Planning your Smile Makeover: Which Treatments are Best?

Making the decision to seek out a smile makeover is important and requires careful consideration and discussion with your dentist. Smile makeovers should help to preserve any natural teeth, allow you to enjoy better health, and promote increased confidence with renewed aesthetics. With this in mind, ask yourself the following questions when doing cosmetic dental makeover research or bring them in to your dental consultation. Knowing the basics about common aesthetic and reconstructive services can help you make the best choices for your needs.

Crowns or Veneers?

Dental crowns work best on teeth that have been severely damaged or are decayed and therefore require more reinforcement and restoration. As placing a crown involves shaving down a fair amount of tooth enamel above the gum line, it’s best to make sure that enamel is damaged beyond repair and should be removed in the first place.

In cases where less tooth structure is damaged, and concerns are mostly cosmetic, veneers can be applied. Adding a veneer to a tooth helps to preserve more of your natural tooth enamel and re-shapes teeth so they appear more complimentary to the rest of your smile.

Treat Infected Teeth? Or Extract Them?

In a conservative dental philosophy, it’s the best course of action to keep your own teeth in place for as long as possible. Replacing extracted teeth is more feasible with modern dental solutions, but requires additional care and treatment over the course of your lifetime. If an infected tooth can be successfully treated with a root canal and preserved with a crown, this is typically the best course of action. Only teeth that are beyond repair should be removed entirely.

Analyzing Cost for your Smile Makeover

Smile makeovers are investments in your health and wellness over the course of your lifetime. Your teeth will and should be with you for as long as you live, which is why taking care to find the appropriate dental professional and most efficient procedures for your needs is important. The training and experience of your dentist factor into final cost for your smile makeover. Our dentist, Dr. Julie Thomas, is well-versed in cosmetic procedures and is prepared to help patients find best solutions for their smile makeover needs. When restoring your entire smile, you wouldn’t go to a dentist fresh out of school – you are paying for the wisdom and expertise of a dentist with years of training and continuing education to their credit.

Additional factors to consider for the cost of your treatment plan are materials and the experience level of prosthetics and lab technicians, respectively. Prosthetics that are made to closely match real teeth and stand the test of time will be most expensive, but are far more beneficial in the long run. The ceramist creating your restorations should also be well educated in their field to provide lasting results.

Ask our Cosmetic Dentist about Smile Makeovers

If you have questions about what you can expect for you smile makeover, contact our North Canton cosmetic dentist, Dr. Julie Thomas, for your consultation and to go over your options.

Cosmetic Dentistry: Preparing for your Consultation

If you’re in the market for a more beautiful smile, scheduling a cosmetic dentistry consultation is the place where your goals are established and your dentist has a chance to recommend care that will work best for you.

Before heading into your cosmetic dental consultation, consider asking the following to help create a productive first meeting that answers questions and promotes treatment satisfaction:

What Materials Will be used in Treatment? Everyone’s treatment goals differ and there are different restorative materials your dentist can use to help you meet those. If you have teeth that are worn down from bruxism, a restoration with a strong metal base may be your best bet. For cosmetically restoring teeth in your smile zone, completely tooth-colored materials like all-porcelain or e.max® are excellent choices. Be sure to ask you dentist what materials they will use during treatment so that you are comfortable with the final result.

What are My Conservative Treatment Options? Patients with severely damaged teeth may need a comprehensive restoration like dental crowns, which involves preparing teeth by first removing damaged dental enamel. However, if much of your tooth structure is healthy, restoring function and appearance can be completed with procedures that keep more of your teeth in-tact, such as an onlay, inlay, or veneer. For some patients, brightening teeth and correcting tooth shape can be conservatively accomplished with teeth bleaching and placement of a few veneers. Be sure to ask your dentist about ways to combine treatments that allow you to keep as much of your natural teeth as possible.

Offers, Payments, Financing: Patients should note that, depending on providers and coverage limits, procedures deemed for purely cosmetic benefit may not be covered. If available, ask your cosmetic dentist about new patient offers, in-house payment plans, or special financing they can help you apply for to support your treatment plan.

Do your research!

Patient Reviews: Reading up on other patients’ reactions to service can help you decide if you like your chosen dentist’s commitment to care and chair-side manner. Check out trusted review sites, such as Google+ or Yelp to see what other patients or visitors have to say about the office you plan to visit. Make sure to note whether the dentists answered questions, helped patient make good choices about their treatment, and set up the right expectations.

View Before and After Transformation:  Making sure that you like your dentist’s treatment methodology and results is essential in feeling comfortable with care. Before you schedule your consultation, look through your cosmetic dentists’ before and after gallery to get an idea of the results you can expect with various procedures.

Our North Canton dental office takes to get to know you, understand your needs, and recommend treatments and materials for long-lasting, beautiful results. Contact our office today to schedule your consultation or view our Smile Gallery to see before and afters.