With a society focused on physical appearance, it is natural to want nice, white teeth that look healthy. In fact, we all know that healthy looking teeth are a big confidence booster. However, during stressful periods, people sometimes make hasty or wrong decisions. So, what should someone seeking possible dentures do?

If you are considering dentures, you should seek counsel from an honest, passionate, and educated general dentist who may also be an expert in the area of cosmetic dentistry. He or she can advise you of the pros and cons of dentures versus saving your natural teeth.

The Process

• Before getting dentures, you need to have a full examination, a full set of X-rays, and a lengthy examination. But, just because you get dentures doesn’t mean all your dental problems are over. There is a common list of problems associated with full dentures.
• Due to the hard piece of plastic pressed against your delicate gum tissue, you will feel pain
• You will find that your dentures will get loose as the bone and gum underneath shrinks and realigns.
• Be aware of a clacking noise, which can be embarrassing to some people.
• If you are a food lover, dentures may affect the way food taste since your palate is covered by the upper denture.
• You may develop sores in your mouth.
• Dentures often look artificial.
• Your face looks older without them in.

In this age, keeping your natural teeth as long as possible with more cleanings and careful examination by your dentist and hygienist is certainly the way to go. If tooth loss occurs, permanent bridges or dental implants are a more natural option as they are most similar to your original teeth.

Visit an experienced cosmetic dentist, like Wayzata Dental & SmileSpa. We are a Plymouth cosmetic dentistry that can guide you in the right direction in regards to you dental treatments. We strive to make your smile healthy and beautiful.

Why?

Here are some reasons why implants may be your #1 choice:

• Dental implants are like your own teeth! They look and feel like teeth, and nobody will ever know that you have a replacement tooth or teeth – not even if they look closely.
• Adjacent teeth are not affected because neighboring teeth are not altered to support the implant. More of your own teeth are left untouched. This is a significant long-term benefit to your oral health!
• Dental implants will allow you to talk and eat with comfort and confidence! With a beautiful set of teeth attached to implants, you will gain the confidence to do anything without worrying about your teeth.
• The success rate of dental implants is highly predictable. Most dentists would consider dental implants as an excellent option for tooth replacement.

What Is Dental Implant Treatment Like?

When consulted a dentist working in cosmetic dentistry, your specific condition and the type of implant chosen, he or she will create a treatment plan right for you.

You may have other issues to consider but these are the most common:

• A Single Tooth: One implant and a crown can replace a single missing tooth. A dental implant replaces both the lost natural tooth as well as its root.
• Several Teeth: Implant-supported bridges can replace several missing teeth.
• Replacing All of Your Teeth: An implant-supported full bridge or full denture can replace all your missing teeth. Dental implants will replace both your lost teeth and some of the roots.

Dental implants greatly improve appearance of your smile. Visit us at Wayzata Dental & SmileSpa, a Plymouth cosmetic dentistry office, to get a better idea of this process. Our dentist, Dr. Jason McDowell, and staff are friendly and knowledgeable on all aspects of dental implants and cosmetic dentistry. Make an appointment online!

As surprising as it may seem, in the United States, about seven percent of adults have missing teeth and about 10 percent of adults have no teeth.

Aside from the negative signals you get from people, missing teeth can lead to other problems with your overall dental health. Our full set of teeth is designed to work together as a system. When a tooth or teeth are missing, problems can occur like a collapse or tilt. This can then lead to bite problems and even gum problems.

Also, your face shape and appearance may change . . . and not for the better. Missing teeth may also lead to changes in the structure of your face and appearance such as sunken cheeks and flat or drooping lips. You can look older because you skin may start to sag due to missing teeth.

If you have a missing tooth or teeth, you can correct this problem easily by first visiting your family dentist. You have several options such as:
• Dental Implants.
• Fixed Bridges
• Partial Dentures
• Complete Dentures

People with missing teeth often don’t smile and lack confidence. Dental care comes last because there may be a lack of positive motivation to keep up with dental care so other teeth become unattractive and unhealthy.

