Cosmetic Dentistry Services

    What services are considered cosmetic dentistry services?  There are several procedures in our bag of tricks to make sure you have the best cosmetic dentistry has to offer.

    Cosmetic recontouring of teeth enables us to reshape the teeth when minimal changes are desired.  We can round off a corner of a tooth, make a tooth flatter, even out the smile line in one visit.

    Dental bonding is a cosmetic dentistry service that is simple, painless, and fast.  In one visit we can repair chipped, cracked, or crooked teeth by using an enamel-like material that actually bonds to the tooth enamel to create a new color, repair a chip, or create a new shape for your teeth.  The material is added to the tooth surface, sculpted into the desired shape, hardened by being exposed to a special dental light, and polished to make a beautiful new cosmetic smile.  Tooth colored fillings can be placed to replace old silver fillings by using the bonding procedure.

    Teeth that are dark in color and have no fillings in them can be whitened either with take-home whitening kits or with one-hour in-office whitening.  In-office results are immediate and take home whitening results are enjoyed in about a week.

    The most cosmetic of the cosmetic dentistry services are porcelain veneers.  These are eggshell thin porcelain shaped to go over the surfaces of teeth to create the most dramatic smile makeover- newly shaped teeth, whiter teeth, straighter teeth, with a beautiful smooth porcelain finish.

    Broken down teeth can be restored with porcelain crowns and missing teeth can be replaced with conventional fixed bridges that are cemented in place, or teeth can be replaced with dental implants to support beautiful new porcelain crowns &/or bridges.

    For information on other dental topics, please visit DrTav.com

   

What Is Dental Bonding?

    Dental bonding is a technique in dentistry that is used to attach tooth-colored filling materials to the enamel of teeth.  This method allows us to restore teeth by removing a minimum of tooth structure.  Dental Bonding also strengthens teeth.

    How does dental bonding work?  A special solution called an etchant is placed on the tooth and this solution makes microscopic openings in the enamel.  When the tooth-colored material is placed on the tooth, the filling material fills the openings in the enamel.  The filling material is sculpted to replace the missing tooth structure or change the shape &/or color of the tooth.  Once the desired appearance is achieved, a special dental light called a curing light is aimed at the filling and the light sets the material and makes it hard.  The filling literally locks into the openings made in the enamel by the etchant.  This process strengthens the tooth and because the filling material locks into or bonds onto the enamel, little or no tooth structure has to be removed to secure the filling.

    Tooth-colored fillings can be bonded into back teeth in some instances to replace unsightly old silver fillings.  These types of fillings are better in premolars than molars.  Molars have to withstand the most pressure, so it’s better to use stronger materials like porcelain inlays/onlays or crowns on molars.  Molar teeth can be restored by using dental bonding to bond the inlay or onlay to the tooth.

    For information about other dental topics, please visit DrTav.com

   

What Is Cosmetic Dentistry?

    Of course, it’s most important to make sure your teeth and gums are healthy and you are doing the best you can to maintain your teeth for a lifetime.  We partner with our patients to get their mouths healthy and to keep them healthy, but once that’s been accomplished, there’s a whole field of dentistry devoted to making people look and feel their best, and that’s Cosmetic Dentistry.  Cosmetic dentistry is a blend of art, science, and technology that focuses on using a variety of the latest techniques and materials to give our patients the smiles they have always dreamed of.

    Cosmetic Dentistry makes it possible for people who hold back smiling (or are too embarrassed to smile because of flaws in the cosmetic appearance of their teeth) to smile- really smile!  It’s wonderful to have the tools in our arsenal that can help someone who has always covered their mouth when they smile or laugh, to laugh and smile freely and with confidence.  That’s what Cosmetic Dentistry is for.

  Cosmetic Dentistry has also proven helpful to business people so that they are more confident when dealing with the public.  Also, the fact that someone has an attractive smile has been shown to actually have customers/clients perceive the business person as more competent.  I guess confidence goes a long way, and nothing seems to make a person feel more confident than a healthy beautiful smile.

    What kind of changes can we make with Cosmetic Dentistry?  We can correct spaces between teeth.  We can repair broken or chipped teeth.  We can handle unsightly, stained or washed-out fillings.  We can whiten permanently stained or discolored teeth.  We can correct a crooked or poorly shaped smile.  We can change the size, shape, position and color of teeth!

    For information on other dental topics, please visit DrTav.com

Whitening Your Teeth At The Dentist

     When our patients are ready to whiten their teeth immediately, we provide whitening for them in the office in under an hour.  We use the Lumibrite Chairside Whitening System from DenMat because it is fast, effective and gentle so it therefore reduces the chances of sensitivity for our patients who whiten their teeth chairside.  It also contains fluoride for an even healthier smile.

     We use DenMat’s Sapphire Supreme Plasma Arc Curing and Whitening Light which has been clinically proven to whiten teeth in under an hour without the use of harmful UV rays.  It is the only such whitening light on the market and we use it because it is the safest whitening light in the market for our patients.

     Whitening your teeth in the office can result in teeth 8-10 shades lighter.  We find that additional whitening over time at home enhances and maintains the whitening achieved in the office.  Research also shows that the best whitening does happen over time.  We recommend to our patients to use take home whitening trays and whitening material after their in-office whitening to get and maintain the white bright smiles they are looking for.

     If you like your smile but wish it was whiter, whitening your teeth in the office is the fastest way to get a result, and it’s an amazing boost to your self-confidence.  It just makes you want to smile more with whiter teeth!

    For information on other dental topics, please visit DrTav.com