Cosmetic Dentistry

Porcelain Veneers

Porcelain Dental Veneers provide the most dramatic smile makeover that allows people to correct teeth that are visibly displeasing to them in any way. Corrections in appearance can be made to teeth that are in any of these categories:

• Crooked teeth
• Stained teeth
• Discoloured teeth
• Broken teeth
• Teeth with spaces or gaps
• Misshapen teeth

Dental veneers (sometimes called porcelain veneers or porcelain laminates) are wafer-thin, custom-made shells of tooth-colored materials designed to cover the front surface of teeth to improve your appearance. These shells are bonded to the front of the teeth to change the color, shape, size, or length of the patient’s teeth. Porcelain veneers resist stains and their translucent and polychromatic characteristics mimic the light reflecting properties of natural teeth.

Crowns

A dental crown is a tooth-shaped cap that is permanently bonded to the tooth to enhance the aesthetic and to restore function to a weakened tooth. The crown can encase the entire tooth or part of the tooth and is typically used for:

• Protecting a weak or cracked tooth
• To restore an already broken tooth or a tooth that has been severely worn down
• To cover and support a tooth with a large filling when there isn’t a lot of teeth left
• To hold a dental bridge in place
• To cover misshapen or severely discoloured teeth
• To cover a dental implant

Dental Crowns can last between five and 15 years, depending on the amount of wear and tear and the level of good oral hygiene. Crowns can be made of porcelain, predominantly used for front teeth to maintain aesthetics or a mixture of precious metal fused with porcelain to increase strength for molar teeth.

General process for Crowns
Crowns can be made by two methods, the tradition way or by using the latest Cerec technology. Cerec porcelain crowns are milled right before your eyes and fitted in a single visit, requiring no impression material. Traditional crowns require several visits to the dentists which include:

Bridges

A dental bridge effectively bridges the gap created by one or more missing teeth. To create the bridge, a crown may be placed on either side of the missing tooth, as an anchor, and another crown is placed in the gap.

Bridges remain the alternative for patients who are not suitable for dental implants, or when existing bridges are being replaced. Bridges can:

• Restore your smile
• Restore the ability to properly chew and speak
• Maintain the shape of your face
• Distribute the forces in your bite properly by replacing missing teeth
• Prevent remaining teeth from drifting out of position

General Process for getting a Bridge

Providing there are no other complications, preparing the teeth for a bridge usually requires several visits to the dentist which generally includes:

Fillings

Fillings no longer need to look ugly with the old amalgam silver fillings. At SmileCo, our dentists take into account the aesthetic of the tooth, durability and affordability and work with you to determine the type of filling best suited for you.

Our clinic offers superior porcelain and resin fillings which are both natural looking and only require a single visit procedure. Composite resin fillings are placed in soft and set hard with blue light and are more suitable to smaller cavities. Resin fillings are less expensive than porcelain fillings but are not as durable. Porcelain fillings are hard prefabricated fillings that are bonded into the cavity and are the preferred filling for larger cavities. They are more expensive than the composite resin but are more durable and therefore last longer.

Fillings are used to:

• repair cracked or broken teeth
• worn down teeth from nail biting or tooth grinding
• fill cavities when decayed materials are removed

Teeth Whitening

Do you want whiter looking teeth? Have you noticed that over time, they have changed colour?

There are two reasons why our teeth can appear more ‘yellow’. It can be due to external factors, which can be caused by our diet, smoking or poor oral hygiene, which have resulted in staining our teeth. It can also be due to internal factors within the tooth structures such enamel or dentine defects, having high doses of antibiotics or fluoride as a young child. It is normal for your teeth to appear more ‘yellow’ over time. This is because the outermost layer of tooth structure that you can see is the enamel, which is actually translucent. The different shades of colour that we can see in our teeth is due to the underlying tooth structure called dentine, which can become more ‘yellow’ or darker over time.

There are a range of tooth whitening products available in the market, but it can be overwhelming on which one you should choose and which one is actually effective. It is important to be aware that some toothpastes which advertise to ‘remove stains’ can in fact do more damage to your tooth. This is because these certain toothpastes, contain abrasive particles in the toothpaste, which can remove staining, but also the enamel surface.

Our tooth whitening products contain Hydrogen Peroxide is known to cause the enamel structure to appear whiter. There are a few whitening toothpastes available in the supermarket which contain Hydrogen Peroxide, however at very low percentages which can take a very long time to have any whitening effects.

We have two types of tooth whitening products available at our clinic: Home whitening or In-Chair whitening. The at home whitening is takes approximately one to one and a half weeks to take effect as there is a lower concentration of Hydrogen Peroxide. Some patients that have mild existing sensitivity prefer the home whitening as high concentrations of Hydrogen Peroxide can increase sensitivity. The In-Chair whitening takes approximately 2 hours and you should be able to see the results at the end of the appointment. As the tooth whitening for In-Chair whitening occurs more rapidly, there is a higher concentration of Hydrogen Peroxide which can increase the risk of post-whitening tooth sensitivity.

It is important to understand that tooth whitening is a cosmetic procedure and we need to ensure that your oral health is optimal before we proceed with the tooth whitening. It is essential for us to ensure that you are the right candidate for tooth whitening as it is not appropriate for every patient. So if you are very interested in having your teeth whiter, please feel free to make a whitening consult with one of our lovely oral health therapist or hygienist at no out of pocket cost.