Maybe there’s one thing about your smile that’s bothered you for years. Or maybe it’s several things.
Your teeth have gotten darker. One tooth is chipped. Your gums show more than you’d like when you smile. There are spaces between your teeth that immediately catch your eye in photos.
Sometimes you know exactly what you want changed. Other times, you just know you don’t love your smile anymore.
If you’re looking for a cosmetic dentist near Channahon, IL, Shorewood Family Dental Care offers several ways to improve the color, shape and overall appearance of your smile from our nearby Shorewood dental office.
And no, that doesn’t necessarily mean completely changing your teeth. Sometimes a relatively small improvement is enough.
What Is Cosmetic Dentistry?
Cosmetic dentistry focuses primarily on improving the appearance of your smile.
That can mean changing the color of stained teeth. Repairing chips. Improving tooth shape or proportions. Addressing spaces between teeth. Reshaping an uneven gumline.
For patients with several concerns, it may involve combining treatments into a more comprehensive smile makeover.
But there’s something we need to consider before any of that: Your teeth and gums need to be healthy.
If you have untreated cavities, gum disease or another oral health problem, we’ll usually want to address those concerns before moving forward with elective cosmetic treatment.
There’s not much sense in building a beautiful smile on an unhealthy foundation.
What Would You Change About Your Smile?
This is one of the first questions worth asking yourself.
Not which dental procedure do I need?
That’s our job to help you figure out.
Instead, think about what you actually notice when you look in the mirror.
Maybe:
- It’s the color.
- You don’t like the shape of your front teeth.
- An old chip has bothered you forever.
- Your teeth themselves look fine, but you feel like too much gum shows when you smile.
Those are completely different concerns, and they don’t necessarily require the same solution.
That’s why cosmetic dentistry isn’t one treatment. It’s a collection of options we can use individually or together depending on what you’re trying to accomplish.
Professional Teeth Whitening
Teeth naturally change color over time.
Coffee, tea, wine, tobacco, certain foods and the normal aging process can all contribute to staining or discoloration. Eventually, you may look at an old photograph and wonder when your teeth stopped looking quite so bright.
Professional teeth whitening can help brighten many types of yellowing teeth without changing the structure of your natural teeth.
At Shorewood Family Dental Care, we offer professional take-home whitening options.
Opalescence 15% is available in convenient prefilled, disposable trays in either a 3-pack or 10-pack.
We also offer ZOOM 16% and 22% whitening, which uses custom trays made to fit your teeth.
Which option makes the most sense depends on your goals, current tooth color, sensitivity and how much whitening you’re hoping to achieve.
And sometimes whitening isn’t the right answer.
A tooth that’s discolored because of trauma or certain types of internal staining may respond differently than ordinary surface staining. That’s another reason it’s useful to have your teeth evaluated before buying one whitening product after another.
Dental Veneers
Sometimes the concern isn’t just color. Veneers in Shorewood can be used to change several aspects of a tooth’s appearance at the same time, including its color, shape, size or proportions.
A veneer is a thin restoration placed over the front surface of a tooth.
Because veneers can address multiple cosmetic concerns, they may be considered for teeth that are chipped, worn, uneven, permanently discolored or otherwise difficult to improve through whitening alone.
But choosing veneers instead of whitening are not something we recommend simply because someone wants brighter teeth. They involve altering the tooth and should be considered carefully.
If professional whitening can give you the result you want while preserving more of your natural tooth structure, that’s something worth discussing first.
Dental Bonding
A small imperfection doesn’t always require a major procedure.
Dental bonding uses tooth-colored composite material to reshape or repair portions of a tooth. Depending on the situation, it may be useful for minor chips, small spaces, uneven edges or other localized cosmetic concerns.
That’s one reason bonding can be appealing.
We’re addressing a specific problem rather than redesigning the entire smile.
Of course, bonding isn’t appropriate for every tooth or every cosmetic concern. The location of the tooth, your bite and the amount of correction needed all matter.
