Restoring a Perfect Smile with Cosmetic and Restorative Dentistry

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A smile you wear can explain your general health condition most of the times. Dentistry has evolved in every term that it can bring back a smile, with any kind of treatment necessary depending on the conditions. Two major branches of dentistry that can help you get back the smile, and make you look better are Cosmetic dentistry and Restorative dentistry.

Cosmetic dentistry is an oral care measure taken to improve the health, function and the appearance of the oral and paraoral tissues. A minor change in the smile and the whole appearance is influenced with it. It depends on various factors to decide whether you need any cosmetic dentistry procedures, you need to visit your dentist for the best opinion.

Some of the cosmetic dentistry options are:

1. Tooth whitening, also referred to as bleaching, involves whitening of the stained teeth. It can be done at the dental office, which is more recommended, or you get a teeth hitening system to use at home do the procedure yourself.

2. Contouring or tooth reshaping, has become one of the popular and instant treatments where corrections are done on crooked, cracked or chipped off teeth, and in this procedure, a few millimeters of tooth surface is involved, not going too deep involving the dentin or pulpal areas. Most of the times, covered back with the help of dental restoration.

3. Bonding, a process where the reduced surfaces of crooked or cracked teeth are brought to proper contour by application of enamel-like restorative materials, and shaping them, hardening and polishing.

4. Veneers are thin shell-like laminated materials that are directly bonded onto the tooth surface. Its useful when any whitening procedures do not work well, or there is a unpleasant looking gap between teeth.

5. Dental bridges, referred to as false teeth or pontics are artificial teeth resembling a natural tooth, and placed between two fused porcelain crowns of adjacent teeth of either side. These bridges have been a well pronounced system for long-term results, and restoring the esthetics by function and structural replacement of natural teeth.

6. Braces, these are long-term treatment procedures that are used in orthodontic treatments if the teeth are not in a normal arch, position, are crowded or crooked. Its done not only in children, but for people of any age, who have a question on their teeth arrangement and restriction to produce a proper smile, due to any problem in position of teeth.

Restorative dentistry is a speciality in dentistry that collectively includes various branches that help in restoring and rehabilitate the functional and esthetic needs of teeth and the surrounding supporting structures.

Restorative dentistry includes the 3 major branches: Endodontics, Prosthodontics and Periodontics.

These various branches help in restoring the functions of oral tissues by replacing or repairing damaged, decayed or lost tooth/teeth.

Endodontics deals with the treatment of the tooth pulp to save the tooth part surrounding it. If the tooth pulp is damaged or diseased, an endodontic treatment makes the tooth non-vital by treating the pulp, and not disturbing the outer enamel and dentin around it.

Prosthodontics deals with the replacement of missing teeth, or replacement of whole jaw with the help of dentures and dental bridges. Sometimes dental implants are placed, to make the artificial tooth resemble a natural tooth, both functionally and esthetically.

Periodontics is a branch that controls the care of the tissue surrounding the teeth, i.e. gingiva and periodontium.

Cosmetic and restorative dentistry branches directly or indirectly help in restoring a perfect smile for any individual.