I was thinking about getting a smile makeover. I spoke to my dentist about it. He said because I have a crown I’d need to get all crowns on my teeth to get a smile makeover. Is there any way to improve my smile without grinding down all my healthy teeth?
Miriam
Dear Miriam,
Getting a smile makeover can be done a lot of ways whether or not you have dental crowns. If you’re upgrading your smile, the only tooth that will have to be crowned is the tooth that has a crown. All the other teeth won’t need one.
First, let me say I don’t think your dentist is much of a cosmetic dentist. He may be a decent general dentist, but he doesn’t understand a lot about cosmetic procedures. My suspicion is he assumed you wanted porcelain veneers, didn’t know how to do them, and made an excuse as to why you needed all crowns. Whatever you do, don’t follow his plan.
Here are some smile makeover options:
Invisalign
If you want to straighten your teeth, Invisalign allows you to do that without anyone even realizing your wearing orthodontics. Instead of the traditional metal wires and brackets, it uses clear aligners in a carefully devised treatment plan.
Teeth Whitening
One of the most affordable ways to update your smile is with teeth whitening. This simple procedure not only takes off years of staining, it makes you look years younger. The best bit is if you also need your teeth straightened. You can do both Invisalign and whitening at the same time, letting the Invisalign aligners double as whitening trays.
Be aware your crown won’t whiten, but that’s not a problem. If it’s visible, you can simply replace it with a porcelain crown to match your new white smile.
Porcelain Veneers
This is the ultimate smile makeover. They can remake everything about your smile: the size, the shape, the color, etc. A skilled cosmetic dentist can even shape them in a way to affect the type of personality you want to convey.
How Do You Know If You’ll Like Your Smile Makeover?
One of the things we’ve seen is patients coming to us from other dental practices asking us to fix a disastrous smile makeover done by their family dentist. Dr. Dennis has two ways of preventing this from ever happening to one of her patients.
Have you ever heard the phrase, “The dream is always better than the reality.”? Sometimes a patient can have a look in mind. Usually, it’s the smile of their favorite celebrity. But, because their facial structure or skin tone is different, it doesn’t look quite like they imagined.
To prevent this, Dr. Dennis uses a digital makeover. Using your picture and photoshop, she can show you exactly what your smile makeover will look like on you. This way we don’t waste time doing work you’ll end up not liking. Using photoshop, we can make “adjustments” before we actually start, making sure we get your dream smile nailed down.
As an additional precautionary measure, she has a beautiful smile guarantee. Once the work is completed, you will get to “test drive” your new smile on your actual teeth. They won’t be permanently bonded on until we’ve met your expectations.
This blog is brought to you by Kalamazoo cosmetic dentist Dr. Susan Dennis.