While traditional dentistry focuses on oral hygiene, preventing, diagnosing, and treating oral disease, cosmetic dentistry focuses on improving the appearance of a person’s teeth, mouth, and smile. Cosmetic dentistry can be elective or desired treatments and services.

Cosmetic dentistry may provide restorative benefits. For example, when replacing old, failing mercury fillings, you now have the option to have a non metallic tooth colored filling placed to restore your tooth. This restores a tooth with materials that closely match the color of your teeth, thus maintaining the natural appearance of your teeth and smile.

Cosmetic Trends:

Technological advancements in natural-looking, tooth colored dental materials make today’s cosmetic dental treatments more durable and predictable than ever before. Additionally, Dr.Shlafer has always been conservative in his technique to preserve as much of your natural tooth structure as possible.

Cosmetic Treatments:

Inlays/Onlays: Inlays and onlays are made from porcelain or composite materials and are a long-lasting way to restore a tooth with structural damage. These are fabricated in a lab or made in our office with the use of CEREC technology that allows for completion of the restoration in one visit.

Composite Bonding: Bonding works well for chipped, broken, discolored, or decayed teeth that need repair. This type of restoration blends invisibly with the remainder of the surrounding tooth structure.

Teeth Whitening: Whitening is one of the most popular cosmetic procedures. Teeth are often stained from smoking, food, drink, or poor oral hygiene. Bleaching can be an easy way to enhance your smile.

Dental Veneers:  Veneers or porcelain laminates are adhesively bonded to the surface of a tooth to correct or repair chips,cracks, and wear or severe discoloration. Veneers may also be recommended if you have gaps between your teeth, when several teeth are done at a time, the space available can be redistributed to reshape the teeth and close the gaps.

Dental Implants: Dental implants are artificial tooth replacements that are used to compensate for tooth loss. Often the result is not only an enhanced smile, but a more youthful appearance, since missing teeth can cause the face to collapse, making you look older.

Smile Makeover: Smile makeovers involve a comprehensive assessment of your smile esthetic in order to improve your overall appearance. Typically one or more cosmetic procedures are needed to achieve the look you want.

While consulting with you about a smile makeover to improve the esthetics of  your smile, Dr.Shlafer may discover that there is a need to correct functional problems with your bite, muscles, teeth, and bone structure.

Cosmetic dentistry offers many options for people who are dissatisfied with their smile. If you are one of those people, we encourage you to come in and speak with Dr.Shlafer about the possibilities of a new look!

Many of us would like to look younger, feel re-freshed or just have some extra self-confidence. Our smile says so much about us. A beautiful, white smile can present you in a younger more vibrant way. Friends and family think you look great, but they can’t quite put their finger on the exact change. It’s a smile makeover!

This process improves the appearance of your smile through one or more cosmetic dentistry procedures, such as whitening, bonding, dental veneers, and tooth implants. There are many things to consider when changing your smile such as your facial appearance, skin tone, hair color, teeth (color, width, length, and shape) gum tissue and lips to develop your ideal smile. Smile makeovers are done for many reasons and customized according to your unique considerations.

What is it that you like or dislike about your smile or teeth?

Some of the aspects of your smile Dr.Shlafer can review with you that could be improved upon are:

1. Tooth color: When considering the color of your teeth, keep in mind that dark or discolored teeth may suggest an aged mouth. Silver amalgams fillings that could be replaced with natural tooth colored composite restorations. Whitening is another option that may also improve the color of stained or dull teeth. Tooth color is also important during the evaluation and preparation for porcelain veneers, crowns, bridges, and bonding. Dr.Shlafer is skilled at finding the right balance between finding you a brighter, whiter smile and maintaining a natural look.
2. Alignment and Spacing: Teeth that are crooked, overlapping, or have gaps between them can be straightened and aligned, when necessary through orthodontics. This will allow the proper spacing for your new crowns or porcelain veneers.
3. Missing Teeth: One or more missing teeth can negatively affect the appearance of your smile–as well as affect your bite and increase your risk of tooth decay. Missing teeth can be replaced with dental implants, bridges, or partial dentures.
4. Harmony and Balance: Uneven, chipped, and cracked teeth can be cosmetically bonded to improve appearance. A gummy smile can be re-contoured to help improve the overall look of your smile.
5. Fuller Lips, Smile and Cheeks: An unshapely or aging face can be improved or rejuvenated with certain procedures in the smile makeover category.

Dr.Shlafer will work closely with you to develop a treatment plan designed to achieve exactly what you want from your makeover.  Get the smile you’ve always wanted, call for your complimentary smile evaluation today!

 Advances in Dental Care

Has time gotten away from you? Has it been a while since you’ve been in to see Dr.Shlafer? If so, be prepared to discover a lot of new options to keep your teeth healthy and beautiful. Here are a few of the newer dental care procedures and techniques:

• Improving dental health: How high-tech x-rays can help. For the last several years digitized x-rays have replaced traditional radiographs in our office. Digital x-rays are faster and more efficient. First an electronic sensor is place in the patient’s mouth to capture the image, that image is then relayed to our computer for viewing. Dr.Shlafer can store the digital images and compare them with previous images to see if there are any changes.
• CEREC–CAD/CAM technology stands for “computer assisted design/computer assisted manufactured” Together, with Dr.Shlafer’s expertise, this translates into an opportunity to have a porcelain crown or inlay fabricated and completed in one visit. This eliminates the impression we all enjoy, wearing a temporary for 2 weeks, and returning for a second visit.
• Better Bonding and filling materials–If you have chipped a tooth, you can have it fixed to look extremely natural thanks to improvements in bonding material and techniques. Today’s bonding material is a resin, which is shinier and longer lasting than substances used in the past. There is also a wider range of shades available that can be better blended to match your tooth’s natural color. This resin material can also be used in place of amalgam fillings on back teeth to give the tooth a more natural appearance. More on new technology tomorrow.