Holiday Smile Makeover: Which Cosmetic Treatment Is Right for You?

The holiday season is upon us, and with it come the numerous social gatherings complete with enduring photographs of smiles and cheer. But what if your smile doesn’t leave you cheerful? Can you get a do-over?

Absolutely. At Hometown Family Dental Centers, our expert dental professionals offer a wide variety of cosmetic dentistry procedures, allowing you to make over your smile just the way you want it in time for the holiday season. Here’s what you need to know.

What is a smile makeover?

A smile makeover is a combination of different cosmetic procedures designed to fix the problems you have and enhance your attributes. You can pick and choose from a menu of options to customize your smile.

Some of the procedures we offer at Hometown Family Dental Centers include:

• Crowns
• Bridges
• Implants
• Dentures
• Teeth whitening
• Invisalign®
• Veneers

What you choose depends a lot on what you feel is wrong with your smile and your aesthetic goals.

What are my treatment options?

If you’re mainly concerned with stained teeth, our teeth whitening procedure or porcelain veneers would be good choices. Veneers are custom-made, wafer-thin shells that fit over the front surface of your teeth. They can cover stains, chips, or cracks; bridge gaps between teeth; or bring a shorter tooth into line with its neighbors.

If you’ve got an abnormal bite, the Invisalign® clear aligner system may be able to move your teeth where they need to go. The aligners are custom-built trays that gradually shift your teeth into their proper positions. Since they’re essentially invisible, no one will know you’re having work done.

If you’re missing one or more teeth, bridges, partial dentures, or dental implants can complete your smile.

Bridges and dentures replace only the visible part of the tooth – the crown. A bridge is an artificial tooth attached to the teeth on each side of the gap. For partial dentures, acrylic teeth are attached to a metal plate that fits in your mouth and holds on to neighboring teeth. You can replace a single tooth or many with this system.

If you’ve lost all your teeth in an arch, we can fabricate full dentures that adhere to your gums via suction. They take a little getting used to, both for eating and for speaking, but they look completely natural, so no one will know you have dentures unless you tell them.

Dental implants, though, are the gold standard for missing teeth. They involve implanting a titanium screw into your jawbone, which, when it heals, acts as your tooth root and stimulates bone growth.

Once the bone has fused with the post, we attach a connector called an abutment to it, which then connects to the visible restoration, such as crowns or implant-supported dentures.

If you’re afraid your smile won’t stand up to the glamour of the holiday season, it’s time to consider a smile makeover. To learn more or to schedule an evaluation, call Hometown Family Dental Centers in Fayetteville, Raeford, or Vass, North Carolina, and we’ll be happy to discuss this with you.