Teeth

Your teeth are an important part of the way people perceive you, and a flawed smile makes for an imperfect first impression. If you’re concerned about the appearance of your teeth and interested in exploring your options, a cosmetic dentist who specializes in tooth whitening, straightening, and veneers can help to restore your smile to its natural brilliance.

Teeth Whitening

Tooth whitening is a fairly simple process that removes all kinds of stains and discolourations from your teeth, leaving you with the bright, white smile you’ve always wanted. Whitening can be done in the dentist’s chair or at home, using specially prepared whitening strips and chemicals that your dentist will size and prescribe for you.

Whitening removes extrinsic stains, the kind that happen as a result of eating pigmented foods and drinks like coffee, tea, cola, wine, fruit, and tobacco. It can also have an effect on the deeper intrinsic stains that come with age, tooth damage, or grinding.

Using Veneers to Shape and Straighten Teeth

Veneers are one of the most powerful tools in any cosmetic dentist’s repertoire, because they make it possible to change virtually anything about your teeth without having to treat the teeth themselves. Without more involved procedures like crowns or whitening, veneers can be used to alter the surface and appearance of your teeth by:

• Reshaping long, short, misshapen, or chipped teeth

• Straightening an uneven bite

• Aligning crooked teeth

• Whitening stained or discoloured teeth

• Repairing cracked teeth

Veneers are applied on top of the tooth, and glued in place to present a new surface that is durable, permanent, and impossible to discern from the real thing. Unlike straightening, the effect is immediate and there’s no need to mess with whitening products in the dentist’s chair or at home.

Correcting Crookedness with Invisalign Straightening

For those who want to straighten their teeth permanently but don’t want to deal with unsightly braces, there’s a new method called Invisalign. This system uses a series of custom-made retainers to gradually shift your teeth into their proper position. Best of all, Invisalign retainers are completely clear and virtually undetectable – it’s nearly impossible to tell that you’re wearing them – and they work for adults as well as kids.