Had you guys even heard of Zoom meetings before last year? I sure hadn’t. But now Zoom is almost ubiquitous, from virtual school to telecommuting. It’s everywhere! And having that camera pointed right at your grill can really make you aware of how your teeth look. If your smile isn’t shining as bright as you’d like it to, you may want to consider cosmetic dentistry.

What Is Cosmetic Dentistry?

Many treatments fall under the umbrella of cosmetic dentistry. In general, it refers to any procedure that improves the appearance of your teeth, gums, and bite. While most people think of cosmetic dentistry as those big, shiny white crowns on a lot of Hollywood personalities, cosmetic dentistry is, at its best, a multi-discipline approach to creating your ideal smile.

There are many aspects of cosmetic dentistry that can simultaneously improve the health and stability of your teeth and gums. Regular dental cleanings are the best way to maintain gum health (link), but removing stains and tartar definitely help your smile look its best. And since healthy gums are the best frame for beautiful teeth, cleanings are essential to good esthetics!

Orthodontic treatments like braces and Invisalign can also qualify as cosmetic, even if the primary goal is to improve the function and health of your bite. Good alignment and a healthy bite are the cornerstones of excellent esthetics.

Quick and Easy Cosmetic Dentistry

Not all cosmetic procedures involve loads of work. For example, a dental cleaning to remove tartar and stains and get your gums nice and healthy might be all it takes. For many of us, whitening is a great, quick way to really take our smiles to the next level.

If you have some chipping or wear on your front teeth, as many of us do, small fillings may do the trick. By adding a little composite resin to a tooth, we can easily replace that missing corner from when you bit down on a fork at dinner. If a front tooth grew in smaller than you’d like, or with a curve that creates a space even though you had braces, we may be able to add composite to reshape the tooth and make it look more perfect.

Comprehensive Cosmetic Dentistry

Some cases will require a little more work than just whitening and fixing a few chips. If your smile needs a comprehensive approach, you are in the right place at Lake Baldwin Dental!

Porcelain veneers are a common cosmetic treatment. Veneers are thin layers of perfectly shaped, beautifully shaded porcelain that cover the front surface of a tooth. They are a great way to fix issues such as developmental stains, severe chips, and unevenly shaped or sized teeth.

Sometimes veneers don’t offer quite enough stability. In that case, full ceramic crowns come to the rescue. Full coverage can repair severely fractured or worn teeth. In addition, if you’ve had a root canal treatment on one of your front teeth, it may change color, and crowning that tooth will not only create better esthetics, but also protect the brittle enamel of a root canal treated tooth.

If you’re unhappy with your gummy smile, we can recontour your gums to create longer, more beautiful teeth. In some cases, gum recontouring and crown lengthening with porcelain restorations is a great combination to achieve smile perfection.

Frequently, combinations of treatments come into play. For example, if you have worn your teeth down over time and your bite has collapsed, bite reclamation combines restorations in the front and back of the mouth to not only improve the look of your smile, but also restore the proper position of your jaw and prevent further injury while increasing healthy function.

Replace Missing Teeth

A missing tooth is a sure way to wreck a great smile. The good news is that we have better ways now than ever before for replacing missing teeth and restoring perfection to your pearly whites.

One way to replace a missing tooth is to fill the gap with a bridge. By using full ceramic restorations, we can guarantee great esthetics and no black lines up near the gums like old crowns used to have. However, bridges also require working on the adjacent teeth, which we like to avoid if possible. Good news: there may be another option for some cases!

Implants offer the closest alternative to your natural teeth. These stand-alone restorations do not require working on the next-door neighbors. By creating a single replacement tooth with amazing stability and easy flossing, implants are frequently the perfect solution to missing tooth woes.

Call Us for a Cosmetic Consult!

If you find yourself dreading Zoom meetings, all those people looking up close in high definition at your smile on camera, don’t fret. Give us a call so we can schedule a consultation and decide what course of action may be best for you. If you need more than just whitening, we will make a model of your teeth and create a wax replica of our plan so that you can see—and even hold—exactly what your teeth will look like. Keep smiling—even in those Zoom meetings, Orlando!