Having a bright, flawless smile gives you self-confidence because of the excellent first impression it creates when you interact with people. If you love your smile, you smile more, boosting your self-esteem and conveying your persona. Nevertheless, you will not feel confident with fractured, crooked, stained, or discolored teeth because of the unattractive smile. Luckily, cosmetic dentistry can change the flaws in your mouth, giving you a flawless smile. At Washington Dental in Carson, we understand your smile is a powerful tool, so we are ready to enhance it through our various cosmetic dentistry services.

Cosmetic Dentistry at a Glance

Cosmetic dentistry is a dentistry branch that addresses the flaws in your mouth to enhance your smile. Dentists perform several cosmetic procedures, including teeth whitening, veneers, bridges, implants, dentures, and crowns. Some of these treatments are simple, while others are highly invasive. Your cosmetic treatment options depend on your dental needs and expectations. Before choosing a cosmetic dentistry procedure in Carson, you should contact Washington Dental. Our cosmetic dentists will evaluate the condition of your mouth and decide the course that is right for you. We have discussed various cosmetic dentistry procedures to make it easy to choose the one that suits you best.

Teeth Whitening

Teeth whitening is the quickest, most non-invasive, and most cost-effective cosmetic dental procedure. As the name suggests, the treatment whitens your stained or discolored teeth by bleaching. Our dentists offer various bleaching options depending on your financial capability, duration, and temperament. You can visit us for in-office whitening that gives immediate results or buy a home-use bleaching kit, although the effects are not instant with this one.

When you decide to undergo a whitening treatment, the results will be visible, but they are not permanent. You will need a few touch-ups to keep the teeth bright.

Considering this cosmetic dental treatment option, it is worth understanding how bleaching differs from whitening. Bleaching entails the utilization of agents like hydrogen or carbamide peroxide, which whiten the teeth beyond their natural color. However, whitening involves restoring teeth' enamel by extracting surface debris and dirt.

Tooth Enamel Examination

The porcelain surface on your tooth, the enamel, gives you sparkling bright teeth. The enamel protects your teeth from the adverse effects of chewing, trauma, grinding, or acid attacks stemming from sugar. Nevertheless, as you age, the enamel wears out and becomes transparent, making dentin visible when you smile. The discoloration negatively affects your smile because the dentin is yellow. As you continue chewing and gnashing over the years, the dentin develops cracks, creating room for debris accumulation. Eventually, the tooth surface becomes lackluster and dull.

Our teeth whitening services will remove the stains, leaving your tooth's surface or enamel sparkling. Saliva will re-mineralize the cracks and eventually fill up with carbon-based debris.

Whitening Options

After your teeth have been examined and the problem established, our dentist will help you pick the right whitening option. If your vision is to have bright teeth within the shortest duration, we will recommend an in-office treatment. Here, the dentist utilizes hydrogen peroxide gel with a high concentration of nine-forty-five percent. Due to the high concentration, the gums are protected using a rubber dam, and a professional technician should apply the gel. Once the gums are safe and the gel is applied, the dentist will give you at most twenty minutes with the gel on the teeth. We will repeat this for another twenty minutes, which will be repeated for approximately sixty minutes. The dentist will schedule a second appointment if the stains are stubborn. The average cost of the treatment is $650.

If you wish to do the whitening at home, we can issue the take-home kits containing a lower concentration of peroxide gel. Unlike the concentrated one that stays in your mouth in intervals of twenty minutes, this one stays longer, sometimes overnight. For the professional take-home kit, you will part with $100 to $400.

The cheapest whitening option is buying the whitening kit over the counter. OTC whitening products sell at $20 to $100. Whichever whitening option you choose, ensure it focuses on your dental needs and vision.

Dental Veneers

Another form of cosmetic dental treatment is veneers. The ultra-thin resin composite or porcelain shells are bonded to the tooth's facial surface to correct dental flaws like cracks, chips, discoloration, spacing, or worn-down enamel.

