A Smile. It costs nothing, but creates much. It enriches those who receive, without impoverishing those who give. It happens in a flash and the memory of it lasts forever. None are so rich that they can get along without it, and none are so poor but are richer for a smile. Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed or stolen, for it is something that is no earthly good to anyone until it is given away.
Your smile is the most important feature of your face. Studies have shown that people with attractive smiles are perceived as being more friendly, intelligent, and competent.
A smile says much about a person's personality. It can be warm and inviting. It can also portray someone as cold and unfriendly. If you are uncomfortable with your smile, whether due to the shape, color, spacing or crookedness of your teeth, you might try to subconsciously hide your smile with either hand gestures in front of your face, or perhaps keeping your lips somewhat together. When your smile is healthy and attractive people tend to want to associate with you more and life becomes more enjoyable.
There are many factors which influence the appearance of your smile:
There are several procedures which can be simply utilized to help create a beautiful smile.
Bonding is a very basic procedure where the teeth have a very esthetic tooth colored material applied to them. The material is shaped by the dentist and can be used to close spaces, lengthen teeth, and correct chips and fractures. It can be placed on the front of the tooth to change the color of the tooth.
The advantages to bonding are that it is painless, results are immediate, and there is very little drilling of the tooth.
The disadvantages are that it has a limited esthetic life expectancy since it will chip and stain over time - therefore requiring routine maintenance.
Porcelain veneers and porcelain crowns can be used to very esthetically correct a variety of problems, such as:
Porcelain veneers and crowns are a very exciting advancement in cosmetic dentistry.
Dynamic results can usually be achieved within a week or two.
For those patients who would like to see a preview of what could be done with their smile we suggest a "pre-treatment wax up." An impression is taken of your teeth and the laboratory will mold tooth colored wax into a very esthetically pleasing result. This will show the patient what their smile could look like.
Pretreatment wax-up
Cosmetic contouring and reshaping. In some cases, especially if the teeth have chips or are slightly uneven, we can very easily, without anesthesia, reshape the teeth to remove the chips or worn areas. Many times this will greatly improve the esthetics of the teeth. We can round the edges of the teeth to soften their appearance. Pointed canines, which can have a very dominant look, can be recontoured to look less like a vampire.
View a page of pre- and post-operative photographs.
