How we can improve our smile

In this article we discuss with dentist Tania Hatzipanagiotidou about methods with which we can improve our smile?

We can improve our smile in several ways. It depends on the original image of the smile. We encourage our patients to come in for a free diagnostic appointment. In which they tell us exactly what is bothering them and we see what is bothering us. So we have a discussion and we find the appropriate way for everyone.

Teeth whitening

A smile can be easily fixed with a simple whitening. So changing the colour of our teeth the result is different. Η teeth whitening is a very simple process, very conservative. Usually what is done is a combination of in-office laser whitening and chewing at night in our sleep for about 10 days depending on the initial time of the teeth. Slowly the teeth are seen to open up and reach a lighter color. This is the easiest method fast, extremely economical.

Tooth grinding

A mouth can be fixed with a simple selective grinding. That is, one tooth may be a little longer than another, a little more pointed, a little more acidic at the edges. With a simple selective grinding we can bring the upper and lower teeth into balance. This can be done easily without anesthesia in a matter of minutes.

Uloplasty

The other technique is grafting. Gingivoplasty is done when the gums, the gum line is not uniform on all the teeth. We are usually concerned when the smile is scarred. That is, when a patient smiles, the gums are visible. There we can intervene with local anesthesia a procedure is done on the gums and eventually after a short period of healing they become uniform on all teeth. And we see if down the road this all needs to be accompanied by some other technique. For example with some resin veneers or porcelain veneers or something else. So this is done to differentiate the gums. It's done under anesthesia. Η scarification no bleeding, no pain later.

Resin facets

Another way to improve my smile is resin veneers. Resin veneers are resin peels. Resin is the material we use for fillings, white fillings. Only it's a little bit different because it has a different microscale and it polishes better. It's placed on the front teeth, front surfaces of the upper and lower teeth. This way I can change both the color of my teeth and the shape of my teeth. I can fill in some gaps that may exist between the teeth, to bring a uniformity to my smile. Teeth that are crooked that are a little bit in a little bit out I bring them into a nice curve at a nice level. The treatment with the resin facets is too easy.

Digital smile design

In fact, there is a technique in which I take photographs of the patient and some fingerprints. If he wants and wishes he can see the result, the digital result of the final smile on the computer. This technique is called digital smile design. The patient can also have the initial plan, the plan of the final treatment to view digitally. This takes one session for the upper jaw and one for the lower jaw of 2-2 half hours. Most of the time we do not use anesthesia. If we do use anesthesia then it is done minimally in some places. So we need one session for the upper jaw and one session for the lower jaw and we get a huge change in the smile.

Porcelain veneers

Now for more complex issues. The same can happen with porcelain veneers respectively. That is, usually for corresponding smile aesthetic problems I can use porcelain peel instead of resin. This is a bit more time consuming because a dental technician is involved. The dental technician fabricates these veneers, so I have to prepare the teeth, take an impression and send it to the dental technician and have him fabricate the veneers, which I finally bond in the dental office after we have tried them on and seen them in the mouth and we like them. We glue them with permanent adhesive the result is very natural. The porcelain veneers have the following difference with resins that they do not absorb the pigments at all. So for many, many years the smile remains exactly the same.

We compare resin veneers with porcelain veneers

Resins, compared to porcelain, take up little pigment as a material. So it depends on one's oral hygiene. That is, whether he drinks coffee or smokes. It depends on one's habits as to how quickly the resins will change color. There are people who have had resin veneers put on them, they have gone 10 years without a change. However usually the time to change resin veneers is about 5 years. That is, we take off the outer peel and put on a new one which will not have the color change that it had before. The shape, the shape change we have done at the first appointment so we don't have to. So the second appointment of changing the resin facings is very, very short and at half the cost.

Porcelain wreaths and bridges

Finally, I could say that in more extensive damage to teeth with many fillings, if a tooth is missing, we can put in porcelain crowns and bridges. Porcelain in recent years, the manufacturing of crowns has evolved tremendously. We now use materials that resemble natural teeth so closely. That is, with a successful restoration with porcelains one can say that it is one that even the dentist can easily understand by looking at a patient. It does not easily appear that there is something artificial in his mouth. That is, if one of my patients comes in and sits in the dental chair and I look at their teeth even putting on the lamp that we use before I put on my mirror and look at the middle side of the teeth. If I look directly at his teeth with his lamp I can't as a dentist know that what I'm looking at is something artificial.