Veneers fall under the umbrella of cosmetic dentistry because they help restore bright teeth. Also, the treatment offers protective features that prevent severe oral problems. Veneers solve several oral issues, including:

  • Worn tooth enamel.
  • Discoloration.
  • Genetics.
  • Malocclusion.
  • Wear.

The procedure offers several benefits, but not everyone is a candidate. To establish your candidacy, we will schedule an appointment where our dentists will conduct a thorough oral evaluation. After identifying your teeth problems, we will discuss the treatment option and pick the most minimally invasive choice. It would help if you choose an option that does not involve the removal of your enamel, and the best is dental veneers.

  1. Veneer Procedure

Typically, a veneer treatment can be completed within two six-week appointments. These appointments take several hours because they are comprehensive and require multiple hours of evaluation and preparation. In our dental clinic, we have state-of-the-art amenities, including:

  • Sedation.
  • Dental spas.
  • Audial and visual distractions.

The extras help you stay calm during the procedure.

Once you have been prepped, our dentist will administer local anesthesia to keep you relaxed during veneer placement. The next step involves minimally reshaping the enamel to allow for veneer placement.

For a direct composite veneer, your dentist will apply the composite to the reshaped tooth and shape and harden it using a high-intensity beam. They will then add several layers of the composite to create the right shape and size of the veneer.

With porcelain veneers, your dentist creates an impression of the affected teeth to mold your mouth. The print then goes to a dental lab for fabrication.

  1. Recovery After the Treatment

Dental veneers are highly durable and can last for years with proper care. Regular dentist visits for cleaning and examination help you maintain a healthy smile.

After the treatment, you must care for the veneers because they cannot be repaired if they chip or fracture. Our dentists will advise you on the cost and time incurred in replacing broken veneers to encourage you to adopt healthy oral habits. Lower the risk of fracturing the veneers by avoiding poor oral habits like chewing on hard objects or using your teeth to open packages.

Also, brushing your teeth regularly with non-abrasive toothpaste would be best. With veneers being highly polishable, you do not need to be afraid of staining the teeth through foods or drinks. Nevertheless, it would help if you brushed your teeth every time you drank red wine, tea, soda, or coffee.

  1. Cost of Treatment

We offer different prices for veneers depending on the material used. Porcelain is expensive. You must pay approximately $925 and $2,500, but you will wait ten to fifteen years before requiring replacement. On the other hand, veneers made of composite resin cost from $250 to $1,500 but are not as durable as those made from porcelain, which only lasts for a maximum of seven years.

We have different payment plans for these services depending on your budget. Talk to your dentist about our financing options to develop a payment plan based on your finances.

Smile Makeover

A smile improvement or makeover is a dental procedure that enhances your overall smile through cosmetic dental treatments like veneers, implants, dental bonding, and teeth whitening. Before your dentist performs the treatment, they consider several factors, including:

  • The color of your hair.
  • Skin tone.
  • The color, shape, display, width, and length of the teeth.

People undergo the treatment for various reasons, and you must ensure you obtain a bespoke treatment based on your unique smile needs. When you visit us for the treatment, we will thoroughly evaluate your smile to determine the changes that must happen to enhance your overall appearance. Some of the aspects your dentist could recommend you improve are:

  • Discolored teeth can be enhanced through whitening, veneers, and bridges.
  • Missing teeth can be corrected by Invisalign or orthodontics.
  • Uneven or chipped teeth improvable by re-contouring.
  • A shapely face that can be improved through orthodontics or maxillofacial surgery.
  • Crooked or overlapping teeth which can be corrected through crowns or porcelain dental veneers.

On top of improving the teeth' color, balance, and alignment, we will evaluate other aesthetic aspects of your teeth to create a better smile makeover plan. These are:

  • Teeth length.
  • Teeth proportions.
  • Teeth characterization and surface.

