Cosmetic Dentistry: More Than Just Aesthetics!

The term “cosmetic dentistry” is a bit of a misnomer. Yes, it improves the overall appearance of your teeth, mouth, and jaw. However, cosmetic dentistry does so much more than that, offering benefits that go beyond the depth of a smile. From helping relieve pain stemming from TMB to curbing sleep apnea, cosmetic dentistry offers structural, functional, and healthy benefits to patients.

It is certainly no surprise that smile enhancement can produce dramatic results to your overall appearance, with even the smallest step having the ability to boost your confidence and self-esteem. According to the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, modern advances in dentistry make cosmetic procedures ranging from teeth whitening to missing-teeth replacement effective in helping to treat specific dental-health issues.

Seeking the help of cosmetic dentistry in Studio City can offer you a host of benefits aside from just an enhanced smile.

What is Cosmetic Dentistry?

So what is “cosmetic dentistry” exactly? It is a branch of dentistry that involves dental procedures designed to improve the size, shape, color, alignment, and position of your teeth and gums. Categories range from orthodontics and endodontics to periodontics and prosthodontics. Within these subcategories, procedures can do everything from adding or removing material to your current teeth to bridging gaps, straightening and bonding your teeth, or grafting your gums.

The cosmetic dentistry umbrella can include any of the following:

• Bonding
• Veneers
• Crowns
• Grafting
• Teeth whitening
• Gum de-pigmentation
• Teeth straightening
• Orthodontics
• Tooth re-shaping
• Bridges
• Enamelo-plasty
• Gingivect-omy
• Implants
• Invisalign
• Inlays and overlays

Cosmetic dentistry can improve your bite and help the way your teeth and jaws function. It can even repair issues to help prevent future damage from occurring. Improving your oral health often opens the door to improving your overall physical health. Let’s take a closer look at what we mean:

Added Benefits of Cosmetic Dentistry

There are many added benefits that come with cosmetic dentistry, benefits that involve much more than a nice smile. For example:

Keep infections at bay: When you have poor oral health due to tooth decay, cavities, or weak tooth enamel, you invite harmful bacteria into your mouth, which can lead to infection. Your gums become inflamed as a result of your immune system’s need to attack the infection. If not addressed, this inflammation and associated chemicals can eat away at your gums and bone structure. Gum disease, known as periodontitis, can result.

It doesn’t stop there. If the infection enters your blood stream, you’re putting yourself at a higher risk for:

• Heart Disease
• Depression
• Type II Diabetes
• Stroke

Gum disease and heart disease have long been linked. Up to 91 percent of patients with heart disease also suffer from periodontitis, compared with 66 percent of people with no heart disease, according to WebMD. Shared risk factors include smoking, poor diet, and excess weight.

Relieve sleep apnea: Sleep apnea not only robs you of a good night’s sleep, it can be associated with serious health problems such as stroke, heart conditions, and diabetes. Your cosmetic dentist can recommend anything from Oral Appliance Therapy (OAT) to Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) to help curb sleep apnea. Even full mouth reconstruction can go a long way toward helping you breathe easier.

Provide support: Bonding, veneers, and crowns can help to restore teeth that have been cracked, broken, or otherwise damaged. Repairing teeth that have weakened due to these cracks or fractures through cosmetic dentistry options means you’re providing them the support they need to prevent more damage in the future, or even save your teeth altogether.

Improve speech and eating: Out-of-place teeth, crooked teeth, or teeth that have shifted can all negatively impact not just your speech, but also your ability to chew properly. This is an uncomfortable and embarrassing affliction, one that can be remedied by cosmetic dentistry.

Improved Confidence: The boost in self-confidence that comes with cosmetic dentistry is real and undeniable. Because you’re no longer ashamed to show your teeth, you smile more and appear more approachable and friendly to others. In fact, one study shows that a beautiful smile has a direct correlation to the success of your relationships, both professionally and socially.

Contact Studio City Dental Center

If you’re looking to boost your confidence and your health, make an appointment today with Studio City Dental Center by calling us at 818-762-2977.