Going to the dentist has an unfortunate reputation for most people. When the average American thinks about a dental visit, they think about an uncomfortable cleaning process or a painful root canal. While these are necessary parts of maintaining healthy teeth and gums, the world of dental technology has advanced dramatically in the last few years. If you’ve been avoiding the dentist like the plague, or even if you only check in every six months for a cleaning, you may be totally unaware of all the options that are available to help brighten your smile.
Bye Bye Braces
Crooked teeth have been the bane of middle and high school students for generations. Braces are not only uncomfortable, but they stand out at a time in a child’s life when all they want to do is fit in. It is even more difficult for an adult to get away with braces and not feel ostracized in their workplace. While serious cases of crooked teeth will always need serious assistance, the average misaligned smile can be fixed with a pair of clear aligners. These invisible products slide over the teeth, and subtly adjust them over time, much in the same way an obtrusive set of braces would, without any of the pre-existing stigma.
Somewhere near you there is a cosmetic dentist whose trained to offer you clear aligners without you needing to make the long term investment in an expensive set of braces. Talk to your dentist and find out if your smile can benefit from a slight, discreet adjustment.
Dentures For Everyone
Elderly people aren’t the only ones who lose their teeth. Diseases, accidents, and chemicals can all cause teeth to leave the mouth before their time. Missing teeth are a serious problem on two fronts for people of all ages. First, no one looks good with holes in their smile. It will affect how you smile when meeting new people, how you stand for photographs, and your self-confidence in general. Second, your mouth was designed to use all your teeth. Missing a molar or canine can make chewing much more difficult and even painful in some cases.
While there is still a stigma of agedness attached to using dentures, the technology has come a long way. You likely interact with people every day without a single real tooth in their head, and you’d never know unless they told you. Color matching has advanced so much that you can remove entire sections of your real teeth and replace them with partial dentures that look perfectly identical. If you have trouble eating most solid foods, or just want to be able to smile properly for Christmas cards again, it may be time to get rid of the old, and start over with a set of dentures.
Cosmetic Dentistry is a growing field that most offices will be able to provide in some capacity. Whether you’re looking to whiten your smile, or replace it all together, contact your local dentist and find out what they can do to change the way you look at going to the dentist!
Source by Abigail Aaronson