Because your smile makeover needs and vision are unique, no two procedures are the same. We customize treatment to your particular requirements. Nevertheless, the result is the same for everyone, an improved smile.

Maintaining Smile Makeover Results

Whatever procedure your dentist performs to enhance your overall appearance, you must take proper care of the restorations to maintain the results. Avoid abrasive toothpaste or brushes that can scratch your repairs. Our dentists at Washington Dental encourage you to use non-abrasive toothpaste for brushing. Additionally, brush your teeth at least twice daily.

Also, you can extend the lifespan of the restorations by flossing your teeth to extract plaque and debris. If the smile makeover involves dental veneers, you need to floss your teeth regularly because the durability of the restorations depends on the health of your gum tissue. However, if you have composite fillings, avoid alcohol-based mouthwashes because they can adversely affect the fillings, interfering with the smile makeover results.

Another precaution you should take is avoiding biting or chewing on hard objects like bottle caps. Again, control your coffee, soda, or tea intake to reduce the chances of staining your teeth.

Dental Bridges

Another treatment we at Washington Dental in Carson perform when you come in for cosmetic dentistry is dental bridges. As the name suggests, these restorations bridge the gaps in your teeth to enhance your smile and functionality. You can use bridges even to fill gaps left by missing teeth.

To increase strength, a bridge treatment involves strategically placing pontics or false teeth between two healthy natural teeth. Apart from being attached to the adjacent natural teeth, the false teeth can be linked straight to the jawbone by applying a potent bonding agent. Sometimes, the bridges are anchored on implants in a dental procedure called implant-anchored bridges. The type of bridge you need depends on your dental needs and your dentist's recommendations. Therefore, visit us for an oral examination if the gaps in your mouth hinder your smile. It is after we have evaluated your teeth that we will recommend suitable bridges.

A dental bridge treatment cannot be completed in one visit to your dentist. The treatment is complex, and you need two or more visits to the dentist. The first appointment will be to develop an accurate impression of your tooth structure to create an image that matches your tooth structure. The dentist will place temporary bridges you wear until your next appointment when the permanent bridges will be attached. After the permanent bridges have been cemented, they can last for a maximum of twenty years without requiring replacement.

Dental Crowns

You can also improve your smile with dental crowns. The procedure replaces the visible section of the tooth damaged by decay or fracture. Typically, a crown procedure comes once a root canal treatment is complete.

Also, you will need crowns when you have a dental filling that needs covering and support to function like a natural tooth. If you struggle with a chipped or fractured tooth, a dental crown can be inserted to protect it from further damage. Again, our dentists use crowns to restore broken or chipped teeth and to attach bridges.

The advantage of a crown procedure is that the caps are made of porcelain, giving them a more natural look. With this treatment, you need at least two dental visits. One appointment will involve the creation of a tooth impression to mold crowns that resemble your natural teeth. You will rely on temporary crowns until your next appointment when the permanent crowns will be positioned.

Composite Bonding

Dental bonding offers corrections to decayed, broken, chipped, or discolored teeth. The treatment repairs the damaged tooth and improves your smile’s aesthetics. The composite material used in the procedure looks like your enamel or dentin. When you visit us in Carson for this service, the dentist handling your case applies the composite material to the surface or cavity of the affected teeth. Once the composite is in place, your dentist will sculpt, contour, and harden it with a high-intensity beam.

Bonding is no different from veneers and crowns. Still, the procedure offers multiple benefits. One is that it is simple to undertake and takes a short time. Therefore, you need crowns when working on a small budget and needing a quick fix to correct your oral flaws and augment your appearance. When your gums recede or you have exposed tooth roots, bonding can restore the defects.

Finally, bonding is appropriate when you want to retain your natural tooth structure by preserving your tooth enamel.

