How many visits does a cosmetic procedure require?
Cosmetic dental procedures at Bristol Dental Clinic range from a simple teeth whitening procedure to less invasive procedures like teeth contouring or chipped teeth to complicated smile makeovers and up to complex full mouth reconstructions (partnering with a prosthodontist or an implantologist or both). Up to 75% of the cosmetic procedures patients requested at our clinic were assessed to be of lower complexity and were done in a single sitting. In cases where patients like to get a feel of what the end result would look like, an additional appointment for a mock-up would be needed before doing the actual procedure. Needless to mention, complex procedures definitely need multiple sittings.
What is a cosmetic dentist?
Cosmetic dentistry is a specialized area of dentistry dealing with any dental work that enhances your smile, gums, and teeth or correcting the functionality of your teeth such as bite correction. A dentist practicing cosmetic dentistry is a cosmetic dentist. At Bristol Dental Clinic, most procedures we focus have an important cosmetic aspect such as improving the alignment, teeth inter-relation, look, shape, color, position, size, and how it finally improves your smile. Many other procedures we do also have immense functional value such as bite correction, TMJ adjustments, or gummy smile management. However, one should understand that a cosmetic dentist is not a title endowed on a dentist by any university (there is no dental degree like cosmetic dentistry) but a skill largely achieved through expertise, experience and a very keen aesthetic sense. The Canadian Dental Association does not recognize Cosmetic dentistry as a specialty.
What are the benefits of cosmetic dentistry?
The benefits of cosmetic dentistry services can be either functional (much more than a better smile) or cosmetic (non-functional). Generally speaking, at Bristol Dental Clinic, the functional benefits can range from bite correction, TMJ adjustments, gum contouring, gum grafting, management and elimination of pain and discomfort, aiding proper development of gums and teeth, or even a full mouth reconstruction, especially after a mouth injury or lack of dental care or age. Cosmetic benefits on the other hand would be largely through smile makeover techniques through the addition of a dental material to teeth for example, diastema closure, bonding, veneers, laminates, crowns, etc. or through the removal of tooth structure for example, enamel shaving, re-contouring, or through other non-invasive techniques such as zoom teeth whitening, laser whitening, gum colored fillings or through use of appliances to straighten teeth for example, braces or invisalign (can be also for functional reasons like bite correction). Other incidental benefits are priceless such as improvement in your appearance, confidence, personality, career development, social recognition and long-term oral health.
What procedures can I choose from for a Smile Makeover?
The different smile makeover procedures patients can choose at Bristol Dental Clinic range from aesthetic anterior restorations, teeth whitening (take-home, zoom or laser), re-contouring of teeth and gums, enamel shaving, cosmetic bonding, diastema closure, crowns, bridges, veneers, laminates, implants, gum surgery, gummy smile elimination, gum lifts, braces, invisalign, head gear, bite correction, etc. The list is endless and there is something different and appropriate for every condition. Even regular scaling can improve puffy and bleeding unaesthetic gums.
What are some things a cosmetic dentist can do?
Cosmetic dentistry is an advanced level of restorative dentistry and in many cases could end up with a prosthodontist if the correction is highly functional in nature.
At Bristol Dental Clinic, patients can choose from a host of cosmetic procedures such as teeth whitening (take-home, zoom or laser), re-contouring of teeth and gums, enamel shaving, cosmetic bonding, diastema closure, crowns, bridges, veneers, laminates, aesthetic anterior restorations, implants, gum surgery, gummy smile elimination, gum lifts, braces, invisalign, head gear, bite correction, etc. Again, the list is endless and there is something different for every condition.
There are other procedures we can do with laser since we have both the hard tissue and soft tissue state-of-the-art lasers.
Does the patient’s dental insurance cover all cosmetic dental treatments?
It is a common misconception that cosmetic dental treatments are not covered by dental plans. In our experience, many of the cosmetic treatments we do at Bristol Dental Clinic are partly or sometimes fully covered by most dental insurances if they are functional in nature even when the final result may seem to have improved the cosmetic value of the patient’s mouth.
On the other hand, we also caution patients that relying totaling on insurance coverages to undergo cosmetic treatments may not result in optimum results since insurance companies design plans based on the needs of a healthy young individual, not an average individual who has more dental work than a healthy person. In any case, we never do any cosmetic treatment here without checking with the patient or their insurance company.
What is a full mouth restoration?
A full mouth restoration, or technically called reconstruction, as the name suggest is re-building a damaged or mutilated dentition. The damage could be due to many reasons such as a motor vehicle accident, an injury, a fall, disease, bruxism, poor bite, loss of teeth, age etc. which ultimately results in the patient’s inability to masticate food leading to poor nutrition and finally deterioration of overall health.
A full mouth reconstruction can be extremely expensive and is definitely not something would be attempted by any dentist. At Bristol Dental Clinic, we manage full mouth reconstructions with the aim of reducing the total treatment cost and having a better control over the entire treatment by controlling the treatment plan with other in-house and outside specialists. To attain this, we partner with a very reputed prosthodontist and a highly experienced and skilled implantologist. The result is that the work is broken into different phases and cost spread over a period of time with many treatments done at our clinic at general dentist rates. The specialists do their work at their clinic and charge specialist fees for their part of the work.
A big factor in choosing a dental office for full mouth re-construction is the assurance of immense after treatment care, which would last a lifetime, provided through Bristol Dental Clinic.
