Dentistry by choice, not by need. How you look is as important as how you are looked after. Here at The Looking-Glass Dental Practice we have a special interest in Cosmetic Dentistry, the most exciting and rapidly developing aspect of modern dentistry. It’s probably the greatest change in dentistry since the introduction of anaesthesia. Having great-looking teeth is now a choice you can make. Instead of being told that you need work done because of tooth decay or gum disease, and then submitting to treatment, you can actually choose to have some dentistry - to change your smile, or to replace unsightly mercury amalgam fillings, for example. (We stopped using amalgam many years ago because of doubts about its safety, both for our patients and ourselves. Since then our practice has been mercury-free).
Smile design. Your smile is the most important part of the impression you make on other people. Studies have repeatedly shown that the smile is the first thing that people register when meeting somebody for the first time. A great smile is a priceless asset. But surprising numbers of people are reluctant to smile because they feel self-conscious about the appearance of their teeth. Cosmetic dentistry changes more than appearance: it can, and does, change people’s lives. That’s one reason why it’s such fun to do, and why we love doing it.
Smile design is the process we go through to find out the best approach to making your smile look the way you want it to look. Everyone's smile is unique. It reflects their personality, as well being central to the way they look to other people. So the approach to making changes has to be careful and methodical, and able to be reviewed and modified before a decision is reached about the appearance of the end result.
Porcelain has always been the material of choice for aesthetic dental work because of its wonderful ability to mimic natural tooth tissue, its biocompatibility, and its longevity.
Tooth coloured composite materials arrived in the 1970’s, but in the last ten years there have been huge advances in this area of cosmetic dentistry, and especially in the last five.
It is possible to build beautiful and virtually undetectable restorations bonded directly on to the existing teeth. There is often no need to remove tooth tissue, so we can make the necessary changes without injections, or use of the drill; and the work is often completed in a single visit. Although appointments can be long, depending on how many teeth are involved, the result is immediate. These materials have less wear resistance than porcelain. but because there are no laboratory costs, they are less expensive to do. We are currently quoting about nine years' life expectancy for composite bonding before repair or renewal might be needed: for porcelain about twice that. But because of the variability of the oral environment it is not possible to be precise about longevity.
Having talked about the great technical advances which we can offer you at The LGDP, let’s discuss the least complicated, least costly, least intrusive and single most effective way to improve your smile: tooth whitening, or bleaching (they mean the same thing).
Bleaching is the first stage in any cosmetic procedure, and we often find that it is the only step needed. There are many different ways of providing bleaching and this is how we do it at The LGDP - we’ve been doing it for the past four years, and we know that it works.
At the first visit we record the current colour/s of your teeth, take photos as necessary, and take impressions of your mouth. Our technician then makes close-fitting transparent devices - bleaching trays - which cover only the teeth which are to be whitened, and stop short of the gum. At the next visit we fit these trays and carry out any necessary adjustments. We again check colour, then supply you with the trays and the bleaching material and talk you through the use of the system, which is very straightforward.
After cleaning your teeth at bedtime, you partially fill the tray with the bleaching material. This comes in a syringe, and is a transparent, slightly ‘minty’, gel with the right consistency to stay in the tray in contact with the teeth overnight. When you wake up you can expect to see a significant change in the colour of your teeth, and within a few days a marked lightening. Most people get to the colour they want within a few weeks. You will see that when the trays are in position they are barely visible, so they can also be used in the daytime if you wish.
We recommend doing the upper teeth first, so that you can monitor the colour change against the lowers. If you then decide to do the lower teeth as well within two months, we will apply our normal £50.00 discount.