Cosmetic Dentistry in Calgary
Traditional dentistry focuses on oral hygiene and the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of oral disease. In contrast, cosmetic dentistry focuses more on the appearance of your teeth and the smile you show the world. While most cosmetic dentistry is elective in nature, many cosmetic procedures these days are also restorative as well and help to keep your teeth strong and healthy while giving you the smile you are looking for. Inglewood Family Dental offers both cosmetic and restorative dental options for patients to help our patients enhance or redesign the look of their smiles.
What Procedures are Considered Cosmetic Dentistry?
Cosmetic dentistry offers dental procedures ranging from bleaching teeth to remove stains or discolorations to dental implants to replace missing or broken teeth. While some procedures can be done with general dentistry, such as tooth-colored fillings, or by orthodontics for braces, cosmetic dentistry is dental work that you elect to undergo in order to change your appearance, similar to general cosmetic surgery.
What Are Inlays and Onlays?
Inlays and onlays are a form of cosmetic dentistry that again provide restorative properties. Known also as indirect fillings, inlays and onlays are porcelain or composite material matched to the natural color of your teeth. While traditional fillings are molded into place by the dentist, inlays and onlays are created in a dental laboratory and bonded directly to your tooth. Inlays are bonded to the center of the tooth while onlays are used when the filling includes the points of the tooth or the biting surface. This is a longer-lasting alternative to traditional fillings and preserves as much of the natural teeth as possible.
What Are Dental Crowns?
Dental crowns are another area of dentistry that can be considered general or cosmetic in nature. Dental crowns are essentially caps placed over a decayed, damaged, or cracked tooth in order to restore the size, shape, strength, and appearance of the tooth. Cosmetically, crowns can be used to cover misshapen or badly discolored teeth. Cosmetic crowns are typically made from ceramic, porcelain fused to metal, or a resin and match the natural color of the surrounding teeth.
What is Composite Bonding?
Composite bonding uses a tooth-colored resin material to repair broken, chipped, or misshapen teeth. This putty-like material is applied to the surface of the tooth and ultraviolet or laser light assists in hardening the material to the tooth. The dentist is then able to trim, shape, and polish the composite to restore a natural look to your tooth.
What is Teeth Whitening and Bleaching?
If it is a yellowish hint or badly discolored teeth that is making you hide your smile, cosmetic dentistry has the solution. Teeth whitening, or bleaching, is the most common cosmetic dentistry procedure and tackles stained teeth from external factors such as food, coffee, tea, wine, smoking, or poor oral hygiene. Dental bleaching can be done both in-office with high concentration bleach solutions or your dentist may provide you with custom molds and a bleach solution that you can use at home.
What are Dental Veneers?
Dental veneers, often termed “Hollywood Teeth,” are an almost paper-thin custom-made material that covers the front surface of the teeth. A small amount of tooth enamel is removed from the tooth surface before the veneer is bonded to the tooth. Veneers are often used to restore tooth color to teeth where bleaching was not successful. Our Calgary dentists also use them to adjust the shape, size, or length of teeth to adjust your smile.
What are Dental Implants?
Dental implants are a cosmetic and often restorative way to replace missing teeth. A titanium implant is attached to the jawbone where it fuses and becomes a strong anchor for a replacement tooth. Once the titanium post is in place, a natural-looking crown is attached, creating a realistic tooth replacement. This restores your natural smile, maintains jaw structure, and restores tooth function, like chewing or biting, to the area.
While all these procedures can stand alone to help improve your smile, in many cases, there may be multiple concerns or issues affecting your smile. Our Calgary dentist will consult with you and, after hearing your goals, evaluate what the best course of treatment is to achieve the smile you are looking for. This can often include restorative work, such as fillings or tooth removal, as well as orthodontic work, such as braces. Together, the team of dental professionals will work with you to achieve your dental goals.
Schedule Your Consultation Today!
Schedule your cosmetic dentistry consultation to learn how Inglewood Family Dental can help you achieve beautiful, healthy teeth. If you are interested in exploring how Dr. Arash Ravanbakhsh can help you improve your smile, then please contact us at (403) 265-5888 for your initial Smile Consultation meeting.