Dentures

Dentures are the full or partial arches of removable teeth used to replace missing teeth or tissue. During the consultation, your dentist will decide on a complete or partial set based on the number of missing teeth. Our dentist will recommend partial dentures if a few healthy natural teeth remain in the jaw. And if you are missing all teeth or the remaining few have been extracted, you will go for a complete denture.

The denture procedure starts with a consultation with your dentist. The meeting helps establish what is hindering the appearance of your teeth. If the recommendation for the problem is a denture, the dentist will take an impression of the teeth and send it to the dental laboratory for molding. Once the dentures are ready, they will be attached, and you will be free to enjoy them as you do with natural teeth.

With adequate care, dentures are durable. Nevertheless, regularly visiting your dentist at Washington Dental in Carson would be best to have the dentures realigned or rebased. Besides, it would help if you cared for the dentures the same way you cared for your natural teeth, by regular brushing and visits to the dentist.

Expectations in Cosmetic Dentistry 

Before undertaking a cosmetic dental process, it is vital to define your expectations. You should use the first meeting with your dentist at Washington Dental to understand our cosmetic dentistry services. Also, we will discuss the changes you want to see in your smile and answer all your questions about this branch of dentistry. At this meeting, your dentist will help you set realistic goals for the procedure. Furthermore, the dentist will inquire about your health history to develop a customized treatment plan.

A thorough oral examination is mandatory before any cosmetic dental treatment. And if you have another dental work in the mouth, your dentist must inspect it keenly. Besides, the dentist can take x-rays, intraoral images, or radiographs to better understand your mouth's anatomy.

At our dental offices in Carson, we create models and study casts of upper and lower jaws. Again, we have a portfolio of before and after pictures from past patients who underwent various cosmetic dentistry procedures in our dental facility. Our dentists will take you through the gallery to set realistic expectations. Further, we will discuss tooth color, shape, and size to achieve your desired aesthetics.

Lastly, your dentist will discuss payment for the dental services. Many insurers are reluctant to offer coverage for cosmetic dental treatments because they address your overall smile and appearance, not your teeth' functionality or overall health. Washington Dental has various in-house payment plans to help you pay for the service.

Trends in Cosmetic Dentistry

The field of cosmetic dentistry has seen tremendous evolution. Dental materials have been improved to have the texture and color of natural teeth. Your dentists should use minimally invasive dental techniques that preserve the natural structure of your teeth and use the latest technology and equipment, like a laser, to give you the results you desire.

Finding the Right Cosmetic Dentistry Service

Carson has several cosmetic dentists. Picking the right one for your treatment is challenging because cosmetic dentistry is not a specialty, and any certified dentist can offer the service. On top of choosing the right dentist, you must select the appropriate cosmetic procedure from the pool of options available. If your health insurer does not offer coverage for these services, do not depend on their referral.

Instead, you can rely on referrals from friends, colleagues, or family members who have undergone cosmetic dental procedures and are satisfied with the results. Your family physician can also refer you to the right cosmetic dentist because they understand your medical history and the dental treatments you have undergone.

The cosmetic dentist will not perform the procedure immediately if your teeth or gingiva require further evaluation. They will send you to a periodontist, maxillofacial surgeon, or endodontist. If you suffer from malocclusion or bite problems, they will refer you to a specialist before the cosmetic dental treatment commences.

Your list of cosmetic dentists is long, so you must narrow it down to a few professionals. Ask the potential dentist about the number of cosmetic dental treatments they have performed and the results. Also, it would help if you inquired whether the dentist has the proper training and is a member of the American Academy of Dentistry. An appropriate cosmetic dentist is one with quality training and who adheres to the ethical standards of the job.

Find the Right Cosmetic Dentist Near Me

If you struggle with chipped, fractured, discolored, stained, uneven, or missing teeth in Carson, you must speak to Washington Dental about our cosmetic dental services. We offer several procedures to individuals uncomfortable with oral features, like smiles, to give you a healthy and quickly improved appearance. Dial us today at 310-217-1507 for a no-obligation consultation.