Broken, chipped, or missing teeth can be mended with Cosmetic Dentistry by using tooth-colored Bonded or Porcelain restorations! Tooth-colored bonding can also replace unattractive silver fillings. Yellow or gray teeth can be made whiter with Professional Bleaching (Whitening) and/or Porcelain Veneers. Cosmetic dentistry and smile makeovers are performed in our Cosmetic Dentistry office.
The quality of cosmetic dentistry differs depending on many factors. As an example, a single tooth-colored Bonding for the purpose of filling a cavity can consist of: tooth etchant (removes impurities microscopically and increases the surface area to create a better bond strength), primer (further roughens the surface of the tooth and allows for stronger adhesion of bonding material), dentin (enamel) bonding resin (with light or dual cured catalysts), self-cured posterior composites, and additional Premium bonding materials. Quality of these products is the second factor. Patients directly benefit from using top quality brands by reducing post-operative pain, resisting reoccurring breakage and tooth decay, and sustaining color-fastness over time. There are many benefits, but Premium materials are the most expensive and time-consuming to use.
On occasion, patients have multiple fillings that were done at different times within the same tooth. This ‘patchwork’ dentistry is not advised because decay is frequently present under these older, neighboring fillings. While less costly, it is unreasonable to add a new filling to an older, decaying one. Instead, it is recommended to remove all of the old fillings within one tooth when placing a new Bonded filling. Initially, this takes more time, but it will save you from work that could be needed later on in that tooth. Silver fillings are no longer used on patients in premium dental practices.
Cosmetic Caps (Crowns) should not reveal any metal on the outside. Frequently, dark metal can be viewed on the inside surface of many caps. This is because the results of crowns differ depending on the skill of the individual dental lab technicians as well as the skill of the individual dentists. Premium dental lab technicians make beautiful custom crowns that are individually made to fit the particular tooth in question. When necessary for finalizing color shading, a porcelain ceramist should be present at the dental office.
The expertise of your dentist in preparation and impression-making of your teeth for crowns is extremely important. Accuracy must be paramount to tolerances of less than 0.001 of a millimeter! It is also important that caps are not only beautiful esthetically, but are also created to reduce gum problems long-term (very bulky caps can irritate gums) and maximize cement preservation (reducing the chance the cap will fall out). The quality and cost of dental impression materials vary greatly. Therefore, the brand of materials used can teach a patient about their dentist and the care with which they practice.
A Premium dental practice can create beautiful cosmetic dentistry with a long lifespan.
–Dr. Jeffrey Dorfman, Director
The Center for Special Dentistry