Transforming Your Smile and Your Life With Cosmetic Dentistry
We all admire the perfect teeth of big screen and TV stars. While some are more gullible, most recognise this perfection is due to quality cosmetic dentistry. Almost everyone is impressed by good looks, and there is more than enough evidence to suggest that appearances can profoundly influence one’s success in many areas of life. While a stylish dress or well-tailored suit and a bit of help from a good hairdresser can do wonders for your job prospects, few things impress more than perfectly aligned, straight white teeth.
Attempts to restore someone’s smile are not new. Etruscans first attempted specialist dentistry around 700 BC, closely followed by the Egyptians. The former used ivory and bone to fashion dentures or replaced missing teeth with those from animals and deceased humans, while the latter used gold to create primitive crowns and bridges. As the centuries passed, the art of making dentures improved, providing more realistic porcelain prosthetics to replace lost or extracted teeth. However, specialist dentistry probably received its most significant boost in the 1900s, following the invention of more durable and lighter plastics and acrylics.
That same era also saw the cosmetic dentist experimenting with hydrogen peroxide and bleaching lights to whiten discoloured teeth and eventually developing carbamide peroxide, which enabled patients to continue their bleaching treatments at home. Today, the growing demand for aesthetic dental procedures could soon rival that for general dentistry.
Some Typical Cosmetic Dentistry Procedures
While the general dentist addresses the health requirements of your teeth and gums, the cosmetic dentist focuses on their appearance. The following are some of the more common procedures undertaken by a cosmetic dentistry specialist:
- Inlays and onlays: These partial restorations are also known as indirect fillings and are used where a mildly or moderately decayed tooth lacks sufficient structure to support a conventional filling. Porcelain composite or ceramic inlays cover smaller areas, while onlays cover the whole tooth.
- Dental Veneers: A veneer is a custom-made cap that fits over your natural teeth. Veneers can resolve several cosmetic problems, including crooked or damaged teeth, unsightly gaps between teeth, and enamel loss, leading to stubborn discolouration. Veneers are applied directly to the front of affected teeth and held in place with a powerful dental adhesive. They are an excellent investment as, with care, they can last 15 years or more.
- Composite bonding: This is another alternative to conventional fillings in which material similar in colour to tooth enamel is carefully sculpted to fill the drilled spaces and hardened with high-intensity light.
- Implants: A dental implant is a manufactured replica of a missing tooth attached to the jawbone with titanium screws. This option is a popular alternative to conventional dentures.
- Advanced teeth whitening: Although gel trays and bleaching agents, with or without laser assistance work reasonably well, improvements are relatively slow and require multiple treatments. However, a more recent technology can achieve much more in a single session.
Cosmetic Dentistry In Gauteng
Dr Ivan Marks offers advanced cosmetic dentistry services from three practices in this province. Inlays, onlays, veneers, crowns, bridgework and dentures can often be engineered at the chairside using CEREC technology to complete treatments in a single day. Why not book an appointment with us today and experience the difference?