Can my dentist improve my smile?
There are many techniques and options to treat teeth that are discolored, chipped, misshapen or missing. Your dentist can reshape your teeth, close spaces, restore worn or short teeth or alter their length. Common procedures include bleaching, bonding, crowns, veneers, and reshaping and contouring. These improvements are not always cosmetic. Many can improve oral problems, such as your bite.
Bleaching
Bleaching is a common and popular chemical process used to whiten teeth. Some people get their teeth bleached to make stains disappear, while others just want a whiter shade. Discoloration occurs in the enamel and can be caused by medications, coffee, tea and cigarettes. Discoloration also can be caused by your genetic make-up or simply getting older.
Bleaching can be performed by your dentist in the office or, under dental supervision, at home. Many patients prefer bleaching at home because it is more convenient. Treatment begins when your dentist creates a custom mouthpiece to ensure the correct amount of whitening solution - 10% to 20% carbamide peroxide - is used and that your teeth are properly exposed. Typically, whitening at home takes two or three weeks, depending on the desired shade you wish to achieve. Whitening in the office may call for 2-6 45-minute visits to your dentist's office.
Bonding
Bonding is tooth-colored material used to fill in gaps or change the color of teeth, requiring just a single office visit and lasts several years. Bonding is more susceptible to staining or chipping than other forms of restoration. When teeth are chipped or slightly decayed, bonded composite resins may be the material of choice. Bonding also is used as a tooth-colored filling for small cavities, and broken or chipped surfaces. Additionally, it can be used to close spaces between teeth or cover the entire outside surface of a tooth to change its color and shape.
Crowns, also known as caps, are used in cases where other procedures will not be effective. Crowns have the longest life expectancy of all cosmetic restorations, but are the most time consuming.
Veneers
Veneers are placed over the front teeth to change their color or shape. They are used on teeth with uneven surfaces or that are chipped, discolored, oddly shaped, unevenly spaced or crooked. Veneers are thin pieces of porcelain or plastic cemented over the front of your teeth.
Veneers are used to treat some of the same problems as bonding. This treatment is an alternative to crowns, which are more expensive. The procedure requires your dentist to take an impression of your tooth/teeth. Before the custom-made veneer is glued directly onto the tooth, your dentist will lightly buff the tooth to compensate for the added thickness of the veneer. Once the cement is between the veneer and your tooth, a light beam is used to harden it. Porcelain veneers require more than one visit because they are fabricated in a laboratory . Veneers have longer life expectancy and color stability than bonding.
Contouring and reshaping
Which procedure is right for me?
Reprinted with permission from the Academy of General Dentistry
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Eating healthy
reverses metabolic syndrome
Dr. Tasnime Akbaraly of University College London and her colleagues were interested if healthy eating could actually turn-the-tide and reverse metabolic syndrome, which is having 3 or more of the following risk factors: excess abdominal fat; high triglycerides, hypertension, low levels of HDL the “good” cholesterol, or type 2 diabetes. Having metabolic syndrome doubles a persons’ risk of heart disease and greatly increases the odds of developing type 2 diabetes.
The researchers studied 339 British civil servants with metabolic syndrome, and how closely the adhered to the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) to see if it could help reverse metabolic syndrome. The AHEI is a set of published nutritional guidelines by the Harvard School of Public Health in 2002 that emphasizes whole grains, fruits, vegetables and decreased red meat consumption.
Five years into the study, nearly 50% no longer had metabolic syndrome. People who followed the AHEI guidelines the closest were nearly twice as likely to have reversed their metabolic syndrome. The results of the study were published in Diabetes Care, online July 29, 2010.
Dr. Alice Lichtenstein, an expert on diet and heart health from Tufts University in Boston who was not involved in the study said, "It's not about focusing on individual components of the diet, it's really the whole package, and that becomes important because it means that if one of the components of a healthy diet is to eat more fruits and vegetables, just buying a pill saying that there's a concentrated extract of fruits and vegetables is probably not what's going to help you."
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