Cosmetic dentistry, much like its counterpart cosmetic surgery in medicine, is becoming an increasingly important part of dental practice today.

Many scientific studies have shown that a person's self esteem and their self-confidence is directly related to their feelings about their appearance. The teeth and mouth are extremely important to a person's facial appearance, and thus cosmetic dentistry can play an important role in improving a person's feelings of self worth by improving their sm

Cosmetic dentistry today is a blending of art and science. With the focus on esthetics, the results in combination with using the very latest in dental restorative techniques and materials can improve your smile to give it a more pleasing appearance. This in turn, makes a person feel better about themselves, which can improve many facets of their life.

The restorative dentists and staff at HLD can offer you a variety of cosmetic procedures to make your smile a thing of beauty.

• Diastemas (spaces or gaps between teeth)
• Broken or chipped teeth.
• Stained or washed out fillings.
• Cracked or leaking fillings.
• Permanently discolored teeth.
• Crooked or poorly shaped teeth.

To fix these types of problems any or all of the following techniques might be used.

When only a small amount of tooth structure needs replacement, composite bonding can give a good esthetic result. Composite bonding is one of the most conservative and affordable ways to restore a cosmetic problem.

The bonding procedure is done usually with minimal drilling (preparation) on a tooth. A conditioner is then applied to the enamel to allow the composite resin to adhere to the tooth. The resin is then applied to the tooth, and it is shaped and contoured to match your existing teeth.

Important things to remember about bonding is that: 1. There are only several colors or shades of resin to pick from, 2. The bonding is done right at the chair so the shaping is not nearly as custom and individual as a laboratory made crown or veneer, and 3. The resin itself is prone to staining due to microscopic porosities in the material and the resin is not nearly as strong as porcelain.

The resin or restorative materials consist of a resin-based oligomer matrix, such as such as a bisphenol A-glycidyl methacrylate BISMA or urethane dimethacrylate(UDMA), and an inorganic filler such as silicon dioxide silica. Compositions vary widely, with proprietary mixes of resins forming the matrix, as well as engineered filler glasses and glass ceramics. The filler gives the composite wear resistance and translucency. A coupling agent such as silane is used to enhance the bond between these two components.

The bleaching system we use at HLD is Opalescence Trèswhite’s Tray System and Opalescence Boost Gel in-house whitening systems. They are take home system, and gives good results and is easy to use. It is also the only tooth-bleaching product, to date to be approved for use by the American Dental Association.

Harbour Landing Dental also now offers the Zoom Whitening system. This is a new system that uses a combination of both pateneted Zoom! gel and a special activation light to brighten and whiten your teeth. The Zoom Tooth Whitening System is the fastest way to white your smile.

Porcelain inlays are made in the same manner as crowns and porcelain veneers. They are made in the dental laboratory from an impression taken of the tooth. They are excellent restorations for bicuspids and molars where enough sound tooth structure remains so as not to make a crown necessary to restore the tooth. They are made of porcelain ceramic and are much stronger than tooth-colored fillings or silver fillings. Used appropriately, porcelain inlays and onlays can provide a functional esthetic restoration for the back teeth.

The fillings are made of composite resins similar to the resins used for the bonding procedure.

In certain situations these type of fillings can give a functional esthetic result, however the size of the area of the tooth needing restoration must be small enough that the composite resin material used for these fillings will take the chewing forces exerted on the back teeth. The procedure is much the same as for cosmetic bonding, however the amount of drilling required is more because the dentist has to remove the decay or the old filling from the tooth before he can place the composite-resin filling.

The resin or restorative materials consist of a resin-based oligomer matrix, such as such as a bisphenol A-glycidyl methacrylate BISMA or urethane dimethacrylate(UDMA), and an inorganic filler such as silicon dioxide silica. Compositions vary widely, with proprietary mixes of resins forming the matrix, as well as engineered filler glasses and glass ceramics. The filler gives the composite wear resistance and translucency. A coupling agent such as silane is used to enhance the bond between these two components.

Porcelain crowns and bridges can offer a very esthetic, functional answer in these situations where a tooth lacks enough sound structure to choose a less aggressive method of restoration, or, in the ease of bridgework, where one or more teeth is missing and needs replacement. For more information see the section in this website about Crowns and Bridges.

Crowns and Bridges have advanced much now in the 21st century, with the introduction of several new lines of computer numerical controlled (CNC) milled materials such as ceramic and zirconia. A mold is taken of the mouth, and then a replica of the tooth is designed on the computer using CAD/CAM technology. The computer file is then sent to the CNC machine for milling, resulting in an extremely lifelike replica that is almost as strong as the original.

Complete restorations and smile-makeovers have been done with the use of strategically planned crowns and bridges, in which the shape is sculptured by the specialist, and the color is carefully selected and matched as well. Many cases exist in which the use of crowns and bridges have been implemented on front facing teeth, with no detection from others.

The restorative dental staff at HLD is looks-forward to discussing your cosmetic dentistry options with you, and offering their expertise on the appropriate method of treatment for your particular situation.