Today in the United States, dentistry ranks in the top 10 most trusted and ethical professions, and most Americans care a great deal about the appearance and health of their teeth. After all, a person may have a great smile and suffer few dental problems if they have a mouth filled with healthy and attractive teeth. Many millions of Americans visit the dentist every year or every six months for checkups and care, but this may include cosmetic work as well as surgery. Not all dental visits are for cavities or wisdom tooth removal; cosmetic dentists get plenty of work every year, and a dentist office offering cosmetic dentistry may prove popular. This may range from having a dentist whiten your teeth to having crowns or porcelain veneers put in, or crowns or even dental bridges. An interested client may search “porcelain veneers washington DC” or “dentist offices with porcelain veneers washington DC” to find some local results in the nation’s capital, for example.
Finding the Right Dentist For You
As with searching for other forms of dental care, someone who wants to find a cosmetic dentist may look online for an ideal office in their home city. Someone living in Los Angeles may search “tooth whitening Los Angeles CA”, for example, or a client in the nation’s capital may look up “porcelain veneers Washington DC”. This search can be further refined based on the patient’s needs or their medical insurance, such as “porcelain veneers Washington DC for the elderly.” A search may also be more general, such as “good cosmetic dentists near me.” Any of these searches may show a whole list of local cosmetic dentist’s offices, and the client may strike out those that are deemed too far away or those that don’t accept their health insurance policy.
The client may then visit the other offices in person to get a fair impression of them, and consult the dentists and dental assistants in person to see their credentials and work history (not to mention patient reviews and feedback). The client may visit several such cosmetic dentist’s offices until they find one that suits their needs, and sign up as a patient there.
What Cosmetic Dentistry Can Do
Put simply, cosmetic dentistry enhances the appearance and function of teeth. One example of this, as hinted at above, is having porcelain veneers put on. For those not aware, these are dental implants which can fit right over the patient’s teeth to restore their color and shape. These are hard shells that fit snugly over the natural enamel of teeth, and since every person’s teeth are different, such veneers are made out of molds. A patient may need to visit their cosmetic dentist two or three times for their consultation, then have molds made of their teeth and wait while the veneers are made. Once the customized veneers are ready, they are fitted over the teeth. This allows them to make the teeth dazzling white, and fill in any chips, dents, or missing pieces that had compromised the teeth. This enhances the person’s smile and makes eating and speech easier.
A similar idea is to have dental crowns fitted over a cracked or worn down tooth, to restore its functions and shape while preventing further damage. And tooth whitening, meanwhile, is a fine way to restore the pearly white luster of teeth and enhance their appearance. Often, teeth are discolored or stained by tartar buildup, or use of tobacco products.
Even missing teeth can be restored with the work of cosmetic dentistry. Adult teeth do not naturally grow back in, but dental bridges and dentures can fill the gap with realistic replicas. If one tooth is missing, the dentist may use a mold of the patient’s remaining teeth to make a bridge, a realistic replica that will be fitted into the gap. Such false teeth are anchored in place with covers that fit over the real teeth flanking the gap, and bridges can thus restore a person’s smile and making eating and speech easier. Dentures, meanwhile, can restore entire rows of teeth or the entire mouth’s worth at once, along with false gums to support them all. Denture sets can be taken out of the mouth and put back in at will.
