Maybe there’s one tooth you’ve never quite liked. Maybe years of coffee have left your smile looking a little less bright. Or perhaps chips, worn teeth, uneven spacing or several small concerns have gradually changed the way you feel about your smile.
Whatever brings you in, cosmetic dentistry doesn’t have to be about creating a completely different smile.
At Shorewood Family Dental Care, we believe it should start with something much simpler: What would you like to change?
From there, your dentist can evaluate your teeth and gums, talk through your goals and help determine which cosmetic dentistry options make sense for your smile. Sometimes a relatively small treatment is enough. Other times, combining treatments can provide a more comprehensive transformation.
The goal isn’t to give everyone the same picture-perfect smile. It’s to help create a healthy, natural-looking smile that still feels like *you*.
What Can Cosmetic Dentistry Improve?
Cosmetic dentistry can address many of the things that affect the appearance of your smile, including:
- Stained or discolored teeth.
- Chipped teeth.
- Worn or uneven teeth.
- Small gaps between teeth.
- Teeth that appear too short or irregularly shaped.
- Older dental work that no longer blends naturally with your smile.
- Excess gum tissue that creates a “gummy” smile.
- Multiple cosmetic concerns affecting the overall appearance of your smile.
The right solution depends on what you want to change as well as the condition of your teeth and gums.
That’s why cosmetic treatment at Shorewood Family Dental Care begins with a conversation rather than a predetermined treatment plan.
Professional Teeth Whitening
Sometimes, you just wish your teeth were brighter.
Professional teeth whitening can help reduce discoloration and staining that develops over time from foods, beverages and everyday life.
Unlike picking a whitening product off the shelf and hoping for the best, professional whitening allows your dental team to evaluate your teeth first and recommend an appropriate option.
Whitening also isn’t the answer for every type of discoloration. Existing crowns, fillings and other restorations don’t respond to whitening in the same way natural tooth enamel does. If you’re trying to improve the color of a tooth with an existing restoration or discoloration that isn’t likely to respond well to whitening, another cosmetic option may provide a better result.
Porcelain Veneers
For patients interested in changing more than tooth color, porcelain veneers offer another option.
Veneers are thin porcelain restorations placed over the front surfaces of teeth. Because their shape, size and shade can be customized, veneers may be used to improve several cosmetic concerns at the same time.
They can be considered for teeth that are:
- Chipped.
- Discolored.
- Unevenly shaped.
- Worn.
- Slightly spaced.
- Disproportionate to surrounding teeth.
One of the biggest advantages of veneers is their versatility. Instead of treating color, shape and spacing as completely separate concerns, veneers may allow several aspects of a smile to be addressed as part of one treatment plan.
However, veneers require preparation of the natural teeth and aren’t appropriate for everyone. Your dentist will evaluate your tooth structure, oral health, bite and cosmetic goals before recommending them.
Dental Bonding
Not every cosmetic concern requires porcelain restorations.
For smaller imperfections, dental bonding may offer a more conservative approach.
Bonding uses a tooth-colored composite material that can be carefully shaped and polished to blend with the surrounding tooth. It can be useful for repairing small chips, improving the shape of a tooth or reducing the appearance of certain gaps and irregularities.
For the right patient, a relatively small change can make a noticeable difference in the overall balance of a smile.
Dental Crowns
Cosmetic and restorative dentistry sometimes overlap.
A tooth may not simply look worn, cracked or damaged. It may also need additional strength and protection.
A dental crown covers the visible portion of a tooth and can restore its shape, size, strength and appearance. Modern ceramic restorations can be designed to complement the color and proportions of the surrounding teeth so that the repaired tooth fits naturally into your smile.
Crowns can also play a larger role in a comprehensive smile makeover when several damaged, worn or heavily restored teeth need to be rebuilt.
In fact, Shorewood Family Dental Care has used crowns as part of full smile transformations for patients whose concerns involved both appearance and function.
Gum Reshaping
Teeth aren’t the only thing that determines the appearance of a smile.
For some people, excess or uneven gum tissue can make teeth look shorter than they actually are or cause the smile to appear unbalanced.
Gum reshaping can carefully adjust the gumline to reveal more of the natural tooth structure and create better proportions between the teeth and gums.
As with every cosmetic procedure, whether gum reshaping is appropriate depends on your individual anatomy and oral health.
