Dr. David Eshom • (858) 455-9151[email protected]

Cosmetic Dentistry: An Overview

Your perception of what represents a beautiful smile may differ from the people around you. For example, a little teeth whitening while keeping that natural tooth appearance may be more appealing to some patients than creating an evenly aligned and very bright white smile. Regardless of your preferences, today’s cosmetic dentistry affords its patients endless options to creating their perfect smile.

The following is a review of the many areas and techniques of cosmetic dentistry that San Diego Dentist, Dr. Eshom, has covered throughout his website, www.EshomDDS.com.

Basic hygiene: Brushing and flossing will remove dental (bacterial) plaque and together with a fluoride toothpaste will protect your teeth against decay — the most basic everyday cosmetic protection. It doesn’t get more basic than this. Polish “Em”: A visit to our friendly dental hygienist to remove unwanted scale and stain masking an already natural smile may be all that is necessary to renew your smile. This is good for staining caused by coffee, tea, wine and other stains on the tooth surfaces.

Home Teeth Whitening: Includes teeth whitening strips, “paint-on or brush-on” whitening, lozenges and even whitening gum. The most basic over-the-counter products are available in drugstores. These professionally unsupervised teeth whitening techniques, containing carbamide peroxide, real teeth bleaching agents at low concentration, are the least expensive ways to improve and whiten your teeth. Be careful to follow the manufacturers’ instructions.

whitening

Professional teeth whitening is either completed at home under the direction of San Diego Dentist, Dr. Eshom, or in office teeth whitening is also available. Take home teeth whitening trays are professionally fitted to go over your teeth. Teeth whitening gel, generally carbamide peroxide 10% solutions applied for 30 minutes 2 x per day can achieve a significant difference in tooth color. At home teeth whitening trays may be slow and take up to 6 weeks to get the change you want, but the teeth whitening technique is tried and true. Professional teeth whitening performed in San Diego cosmetic dentist, Dr. David Eshom’s office with special precautions to protect your gums and other oral tissues. This one time teeth whitening technique uses high concentration bleaching agents (35-45%), and might just give your smile the “wow” you want in short order.

Cosmetic Dentist to the Rescue

Let’s Bond: Changing the teeth themselves is literally in the hands of your cosmetic dentist extraordinaire, Dr. David Eshom. Minor changes can be accomplished by dental bonding “composite” resin to chipped or discolored front teeth.

bonding

Tooth Colored Metal Free Restorations for Back Teeth: Today’s modern techniques and materials allow replacement of missing tooth structure, which dental bonds directly to tooth substance, not only matching tooth color but significantly strengthening the teeth. Tooth colored fillings can dramatically change the appearance of your teeth.

filling

Porcelain Veneers: A porcelain veneer is a thin layer of dental porcelain material that replaces tooth enamel. Given the right indication for porcelain veneers, these remarkable natural looking restorations can truly change your smile.

porcelain-veneers

Porcelain Crowns: A variation on the porcelain veneer, but basically used when more tooth structure has been damaged by decay or trauma. Porcelain crowns envelop the tooth for 360 degree coverage.

porcelain-crowns

The Magic of Orthodontics: is the most, and may be the only effective means of correcting malocclusions (mal-bad, occlusion-bite) and teeth in poor position. This original smile makeover option is a specialty in dentistry which uses a variety of 21st century techniques, including traditional braces, clear aligners and porcelain veneers, orthodontics allows movement of teeth into correct and functional positions. This either improves cosmetics and function (your bite) by itself or lines the teeth up properly for other cosmetic dentistry techniques..

Cosmetic Dentistry Replaces Missing Teeth

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There is nothing more devastating to a smile than lost or missing teeth. There are multiple ways today to replace missing teeth both functionally (biting, chewing, speaking and laughing) as well as cosmetically. Dental implants are perhaps today’s ultimate tooth replacement systems providing “stand alone” teeth, unconnected to other teeth. While a dental implant replaces the root of a tooth, the porcelain crown atop the dental implant (the tooth you see in your mouth) is an exact replica of a natural tooth. Therefore dental implants provide for cosmetic tooth replacements, emerging through the gum tissues just like natural teeth, and can be made to match the neighboring teeth exactly.

At the end of Cosmetic Dentistry…

We are always a bit perplexed when we see the dowdy “before” pictures right next to the great “after” ones. You know, the ones with the new hairdo, the cleanly shaven guy, and the girl with the fresh lipstick smile, but let’s face it – they do make a difference. These changes truly are cosmetic, and as we have illustrated cosmetic dentistry can do its part. But the biggest part is not just how your smile looks, it’s how you feel when you show it.

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