08 Oct Rolling Back the Years

Time goes on, you look after your teeth and gums, see a dentist regularly, and what do you end up with?

• Chipped, worn looking edges to your teeth
• Yellow teeth from years of tea and coffee
• Crooked teeth because teeth move throughout life
• Big black fillings from mistakes you made years ago

Some people even go so far as to envy those people with dentures who have nice white teeth.

Using a combination of techniques, reinvigorating a smile can be one of the most rewarding things around for a dentist to do, and it needn’t cost a fortune either.  The key is not to swap health for appearance so I always want to enhance the appearance of the teeth rather than substitute them with veneers or crowns.

I personally want to recommend the following rather than drilling away good tooth structure.:

• Tooth whitening- always works, can be managed so a ‘false look’ is not created…..no Simon Cowell smiles here!
• Composite bonding –  modern white fillings can restore the chips and uneven edges of the teeth creating a more harmonious  appearance
• Braces – in around 6 months we can align and level your own teeth

All these techniques have no negative effect on the health of the teeth, unlike crowns and veneers.

All things fail, and dentistry is not different………all you can do is choose the best option for your teeth.

Dental Braces

There is no doubt that dental braces have seen an upsurge in interest over the past 5 years.  Products such as Invisalign and 6 Month Smiles have revolutionised an industry that seemed to take no interest in what the client wanted.

Unfortunately there is no one treatment modality that suits every client’s needs or requirements.

I personally like to have a range of solutions on offer, and then after consultation with the client select the best option for them.

More and more people are selecting fixed on clear (discreet) or lingual (invisible) braces that offer the dentist more scope in what they can achieve in terms of producing the best end result possible.

Modern Dental Makeovers

In the late 80’s, right through the start of the 21^st century, the fashion for a dental makeover was to substitute tooth tissue with porcelain veneers.

To begin with the client would invariably be happy as there yellow crooked teeth were made to look all straight and white.  After a period of time things would start to go wrong; veneers would chip requiring their replacement, the nerves inside heavily drilled teeth would start to die off and abscesses form and weakened stumps of teeth would begin to fracture off.

Thankfully those days are behind us.  Today we like to move teeth into their best position, to whiten the stains away and restore and chipped, uneven edges with modern composite bonding techniques.  Although we still get failures they are much less severe; if you don’t wear your retainers your teeth will move back, your teeth will yellow over time if you don’t top up your whitening and the composite may debond…….but you’ll still have health!

The only downside is it takes time……as a dentist I think it’s a fair price to pay.

If you would like to discuss our treatments please call your Lichfield Dentist on 01543 411088.