Who is a good candidate for cosmetic dentistry?

Looking in the mirror and seeing how many teeth show when you smile is the best way to start. It would not be uncommon that 8-10 upper teeth need to be treated for a smile. A person’s lower teeth don’t show as prominently as the upper teeth so the most common treatment is for 6-8 teeth upper teeth. Candidates can range from someone who had their tooth chipped or knocked out to a patient that does not like the current color of their teeth. Treatment time can range from the same day with CEREC one day all porcelain veneers/crowns to weeks. The time needed is tailored to each patient’s individual case. There are many options a patient has in order to fix a chipped tooth (front or back). A dentist would need to gather some information in the form of pictures and x-rays to see how big/deep the chipped tooth is and rule out a possible root canal or un-savable tooth. One option for fixing a chipped tooth is enamel shaping. This process removes part of the contouring enamel to improve the appearance of the tooth. It may be used to correct a very small chip of a cracked tooth or to reshape a tooth to a smooth contour. Bonding is an option for chipped or cracked teeth as well. It is a process in which an enamel-like dental composite material is applied to a tooth' s surface, sculpted into shape, hardened, and then polished. For more extensive dental work, the tooth can be made entirely of porcelain to re-enamel your tooth (such as a veneer or crown). This method will more closely mimic the appearance of natural tooth structure and the teeth around it.

A veneer is an ultra-thin custom-made laminate, which is bonded directly to the teeth and is an increasingly popular procedure. Veneers are an option for closing gaps or covering discolored teeth that do not respond well to whitening procedures. These tooth-colored materials are bonded to the underlying tooth structure with resin adhesives. At the Arizona Center for Laser Dentistry we also utilize CEREC (Chairside Economical Restoration of Esthetic Ceramics) restorations to give your restored tooth a more natural match to the rest of your teeth, and can help preserve the healthy part of that tooth. This procedure can be completed in just one visit.