Cosmetic dentistry creates attractive smiles that function
in a state of health. As cosmetic dentists, we can help you
determine how to improve your smile, thereby looking better
and feeling better about your appearance If your teeth are
chipped, spaced or discolored, if their shape is somehow unattractive
or if you simply want to have an eye-catching smile, we can
give you the smile you once had or the one you always wished
for.
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Smile Makeover & Analysis |
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Zoom-Laser Bleaching |
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Dental Implants |
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Cosmetic Enamel Contouring |
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Periodontal Plastic
Surgery |
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Gumline Recontouring |
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Gingival Grafting |
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Black Line Removal
(Around Old Crowns) |
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Porcelain Fillings |
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Porcelain Inlays |
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Porcelain Onlays |
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Porcelain Crowns |
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| ORTHODONTICS |
SCALPELSS
FACELIFT |
VEENERS |
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INVISALIGN (Invisible
Braces) |
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Ceramic Tooth Colored Braces |
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Removable Orthodontics |
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Orthodontic Veneering
(Instant Orthodontics) |
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Lip Enhancement
(Fuller Upper Lip) |
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Broadening of Smile |
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Fine Line Removal
(Around Mouth-Wrinkle Eraser) |
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Permanent Whitening |
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Broadening of Smile |
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Removal of Gaps & Spaces |
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Straightening of Teeth
(Instant Orthodontics) |
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Lengthening of Teeth |
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Have you ever considered plastic surgery to reduce the
effects of aging? Does the thought of going under the knife
frighten you? Perhaps you’ve considered less invasive
forms of plastic surgery such as Botox or collagen injections,
and realized that
they are only temporary fixes and need frequent re-injections
to maintain results. Years ago cosmetic dentistry was never
discussed or let alone considered an option to plastic
surgery. However,
these days it is one of the highly sought after treatments
that can easily and within 2 weeks or less make a dramatic
impact
in achieving a youthful appearance and reducing wrinkle
lines.
If there is something about your smile that bothers you,
holding back your smile can eventually take its toll on
your facial features. Years of holding back your smile
or covering your teeth with
your lips to hide them will eventually cause the muscles
around the smile to lose its tonicity and the lower portion
of the face will begin to droop accomplishing what you’ve been trying
to do all along which is cover your smile. However this shouldn’t
be. Imagine your confidence if you had the smile you always dreamt
about with diminished wrinkle appearance and improved muscle
tonicity. Would you still hold back your smile? Or, rather look
for any excuse to flash your beautiful appearance? That’s
what cosmetic smile makeovers can do.
We feel esthetic dentistry will not only have a tremendous effect
on self-esteem it can also improve how the jaw functions. As
teeth wear down or edges of them chip, the bite will eventually
collapse and this will place the burden of chewing on the jaw
joints not on the teeth where it was designed to take most of
the pressure from chewing. This we feel is a contributing factor
to TMJ problems. The other problem when teeth wear down is that
it will eventually expose the underlying tooth structures and
once that happens teeth will stain rapidly. Bleaching will only
temporarily solve this problem and it will quickly revert back
because stains have a much easier way to get inside.
At NYC Smile Design we realize that every face is unique
and therefore can’t prescribe a generic set of teeth to every
smile facial features have to be carefully evaluated to determine
what works best for the individual. We believe our practice name
is truly a reflection of what we do; “design smiles” not
apply porcelain pieces. Cosmetic dentistry can be a life
changing event which often times paves the way for career
advancements and a greater zest for life.
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This problem appears in your gum tissue as a black hole or
as if a poppy seed is stuck between your teeth. The black
space can appear larger with time. Sometimes we see this problem
after orthodontic treatment. The teeth are aligned nicely
but due to the anatomy of the teeth being triangular or bulbous
a space exists above where the teeth contact leaving a black
hole instead of healthy pink gums. Or, after orthodontics
the teeth are aligned properly but the roots aren’t
which helps create a lower bone level and resultant black
hole where the healthy pink gum tissue should be.
Moving the position of the teeth with Invisalign and or reshaping
of the sides of the teeth can quickly, comfortably and effectively
treat this problem in less than 6 months.
Another cause of this
problem is active gum disease or from treatment during gum therapy.
Now when you smile, there are
spaces and air goes through them. Sometimes this can affect
speech. This can be quite unsightly if it has progressed far.
With the correct type of porcelain laminate preparation for
this situation, this condition can easily be corrected in two
visits and the results are quite stunning and confidence building.
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A very common problem that we see is clients who never had
their lateral teeth form. Those are the teeth right next to
the two upper front teeth. What happens is that now the arch
is bigger than the number of teeth occupying that space. The
eye teeth (which are the sharp teeth at the corners of the
mouth) begin to drift into the missing tooth space. Sometimes
braces are done as a child for a client missing these teeth.
They either had the space closed or almost closed to bring
the eye teeth into the position of the lateral. Now you have
sharp teeth in front of the smile rather than to the side and
often spaces remain. Another way it is sometimes treated as
a child is to maintain the space for a lateral and some type
of restoration is placed there to retain the spacing. Many
times there is an associated “gummy look”. If the
spaces are closed or almost closed the best way to correct
this is with porcelain veneers. This requires very skillful
knowledge of the problem and artistic capabilities to give
the illusion that the smile never had any problems. If the
space has been maintained with a removable tooth or with a
bonded metal based fixed tooth (Maryland bridge), there are
different ways to esthetically place a non-removable tooth
with no metal. These would include a couple of types of all-porcelain
bridges or implants.
