It’s the time of the year when many of us start to look forward to several months of (hopefully) reasonable weather. Not only does this make us generally feel happier and more positive about life, but is also a time when we socialise a lot more, especially outdoors. Whether it is a barbeque, a garden party or wedding reception, or perhaps even when we go away for a holiday, most of us want to look the best that we can.
New clothes aren’t a problem for most of us and those of us with hair can have a new hairstyle should we wish to do so. These are relatively easy to do but there is one area that can be more difficult to improve and that is our smile, especially if our teeth are stained or discoloured.
A dull and discoloured smile may not damage our teeth, but it can affect our self confidence as well as distracting from the way that we look. We all want to have a great looking smile on our holiday photos, and not one that shows stained or dull teeth. Let us take a look then, how we can help you have a brand new smile at our Edinburgh New Town dental clinic.
One of our most popular cosmetic dental treatments is the tooth whitening procedure. This is hardly surprising as it offers a significant improvement in the whiteness of your teeth without breaking the bank. Endorsements by lots of celebrities also means that more people are aware of it than before. To top that off, it is a painless and non-invasive treatment that is suitable for even the nervous dental patients among us.
So, how does it work? Well, first of all, we take impressions of your teeth. This is done in order to produce a set of ‘trays’ that will fit directly over your teeth and which will hold the whitening agent that we will provide. This will whiten not only the stained and discoloured surface of the teeth, but reaches into the part below the enamel known as the dentin. While this part doesn’t get stained per se, it is a part of the tooth that starts to darken in colour as we grow older and this shows through the translucent enamel. This is entirely natural and no amount of brushing your teeth will change this. The only solution is to have your teeth whitened in this way.
You will be given instructions, along with the gel and trays to take home with you. You will usually wear them for a few hours a day for around a fortnight. This can vary though. As you will have noticed, some celebrities have brilliantly white teeth, but the reality is that not everyone wants their smile to be ‘ultra white’. The good news is that the treatment can be adjusted so that you can have more subtle improvements in the whiteness of your teeth if you so wish. We will discuss this with you during the consultation.
After a couple of weeks of this ‘at home’ whitening treatment, you will notice a significant improvement in the colour of your teeth. The treatment is long lasting and can be safely repeated as often as you need if required.
Some people, such as heavy or ex smokers may wonder if this treatment will work for them if their teeth are badly stained. This will depend on each situation and the best thing to do is to come to the 103 Dental and Implant Practice in Edinburgh New Town to have a consultation with us where we will be able to offer appropriate advice.
For some people in this situation, a teeth whitening treatment may offer sufficient improvement, even if the whiteness isn’t as significant as you had hoped for. Some people opt to try this first of all due to its affordability, either being happy with the resulting level of whiteness or moving on to the other option that is available, namely dental veneers.
Porcelain dental veneers offer the opportunity for anyone with badly stained teeth, or where teeth have chips or cracks in them, to have a great looking smile again. It should be stated though, that this is a permanent procedure that requires some invasive dentistry to be carried out.
Essentially, to do this, the dentist will ‘shave’ away a fine layer of the affected tooth enamel. We will then take impressions of your teeth which are then sent away for the veneers to be produced in a dental laboratory. This can take a week or two and you will be provided with temporary veneers to protect your teeth in the meantime.
When your new veneers are returned to us, you will be recalled to the practice where we will remove the temporary veneers and attach the new ones using a strong dental adhesive. Finally, the veneers will be trimmed and polished to provide you with a natural looking new smile.
Veneers generally last in the region of ten years, providing that you look after them (we will cover this in a future blog post) before needing to be replaced.
If you are looking forward to the spring and summer months then why not consider having a teeth whitening procedure to help you have the best smile you could have?
If you would like to find out more about the teeth whitening procedure or would like to book your initial consultation with us, please call our Edinburgh New Town dental practice on 0131 608 3219. We look forward to meeting you!
