Smiles Makeover
Everyone deserves to have a beautiful, healthy smile that makes them feel great about the way they look and helps gives their self-confidence a boost.
If your smile isn’t quite living up to your expectations, you do have options that can enhance your appearance and restore the health and vitality of your smile. There are several dental treatments that can be used alone or in combination to truly transform your smile.
Improve Your Appearance and Oral Health
An attractive smile helps you feel good about yourself, but did you know that correcting certain flaws can actually enhance your oral health?
It’s a widely accepted fact that there is a direct relationship between the health of your mouth and your overall health and well-being. Seeking treatment for these problems not only improves your appearance, but also protects your long-term oral and general health.
Missing Teeth and Dental Implants
Missing teeth certainly have a negative impact on your appearance, but they can also create serious oral health problems. A dental implant is an effective solution that is actually a complete tooth replacement, not just a cosmetic cover-up. The result is a fully functional, natural-looking tooth.
More importantly, the implant acts as a replacement for the root of the missing tooth. This prevents deterioration of the jaw bone and shifting of surrounding teeth, which can lead to overcrowding of teeth and alignment issues.
Porcelain Veneers
Porcelain veneers are a great choice for correcting a wide variety of cosmetic flaws like chipped, broken, or cracked teeth. Veneers conceal the appearance of slightly misaligned and irregularly shaped teeth, which also makes them effective for correcting minor dental bite problems.
Veneers are made of thin wafers of porcelain bonded to the surface of your tooth. Porcelain is a naturally translucent material that closely resembles the appearance of your natural teeth. Better yet, they can usually be placed in only two appointments.
Dental Crowns
Dental crowns are an essential part of restorative dentistry. They serve the important function of protecting and strengthening a tooth that has been compromised due to damage or decay. Since today’s dental crowns are made of porcelain, they not only reinforce weakened teeth but also enhance the appearance of your natural smile.
There are many options that can help restore your smile to its full beauty and function, but only your dentist can help you decide which will be most effective for you.
If you would like more information on the services we provide or what is most appropriate for you, please contact our office.
Frequently Asked Questions
A simple answer is....sometimes. The truth is that every implant case is so different that the options are based on the patient’s needs as well as the existing conditions. With individual implants to replace single teeth, the tooth root shape and the implant shape are relatively similar, so we have a better chance to have the option to place an implant the same day the tooth is removed. For multi rooted back teeth, it isn’t as easy, or even possible to do same day implant placement due to the different shapes of a cylinder implant versus a multi rooted tooth shape. Other variables like bone shape, infection, or other health issues also come into play with immediate implant placement. I always tell patients that we don’t want to rush to do things wrong. It is always better to do it right the first time, and although immediate placement may be desired, it isn’t always a good idea.
There are a lot of tv ads about getting implants done as well as “teeth in a day.” To learn more about this particular implant option, click HERE.
Invisalign is a popular and amazing option to help straighten your teeth and improve the way you can bite. It is popular because it moves teeth without using the unsightly brackets and wires of traditional braces. We love Invisalign, and Invisalign can address quite a few orthodontic cases very impressively, but Invisalign may not be the best way to go in some instances. Sometimes conventional braces are needed. Sometimes, more advanced Invisalign treatments are required. As in any treatment option that may have multiple options, we will evaluate your problems and discuss the pros and cons of the various options. If it is an Invisalign case that we feel comfortable treating, we can move forward with your case in our office. If Invisalign isn’t a good option, or if it is a more advanced Invisalign case, we will refer you to an orthodontist so you get the best treatment possible.
We offer a range of cosmetic dentistry services such as veneers, porcelain crowns, bonding using tooth-colored composite, and even orthodontic treatments like Invisalign. All our of dentistry is done with an eye toward aesthetics. We know that it's important that your teeth are both healthy and attractive. If you'd like to find out which of our services can help you meet your goals, call our office to schedule your consultation.
We make every effort to select the best materials for your restorative needs. There are many options available for crowning teeth. While gold teeth are often considered an older, not so esthetic option, they are still one of the best materials that can be used in dentistry.
That said, most patients prefer the white crowns that look like real teeth. The traditional Porcelain Fused to Metal (PFM) crowns have been widely used with great success in dentistry. These PFM crowns can be made to look very realistic in most cases, but they are what we call “feldspathic porcelain” and this material’s biggest drawback is its low fracture toughness, essentially, it can crack and chip easily. It also requires quite a bit of tooth to be cut away in order to use as directed.
Lithium disilicate crowns are a newer option that is also highly esthetic. This material has no metal substructure to hide and it also has a much higher fracture toughness than the PFM crowns. This material also requires aggressive tooth prepping to use properly.
Zirconia is a newer material that is our strongest yet. It is extremely strong and ther is no metal to hide. Another benefit is the conservative tooth preparation that can be done to use this material. The downside is that it is not as pretty of a material. I looks good, but not great. The manufacturers have developed even newer versions of this material that are starting to look much more like the other materials as far as esthetics, but the strength drops greatly with these options; however it is still much stronger than the traditional PFM crowns.
We choose the material we use based on needs. Location plays a big role as back teeth do more work and would benefit from more strength, while front teeth don’t do as much of a chewing load, but are required to look good. As fear as strength goes, the flexural strength (force to break the material) of a PFM is 90 MPa (MegaPascals), lithium disilicate is 400 MPa, and the strongest. Zirconia is 1465 MPa. You don’t have to understand the physics behind flexural strength or megapascals, but it is easy to understand that 1465 is more than 90. Since MPa is a unit of force needed to break the material, zirconia is exponentially stronger for back teeth and is often used as we like the braun over the beauty. Lithium disilicate or PFM crowns are used more in front for beauty. We also use labs that can custom tint crowns to get your shade as exact as possible. We will make sure you are happy with the result you get.
When patients talk about “cosmetic dentistry” we are always interested to hear what people think that means. To us, dentistry has evolved to the point that we feel most services could be considered “cosmetic” as we use tooth colored filling material for almost everything. That said, many people consider cosmetic dentistry to include the use of porcelain crowns, porcelain veneers, bonded white fillings on front teeth, tooth whitening or bleaching, and white fillings on back teeth. And yes, we routinely perform all of these procedures. We also utilize Invisalign to help straighten your teeth, and dental implant restorations to restore a single tooth, multiple teeth, or even all of your teeth. In fact, we even feel the conventional dentures and removable partials we fabricate also fall into the cosmetic category as we not only use top labs and materials, but also take every extra step to ensure they look as realistic as possible. So yes, we do perform all of these cosmetic dental services, and we will discuss them with you, as well as present options and risks of treatment before we start your treatment. Give us a call to set up a consultation so we can see what can be done.
Meet Our Doctor:
Robert C. Clay Jr. DDS
Dr. Bob grew up on the far southeast side of Chicago. After graduating from St. Francis de Sales High School, he attended Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree, specializing in microbiology. Dr. Bob went on to attend the University of Illinois at Chicago Dental School where he received a second Bachelor’s Degree, a Bachelor of Science in Dentistry, followed by his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree. Following graduation, he completed his state and national board exams and began practicing dentistry in ...