Gum Reshaping
Sometimes the teeth aren’t actually the problem. It’s the gumline.
If excess or uneven gum tissue makes certain teeth appear unusually short or creates an unbalanced appearance, gum reshaping may be an option.
At Shorewood Family Dental Care, laser technology can be used for appropriate gum-contouring procedures.
The goal isn’t simply to remove gum tissue.
It’s to create a gumline that complements the natural proportions of your teeth and smile.
And before cosmetic gum reshaping is considered, we need to make sure the gums themselves are healthy.
What About Missing or Severely Damaged Teeth?
This is where the line between cosmetic and restorative dentistry starts to blur.
A missing tooth obviously changes the appearance of your smile. But replacing it isn’t only cosmetic.
Missing teeth can affect chewing, neighboring teeth and the way forces are distributed throughout your bite. Depending on your individual situation, options such as dental implants, crowns or bridges may restore both appearance and function.
The same applies to a badly damaged tooth. Sometimes the best way to make a tooth look better is also the treatment needed to make it stronger and functional again.
That’s why we look at the entire mouth rather than treating cosmetic dentistry as something completely separate from dental health.
When Does a Smile Makeover Make Sense?
You don’t need a smile makeover because one tooth is slightly discolored. But what if several things are bothering you? Maybe you want your teeth brighter, have a chipped front tooth and also dislike the proportions of a few teeth.
Trying to solve each problem independently without thinking about the finished result doesn’t always make sense.
A smile makeover allows us to look at your smile as a whole and determine which combination of treatments could work together. That doesn’t automatically mean doing everything.
A good treatment plan should identify what actually needs to change to achieve the result you want.
Your Cosmetic Treatment Should Still Look Like You
There’s a misconception that cosmetic dentistry means creating a row of perfectly identical, and bright white teeth.
It doesn’t have to. Your teeth have natural proportions. Your face has its own shape. Your smile belongs to you.
For many patients, the best cosmetic result isn’t the smile everyone immediately recognizes as dental work.
It’s the one that makes someone think:
You look great. What’s different? Natural-looking cosmetic dentistry should complement the rest of your appearance rather than overwhelm it.
How Do We Decide Which Cosmetic Treatment Is Right?
Reach out to our team. Tell us what bothers you. Bring up the thing you always notice in photographs, even if you think it’s minor.
Then we’ll examine your teeth, gums and bite and talk about what can realistically be changed.
There may be more than one way to accomplish your goal.
For example, a patient unhappy with tooth color might only need whitening. Someone with discoloration and structural imperfections may need a completely different approach.
Cost, treatment time, longevity and the amount of natural tooth structure involved can all influence the decision.
You should understand those tradeoffs before choosing.
Nervous About Cosmetic Dental Work?
Tell us that too. Being excited about improving your smile doesn’t automatically make someone comfortable with dental treatment.
Shorewood Family Dental Care offers several options to help appropriate patients manage dental anxiety, including nitrous oxide, oral conscious sedation and IV sedation.
Depending on the treatment you’re considering and your level of anxiety, we can discuss whether a sedation option makes sense for you.
There’s no prize for pretending you’re not nervous. We’d rather know.
Looking for a Cosmetic Dentist Near Channahon, IL?
You don’t have to decide which procedure you need before making an appointment. That’s what the consultation is for.
If you’re looking for a cosmetic dentist near Channahon, IL, our nearby Shorewood dental team can evaluate your smile, listen to what you’d like to change and walk you through the options that make sense for your teeth.
Maybe:
- It’s whitening.
- It’s bonding or veneers.
- Several concerns need to be addressed together.
- The change you’re looking for is much simpler than you expected.
Shorewood Family Dental Care is also a family dentist providing preventive, restorative and cosmetic dental care for patients throughout the surrounding area.
Ready to find out what’s possible?
Contact us online or call 815-725-5991 to schedule your consultation.