What If You Want to Change More Than One Thing?
This is where cosmetic dentistry becomes especially personal.
You might want whiter teeth but also have an old crown that doesn’t match. Perhaps your front teeth are worn and uneven. Or you may have several concerns that have accumulated over the years rather than one obvious problem.
In these situations, your dentist may discuss a smile makeover.
A smile makeover isn’t one specific procedure. It’s a personalized treatment plan that may combine two or more cosmetic or restorative treatments to address different aspects of your smile.
That could mean whitening followed by bonding. It might involve veneers on certain teeth and crowns on others. Another patient may need restorative dental work before any cosmetic treatment begins.
There isn’t a standard formula because there isn’t a standard smile.
Healthy Teeth and Gums Come First
Before deciding how to improve the appearance of your smile, we also want to make sure it has a healthy foundation.
Untreated cavities, gum disease, damaged teeth or other oral health concerns may need to be addressed before beginning elective cosmetic treatment. That distinction matters.
A beautiful result should do more than look good in a photograph. Your treatment plan should also consider the health of your natural teeth, how your teeth come together when you bite and what will give you a result you can realistically maintain.
At Shorewood Family Dental Care, our philosophy has always centered around helping patients **keep their teeth for a lifetime**. Cosmetic dentistry should support that goal, not compete with it.
How Do I Know Which Cosmetic Treatment Is Right for Me?
You don’t need to know before you walk through the door.
In fact, patients sometimes come to us convinced they need one particular procedure only to discover that another option is better suited to what they actually want to accomplish.
During a cosmetic consultation, your dentist can consider:
- What specifically bothers you about your smile.
- The health and condition of your natural teeth.
- Existing fillings, crowns or other restorations.
- Your gums and supporting bone.
- Your bite.
- How significant a change you’d like to make.
- Your timeline.
- Your budget.
- The long-term maintenance associated with different treatments.
From there, we can explain your options so you understand not only what can be done, but why one approach may make more sense for you than another.
Cosmetic Dentistry Backed by Decades of Experience
Shorewood Family Dental Care isn’t a cosmetic-only dental office.
We’re a comprehensive family dental practice that has cared for generations of patients from Shorewood and surrounding communities. That means cosmetic treatment is considered as one part of your overall dental health rather than in isolation.
Our dentists bring extensive experience and continuing education to the practice. Dr. Robert Funk, who has practiced dentistry in Shorewood since 1992, has completed advanced cosmetic dentistry training through the Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies along with additional training in restorative dentistry, dental implants and other areas of comprehensive care.
Together, our dental team can address everything from a small cosmetic concern to more complex cases involving restorative and cosmetic treatment.
And because every smile is different, we’re much more interested in finding the right solution for *your* teeth than selling you a particular procedure.
See What’s Possible With a Smile Makeover
One of the best ways to understand cosmetic dentistry is to see what it can accomplish.
Our Smile Gallery features actual Shorewood Family Dental Care patients treated by our dentists, including cases involving porcelain veneers, dental bonding, crowns and more comprehensive smile rehabilitation.
Some transformations involve several teeth. Others show how changing only a small part of a smile can make a meaningful difference.
Your results will always be unique to you, but seeing real patient cases can help you better understand the possibilities before your consultation.
Looking for a Cosmetic Dentist Near Joliet?
You don’t have to travel far to explore your cosmetic dentistry options.
Shorewood Family Dental Care provides cosmetic dentistry near Joliet, IL from our office at 607 W. Jefferson Street in Shorewood. We also welcome patients from Plainfield, Minooka, Channahon, Crest Hill and surrounding communities.
Whether there’s one small thing you’d like to change or you’ve been thinking about a complete smile makeover for years, the first step is simply finding out what’s possible.
Let’s Talk About Your Smile
You don’t need a “perfect” smile.
But if something about your teeth has been bothering you, you deserve to understand your options.
Schedule a cosmetic dentistry consultation with Shorewood Family Dental Care to talk about what you’d like to change. We’ll evaluate your oral health, listen to your goals and help you decide whether whitening, bonding, veneers, crowns, gum reshaping or a combination of treatments makes sense for you.
Call 815-725-5991 or request an appointment online to get started.
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Originally published October 18, 2016. Updated September 2, 2026.
