In our last blog we discussed dental care at Christmas and avoiding the risks from all of those sugary festive treats.
Although this is now just a few weeks away, it won’t be long until it is all over and many of us will start to turn our thoughts towards the New Year. This is a time when we look to renew aspects of our life and potentially decide to make changes. This might be a decision to get fit, stop smoking or even to change your job.
At the Lighthouse Dental Practice in Ipswich, we may not be able to help you lose weight etc, but we can help you to have a much nicer smile through the use of cosmetic dentistry. This can lead to a more attractive smile and also have a positive impact on other areas of your life, as we will discuss later.
Your personalised smile makeover
When it comes to improvements to our teeth, everybody is unique. There is no ‘one size fits all’ makeover and a consultation, carried out at our Ipswich practice, is necessary to ascertain the best approach for each individual.
There are a number of treatments available that can contribute to a smile makeover, including dental implants and faster procedures such as teeth whitening. The main treatments that are often included for those seeking to give their smile an immediate boost are:
Before any of these cosmetic treatments take place, it will be necessary to make sure that your mouth is healthy and free of decay and gum disease, Following this, your treatment can start.
White fillings
Many of us will have had amalgam fillings placed at some point in our life. These are very strong but also very visible, especially where used on the front teeth. For this reason, an increasing number of people are opting instead, to have the more natural tooth coloured ‘white fillings’ that are available. These are almost as strong as amalgam and can be used in most situations. Where a stronger filling is required, such as for a large cavity in a rear tooth, an alternative such as an inlay or onlay may be used instead.
Teeth whitening
One of our most popular cosmetic treatments at the Lighthouse Dental Practice, and for very good reason. This is a highly affordable procedure that also requires no dental surgery. It is suitable for almost everybody and can really transform dull coloured teeth. Although there is a lot of hype and publicity around commercial whitening toothpaste, the reality is that they offer very little improvement, and, by and large, will only remove some of the surface stains.
The reality is that for most people, discolouration occurs deeper within the tooth where a toothpaste can’t effectively reach. To lighten this and achieve whiter looking teeth, professional bleaching treatment is needed. This can now only be legally applied by a registered dental professional. Do not risk the health of your teeth by using an illegal outlet, which unfortunately do still exist.
Although the results of a teeth whitening procedure may not be not permanent, they do last for many months, and your teeth can then be re-whitened with no ill effect.
Dental veneers
For some patients, such as those who have smoked heavily, severe discolouration may mean that a whitening treatment would have an insufficient effect and dental veneers may be needed if you wish to have nice looking teeth again. Dental veneers are also an excellent treatment where teeth are chipped or cracked. Fitting porcelain veneers is a more invasive procedure where a fine layer of the affected enamel is removed and replaced by a porcelain veneer of the same thickness. These are quite strong and should last in the region of ten years.
To return to the point we were making about not being able to help you to get fit etc, the fact is that improving your smile can have an effect on the other things we mentioned; for example, stopping smoking and a new job. Obviously, it is more complicated than that, but if you have spent time and money on making your teeth attractive, if that isn’t a real incentive to stop smoking, and re-staining your teeth, then we don’t know what is. An attractive smile can also give you a significant confidence boost, something which can only be useful when it comes to your interview for a new job.
If any of our local patients would like more information about having a smile makeover in the New Year, we are only too happy to help. Please call our Ipswich dental clinic for an initial consultation on 01473 257379.
We are here to help you.
If you would like to speak to a member of our friendly team about any of the issues in this article please visit our contact page or call us on 01473 257379.