How to Refresh and Enhance Your Smile

Sunday 8 April 2012 @ 7:15 am

There are many ways in which you improve your smile. Your options belong in a wide array, depending on costs, chair-time, length of treatment and commitment involved. Some methods, like tooth whitening and the recontouring of tooth or gums, are fast, easy and affordable; while others like crowns and veneers may be costly and require multiple visits. There are yet other options like orthodontic therapy with a variety of appliances that may require a longer time for producing results and demand high levels of commitment from you for success. Let’s take a look the options.

Tooth whiteners or bleach

Quite often the biggest reason for dissatisfaction would be due to their stains and discoloration. While veneers or other methods may help, this is truly over treatment. If your only issue is stained teeth, you can solve the problem in no time at a little cost with an in office or take home tooth whitener. Usually in office tooth whitening procedures under the supervision of your dentist brings more uniform whiteness.

Read the FreeDentistFinder.com article, Improving Your Smile: Top Tooth Whiteners in the Market, for more about tooth whitening options.

Recontouring of teeth

Reshaping or recontouring involves removing a small amount of the tooth enamel to change the shape, length or the surface of a tooth to improve appearance. Tooth recontouring is a relatively easy and fast process which can bring about a distinct change to your smile. An uneven line at the bite surface, teeth that are longer than the rest of the front teeth or teeth that are slightly out of shape or rotated may be made to look more harmonious with the rest of the teeth with recontouring. This procedure is also referred to as enameloplasty, odontoplasty, tooth stripping or slenderizing.

Recontouring the gums

Recontouring of the gum line is an easy procedure that can make a dramatic difference to your smile literally within minutes and at little cost. When teeth are even at the bite surface, but appear to be of different heights due to an uneven gum line, this can be solved easily with gum recontouring provided you have sufficient gum tissue to make a difference.

Orthodontics

Orthodontic treatments can correct misaligned or rotated teeth and improperly aligned jaws. Overbite, underbite, crossbite and open bite can be treated and corrected with orthodontic therapy. A misplaced midline, where the center of upper and lower front teeth do not align with each other, as well as crowded teeth and spacing between teeth can be treated by an orthodontist to improve your smile.

Braces, other special fixed alliances, fixed space maintainers and a variety of removable appliances such as aligners, such as Invisalign, removable space maintainers, splints, lip and cheek bumpers, palatal expanders and removable retainers can be used to treat orthodontic problems.

You can read more about orthodontic therapies in the FreeDentistFinder.com article on Are You a Candidate for Orthodontic Therapy? and in the Dental Treatments section in the article archive.

Because orthodontic therapy depends to a great degree on how the teeth, jaws and gums respond to the pressure or relief from the appliances used, orthodontic therapy takes a longer time to produce results than other alternatives mentioned here. The treatment for overcrowded teeth may include removal of some teeth and the realignment of the rest.

Dental crowns and bridges

Crowns are tooth shaped caps fitted over teeth and cemented into place to fully cover the entire visible part of the tooth above the gum line. When more than one tooth needs this treatment, bridges are used.

Many articles about dental crowns and bridges are found in the Dental Treatments section in the FreeDentistFinder.com article archive.

Dental veneers

Veneers are wafer-thin shells made of tooth colored materials that are custom made to fit over and cover the front surface of teeth that are visible when you smile. They are bonded onto the front of your teeth, after special preparation. Dental veneers are sometimes referred to as laminates.

You can read more about dental veneers in the Dental Treatments section in the FreeDentistFinder.com article archive.

Which option is best for you?

That depends entirely on your specific problem. Talk to your dentist to see which type of treatment is best for you. In case you need treatment by a specialist orthodontist, your local dentist can refer you to one. You can find a local dentist or dental specialists like orthodontists on the FreeDentistFinder.com network of quality dentists. Just login to the website and do a zipcode search for your area to locate a dentist near you. You can also search for dentists by specialization.

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