In other words, we have reached very high levels of aesthetics. These crowns, the porcelain cases are also placed on the front and back teeth. Possibly, if a tooth is missing we can, it may not be a single crown but a bridge that covers the gap and the result is really stunning, it's very, very beautiful.

Smile enhancement with dental implants

In the whole configuration of the smile can be missing a tooth, the gap can be filled with dental implants. Implants are an alternative when we are missing some teeth. We can go for this option when there is a lack of teeth. We should prepare and in the end see what we can do to the remaining teeth at the same time as restoring the missing teeth. I can definitely say that all the techniques I mentioned are so sophisticated now that the patient does not believe that he could have such a result. His family and friends cannot believe that such a result can be achieved anymore with the means available in dentistry.

Dental treatment time

The time depends on the choice of treatment. Bleaching will usually take about 10 days depending on the original colour. But usually, the average treatment is 10 days with at-home chews and usually 2 laser treatments in the office with a 1-week interval.

As we said, selective grinding is done in a few minutes. The gum surgery is also done in one session, it just has a time for the gums to heal before I can move on to something else if I want to. But what is mostly seen in the initial healing stage, where you can barely see anything healing there locally is about 3 days. All the other days that we need to say that the gums have finally come to where we want them to. To maybe move on to some other treatment takes 20 days to 1 month. Within that time it goes without saying that he feels no pain nor visually does anything strange appear visually. It's just that the gums need this amount of time to say they are stabilized.

As for the resin veneers, as we said, they are done in one session for the upper jaw and one session for the lower jaw. When we are talking about restorations of a porcelain because the dental technician is inserted there the time period is longer. That is, there I can take from a week to two to two and a half weeks depending on the problem and the extent of the treatment.

Dental treatment pain

First of all, I must say that the basic principle of modern dentistry is not to hurt the patient. Where the intervention is a little bit longer, we will definitely use anesthesia. In fact, first we put a jelly to numb the gums and then we put the anesthetic so that the patient basically feels almost nothing. Nor while the anesthesia is being administered, after the teeth are fully anesthetized then we proceed with any treatment which could cause pain if we didn't use anesthetic.

But there are treatments where it won't hurt the patient anyway. Let's say for example in elective grinding or resin whitening or veneering we usually don't use an anaesthetic because it doesn't hurt at all. Now to grind a tooth when I prepare it, to put a porcelain case in there yes I will use an anesthetic. And so the patient won't feel anything at all. When he leaves here he feels absolutely nothing. After the anesthesia wears off, he feels absolutely nothing. Simply put, there is no pain.

Cost of tooth treatment

One last question is about cost, all of this is very nice, but is it cost prohibitive?

And that depends on which treatment I choose. However to say that even the most invasive treatment i.e. which is porcelain veneers or porcelain crowns even those I choose I can't say that the cost is prohibitive. Especially considering that these restorations are permanent on the teeth. I mean porcelains are something which is a treatment which I do with good oral hygiene will go, it will last in the mouth for many, many years. It is a restoration for which I can invest some money and then just forget about my oral problems. We do this type of treatment in our office so that we don't have to think about the problems that were in our mouths again.

If there is a need to do some denervations or if there are old denervations in the mouth, all these are checked. Gum treatments, periodontitis all these are checked before I proceed with any treatment regimen so that there is a continuous check. So the patient doesn't finish the treatment and we forget about it. Instead, he comes back from time to time and we check the treatment result. We check his gums, his oral hygiene. No one leaves. It seems strange and many patients say to me " But doctor, why don't I know how to brush?". And yet it's not necessary to know how to brush. We weren't born knowing how to brush. There's even a lesson in how to brush properly. What I expect from the patient using the brush for the result to be long lasting without any problems. That there is health in the patient's mouth with the perfect aesthetic result.

Dentist in Glyfada

Mrs. Tania Hadjipanagiotidou is dentist in Glyfada. Her office is located in Glyfada at the intersection of 16 Gregorios Lambrakis and Angelos Metaxas streets. Specifically, it is located in the shopping center 'Premiere', on the 1st floor.

 

 

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