Modern day cosmetic dentistry can improve your smile in ways never even thought of even in as little as ten or twenty years ago. Today’s popular cosmetic dentistry techniques such as veneers, implants, and teeth whitening can help you have a smile that you can show-off to the world and be proud to call your own.
Where the science of dentistry of the past was all about helping to relieve dental pain and other physical ailments, today’s dentistry has moved into the arena of improving both dental health and the overall look of one’s teeth and smile.
Because your teeth are some of the first things people notice when they meet you, people with dental issues often feel self-conscious about their smile. This self-consciousness often leads to a lack of self-esteem and self-confidence. Thankfully, with today’s modern cosmetic dentistry techniques, anyone interested in improving their teeth and smile can do so with some amazing results by having a smile makeover performed on them. The best news is that with today’s smile makeovers you can have the smile you always dreamed of with much less time commitment and virtually no pain.
A Brief History of Dental Science
Since its inception as an organized form of medicine, dentistry has gone through some major changes. Even within as little time as the last century dentistry has moved from being a fairly barbaric way of dealing with dental ills, into a more patient-centered specialty focused on both oral health and the look of one’s teeth.
According to the American Association of Cosmetic Dentists, the growth of cosmetic dentistry procedures between 1996 and 2000 was an amazing 300 percent. From this statistic alone, it is clear to see that as time passes and dental procedures improve, more and more people are looking to cosmetic dentistry as a way of improving their oral health and the look of their teeth and smile.
Cosmetic Dentistry Techniques of the Twenty-first Century
There are now many affordable cosmetic dentistry techniques, which can be used to improve the looks of your teeth. Today’s patient-focused techniques offer you great results for an affordable price with quick results and very little pain, if any. In addition, many of today’s techniques are designed to improve the oral health and smile of adults rather than those of children, as was the focus of the industry in the recent past.
Some of the most popular cosmetic dentistry techniques performed today include:
Teeth Whitening “Zoom”
Teeth whitening products have come to a point where your dentist can whiten your teeth in their office in as little as one hour. The teeth-whitening product named “Zoom” allows your dentist to whiten your teeth up to eight shades lighter in a single hour. Zoom also offers a “take-home” option where you can do your own teeth whitening at home. With this at-home option, you can see results of up to six shades lighter in as little as three days.
In addition to “Zoom,” there are many other teeth whitening products on the market, which are also very effective. Some people simply need to use specially designed toothpaste for a whiter smile, while others who require more whitening action choose options such as Crest Whitestrips, which are applied to the teeth and allowed the time to bleach out stains and discolorations.
For dental office teeth whitening, many people choose to have their teeth painted with a solution of peroxide and then hit it with the beam of a laser to remove discolorations. This option remains the leading choice among dentists today.
Lumineers Teeth Veneers
Lumineers are porcelain veneers, which are as thin as a contact lens and can be applied to your teeth without any drilling or filing of your teeth. Lumineers veneers can cover up chipped, stained, discolored, or even in some instances misaligned teeth. The best part is that they are completely painless to install and have been proven to last for over twenty years. With as little as two or three visits to your dentist, an application of Lumineers veneers can have your smile completely transformed.
Tooth Implants
One of the best recent advancements in cosmetic dentistry has to be the invention of implants. Tooth implants are essentially false teeth which are permanently installed into your jaw bone to replace lost, decayed, or crooked teeth. Implants are a permanent solution to replacing teeth, and once installed feel exactly like your natural teeth. Implants are a wonderful alternative to traditional dental bridges or false teeth; they look better and are much easier to care for as well.
Invisalign
In addition to the other products on the market, Invisalign has been the biggest advancement in crooked teeth straightening technology. Invisalign are custom fitted plastic trays, which can be worn on the teeth in the place of traditional braces to straighten teeth. Invisalign is perfect for adults looking to have straighter teeth and a better smile without all of the metal of traditional braces.
Impacts of Bad Oral Health and Bad Teeth
Many of the cosmetic dentistry techniques and products on the market today have been developed to assist adults in obtaining a smile they can be proud to show-off to the world. The reason for this surge in product development for adults is the negative effects that bad oral health can have on one’s social and professional life. Cosmetic dentists today are offering smile makeovers to their patients to improve the look of their teeth as well as to boost confidence levels of those with previously bad smiles.
In 2004, an independent study was conducted on behalf of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry and it showed that 99.7 percent of all Americans believe that a smile is an important social asset. In addition, 96 percent of adults believe an attractive smile makes a person more appealing to members of the opposite sex. And finally, the study showed that 74 percent of adults feel an unattractive smile can hurt a person’s chances for career success.
Looking at the statistics above it is easy to see why there has been such a boom in the cosmetic dentistry market. If you have ever seen someone attractive from across the room and then they smiled at you and their teeth looked less than great because of discoloration or misalignment, you can easily understand how important your smile is for first impressions. And, you can also understand why someone who is attractive in ways other than their teeth would welcome a smile makeover to improve their first impressions as well.
Final Thoughts
Cosmetic dentistry today aims to help fix issues of the crooked teeth, which can lead to negative effects on one’s personal and professional life. Because studies have shown that the smile is one of the first things people notice in another person, and because they have shown that a nice smile ranks as very important to people in general, cosmetic dentistry has become a market which is filling the need of all people who once and for all want to get past their oral health hurdles.
A smile makeover, through the use of such technology as teeth whitening products, veneers, teeth implants, and straightening products is causing adults to flock to their dentists in record numbers to attain the smile they have always wished that they were born with.