You can change all this. Visit Wayzata Dental and SmileSpa. We know the benefits of a healthy smile and are experts at restoring it. Give us a call at (952) 473-4900 to set up an dental appointment or an evaluation.

Yes, people would intentionally have a perfectly good tooth damaged just to have a gold crown. These days, we are a little smarter when it comes to cosmetic dentistry. The finished look now is for a mouth full of perfectly natural looking white and shiny teeth. Our mouths, particularly out teeth, can affect our face. Having your upper back teeth out can lead to sunken jowls, and that can make you look a lot older. Having a bridge, a dental implant, or dentures can fill in that area and remove the sunken jowl look.

Stained teeth are never a good look, and they too can help add to the aging appearance of a face. More importantly, people with stained, broken or uneven teeth don’t tend to smile as often as others, and when they do, it’s a closed smile. By restoring teeth to a more natural white and shiny appearance, people are more inclined to relax and smile more openly. This alone can take years off your face’s appearance.

A cosmetic dentist can also using ultrasonic cleaning tools to remove hardened plaque, veneers to cover stubborn stains, and tooth and/or gum contouring to reshape the gums and teeth. There are several procedures that a cosmetic dentist can apply that will help to take years off your teeth, and with it, years off your face. Just remember one thing – while a cosmetic dentist can do wonders for your teeth, it’s the effect that this work has on your personality that really makes the difference. You use far less muscles to smile openly, and develop far less wrinkles, than when you suppress an open smile, or actually frown.

Before going home, your dentist should give you a list of the dos, don’ts and care of your temporary prosthesis. Some of these tips should include:

• avoiding the use of that prosthesis for hot, cold or hard foods and drinks
• avoiding any knocks to that area of the mouth
• gently brushing and flossing around the temporary prosthesis
• checking the prosthesis each night before bed
• checking your gums each night before bed

You should report immediately to your dentist if you are experiencing any pain, especially severe pain. If your gums change color, especially to a bright pink, then you should also check with your dentist to ensure there is no infection developing. If the temporary dental prosthesis comes lose, or fall out, keep it safe and return to your dentist.

Temporary crowns, for example, are not glued permanently to your teeth – after all, they are only temporary. If you bite into hard foods, or drink very cold (or very hot) drinks, then you can force that temporary crown to separate from the tooth. Your dentist will need to restore it quickly before the tooth receives any further damage. This is important since a permanent dental crown (or any other prosthesis) is being custom made for that tooth – you don’t want to change that tooth’s structure since that will make the prosthesis difficult to fit. Look after any temporary treatment you receive – your permanent prosthesis will depend on it.

• Opening bottles with your teeth. We invented bottle openers to do this job so there is no need to place so much stress on your teeth. Opening bottles can chip away the enamel and often leads to cracked and broken teeth.
• Crunching ice blocks. Ice is rock hard and I’m sure you wouldn’t consider crunching your way through a pile of rocks – so why do it with ice? If you do have a liking for ice, then consider cracked ice or ice chips instead. Any hard substance such as ice (or rocks) can chip enamel, crack and break teeth, and, in the case of ice, stab or cut gums as well. Gum injuries open the door for infection and serious gum diseases.
• Picking at teeth using the wrong products. Food often gets stuck between teeth, and there are products available that can help to clean those food particles out. You can buy special pics and floss that are beneficial for your teeth. Avoid using anything that comes to hand – you could cause more harm than good.
• The bottom line is simple. If you don’t use the right products on your teeth, you are going to cause long term damage. Tooth pics and floss are cheap products when you compare their costs to bridges, crowns and veneers, so consider them investments in the future health of your teeth, and your wallet.

