 92% and 94%, there are other studies that show a national trend of 98% success ratios. For us, we know that percentages are good but also like to look at success from the perspective of how many decades our patients are able to use their dental implants without any problems. To achieve these high set goals we are very diligent about the process and take a painstakingly careful approach to the preparation. As such your journey to get dental implant will begin with a two-step consultation.

First we will talk about dental implants, your goals, and what is involved, and then you will have an extremely comprehensive oral examination. The oral examination tells us how healthy your mouth is while dental imaging technology is used to determine the health and density of your jawbone. Using x-rays and a CT scan we can tell if your jawbone has the required density to support and provide stability to a dental implant. In many cases, patients have experienced a loss in jawbone mass due to resorption, which we can correct using an alveolar bone graft. Using an onlay bone graft, we can create a dense block of bone that can sustain a dental implant. Healing takes around 6 months, following which we will be able to place the implant successfully.

Oral Surgery  >  Cosmetic Dentist