ABC's of Cosmetic Dentistry

Our patient desired a subtle, minimally invasive cosmetic improvement in her smile. She specifically didn’t like how some of her front teeth were rotated, the gums were uneven, the edges of the teeth were worn, and overall wanted a brighter color.

To help her meet her goals we recommended:

Aligners

Bleaching

Composite Bonding

To start, we used our 3Shape Trios intra-oral scanner to create a digital model of her mouth, then worked with Clear Correct to design a series of clear aligners to move the teeth and gums into a more ideal position. Clear aligners are a type of clear retainer that fits over the teeth and applies pressure in specific locations to slowly move the teeth. The total treatment time for her aligners was less than 6 months.

Over the course of aligner therapy, she used Opalescence whitening gel inside the aligner trays to improve the color of her teeth. The tightly fitting clear aligner trays kept the bleaching gel on her teeth and prevented it from leaking onto the gum tissue.

At the end of aligner therapy we rescanned her teeth with our 3Shape Trios intra-oral scanner and designed a template for composite bonding to repair the worn edge on one front tooth. Restoring a single central incisor is one of the most challenging cosmetic procedures to do in dentistry. Using several different shades of Tokuyama Estelite Omega composite, we were able to expertly blend the direct composite bonded restoration into her tooth and mimic the adjacent tooth. The lower front teeth were then smoothed to minimize the risk of chipping the newly restored upper front tooth.

When all treatment was completed we scanned again for custom clear retainers to be worn at night and protect the teeth from movement and wear.