There are no guarantees, of course, you may be unhappy with your smile because your lips are too thick (or too thin). However, if it is a dental issue, then your dentist or a cosmetic dentist will be able to help. The range of treatments available to improve one’s smile is huge. Some of these treatments include:

• tooth whitening
• dental crowns
• dental bridges
• dental veneers
• teeth cleaning
• tooth stain removal
• tooth straightening
• dental implants, and
• dentures

And that’s just scraping the surface (pun intended). Your dentist may need to remove teeth or remove decay and then fill teeth the holes left. There are also services such as inlays, onlays, and even tooth (or gum) sculpturing that may improve your smile.

Being unhappy with your smile is one thing, but not doing anything about it is another. If you are unhappy with your smile, then seek the services of a competent dentist. They can work wonders with teeth and gums, improving your teeth by straightening them, cleaning and polishing them, and restoring them to their natural look. Most patients enter a cosmetic dentist’s office looking rather glum – most leave with big cheery smiles, and that’s before having any treatment.

Advances in computer technology are such that now you can virtually ‘trial your smile’. Obviously, you cannot trial the physical work yourself, but you can enter the virtual world and see how each treatment affects your teeth, your face, and of course, your smile.

Using digital photography, and software similar to that required for ‘morphing’, your dentist can apply various treatments to your teeth and you can see the results right in front of you – on a screen. It’s similar to looking into a mirror while watching the changes to your teeth and face.

The advantages of ‘trial smile’ technology is that you can often tweak changes before they are actually carried out. Lighten the color of the teeth, shorten teeth (or gums to lengthen teeth), straighten the teeth, and apply changes such as crowns, bridges, and even implants. Once you have agreed to the finished product, your dentist will have a clear path to follow in order to achieve that finish.

In most cases, the end results mirror those seen on the screen almost perfectly. If you don’t like your smile and you’re not sure what changes are required, ask your dentist if he can offer a trial smile – you’ll be surprised at what a cosmetic dentist can achieve.

It all starts by taking digital images of your teeth. Your cosmetic dentist can then mimic various procedures right there in front of you – you can actually see how those procedures affect your teeth, and your smile. Whether it is the use of veneers or crowns, or procedures such as teeth or gum shaping, it’s all happening right before your eyes.

The use of this technology is helping patients decide which treatment options are best for their appearance and their lifestyles. Patients are no longer leaving many of these decisions to their dentist, and then regretting this later. A patient is now in control of what procedures are used, and how these procedures will affect their teeth – and it’s all there in digital HD color.

Computers are also now used to create veneers. Your cosmetic dentist will scan your prepared tooth into the computer. Color can be selected so that the veneer blends in seamlessly with your teeth and then all the information is passed onto another piece of equipment that manufactures the veneer – right before your eyes. With this technology, these veneers are a perfect fit – this means that as a patient, you can have a veneer fitted in one sitting instead of two or three.

Technology is important in many industries. When it comes to dentistry, one of its major benefits is allowing a patient to see the results of their treatment before it has even begun. Do you want a new smile? Visit your dentist and ask them to show you what they can do for your smile.

A cosmetic dentist can really make big changes to those teeth, whether they are average or far worse than average. Invisible braces can help straighten the teeth, cosmetic contouring and shaping can improve the appearance of those teeth, and tooth whitening and/or veneers can help to finish the job.

For those who have had rear teeth removed, and you can often tell by the slightly sunken cheeks, they can have the missing tooth replaced using either a bridge or a combination bridge, crown, and implant. Those hollow cheeks will revert to their former fullness, immediately helping to bring a much more natural look to the face.

The end result of a cosmetic dentist’s work is a mouthful of teeth that look beautiful and function perfectly. For the patient, the change in their life is almost instant. They can suddenly smile, and they do radiantly, and this change to their appearance brings with it a renewed confidence and feeling of self worth.

People’s lives often change after seeing a cosmetic dentist. While I have listed a wide range of treatments available, often it can be something as simple as a professional whitening of the teeth that makes a difference. For others, simply straightening their teeth is enough. If your teeth are holding you back for any reason, talk to a cosmetic dentist. They can improve the look of your teeth and bring about a whole new you.