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1) Bulimia and Acid Reflux- These are very destructive to the
enamel. Slowly they erode the enamel away from the teeth at
the gumline and sometimes at the back of the teeth where it
is not visible. Teeth will slowly get thinner and thinner and
chip away very easily. This not only causes esthetic problems-
it causes severe functional problems as well. If this destructive
process is not corrected the bite can collapse and cause severe
jaw problems. If corrected soon enough, bonding can be done
to cover exposed areas of teeth. If more than 25% of the tooth
has eroded, porcelain veneers need to be designed to protect
the underlying dentin and correct the bite problems that may
have occurred. Ultimately, the acid level in the mouth has
to be regulated by a gastroenterologist.
2) Swimmers- Swimming
in overly chlorinated pools can wear away the enamel in people
who swim quite frequently (i.e.
daily). We have seen severe cases of this. We recommend that
you have your teeth checked frequently and letting your dentist
know that you swim in a chlorinated pool. Fluoride treatments
can be given to help keep the teeth strong and swimming with
a well adapted and custom fitted mouth guard can minimize
exposure of teeth to chlorine.
3) Enamel/Dentin Hypoplasia- Localized enamel hypoplasia refers to individual teeth that
have hypoplastic, hypocalcified
or hypomineralized areas on a tooth resulting from infection
or trauma. It can vary from a mild to a severe form in
which pitting and irregularity may be extensive in the
crown. Developmental (amelogenesis imperfecta), systemic
disturbances and nutritional deficiencies during infancy
or metabolic disturbances during prenatal or neonatal life
can cause hypoplasia. Tetracycline exposure, excessive
ingestion of fluoride and high body temperature (fever)
has also been implicated in enamel defects. Treatment options
include crowns and veneers (if enough enamel remains) to
protect the teeth from chipping and breaking as well as
to improve overall esthetics, reduce sensitivity and restore
function.
4) Soda/Citrus Drink Overuse- One of the ingredients
in soda drinks (diet Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, etc) is
phosphoric
acid. Phosphoric acid is caustic to enamel. Citrus drinks
have citric acid in them which is also caustic to enamel.
Bathing the mouth in orange juice or soda, especially when
sipping it slowly and allowing it to stay in the mouth
too long can cause the enamel to slowly wear. Sucking on
lemon wedges is also a way to breakdown the enamel on your
teeth. If too much breakdown of enamel occurs, we have
to consider treatment options to rebuild the lost tooth
surface and the resultant sensitivity, loss of function
and loss of esthetics.
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If the shape of the individual teeth are correct and they
are symmetric to their identical counterpart in the arch,
with Invisalign they can be brought close together and easily
retained so they won’t relapse. However, if the spacing
is too severe or if the teeth are not beautiful to begin
with, porcelain veneers are necessary to correct this defect.
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As long as the shapes of the individual teeth are beautiful
they can be de-rotated with Invisalign within a few months.
However, if the teeth are misshapen individually, uncrowding
them will only place them in the correct position in your
arch and they still need to be improved with porcelain veneers.
If the crowding and rotation is severe we recommend a combination
of Invisalign and veneers. If the crowding is minor we may
consider either Invisalign or veneers.
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Tetracycline is an antibiotic used to treat numerous infections.
One of the unfortunate side effects of this important medicine
is that when it is given to growing children it will drastically
discolor their teeth. Unfortunately this type of discoloration
does not respond to bleaching well and it may require numerous
applications of laser bleaching to achieve a noticeable result.
The treatment of choice in such severe discolorations is
porcelain veneers.
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Often times teeth are small because of extreme wear from
grinding or combination of grinding and acid erosion. If
the teeth have worn away severely i.e. 20% or more of the
original volume, then the only solution is rebuilding them
with porcelain reconstruction. However, there are times that
teeth are just hiding underneath the gums and all one needs
to do is lift the curtain up with a cosmetic laser gum lift.
Another situation that might give the illusion of small teeth
is limited upper lip movement when smiling. If the upper
lip does not move, the solution might be plastic surgery
and or lengthening of teeth with porcelain veneers.
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This can happen as a result of aggressive tooth brushing
or from teeth that are positioned too much in front of the
arch. It is quite a common problem these days, especially
with people who have the most meticulous oral hygiene routines
and unwittingly abuse their gums from brushing too much or
too forcefully. It also can occur after braces where teeth
are moved far out of the arch to alleviate one problem has
created another-exposure of the root surface. As long as
the recession is not too severe requiring a gum graft, the
shape of the teeth can be altered with porcelain veneers.
Sometimes both may be required.
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Often times teeth may appear uneven and asymmetric due to
the uneven level of gums. One tooth may appear shorter than
its matching tooth on the opposite side mainly because the
gum levels are different. This can easily be corrected with
laser gum lift to reveal the hiding tooth and create symmetry.
However, if the teeth are still misshapen, porcelain veneers
are necessary to bring brilliance and luster and just an
overall pleasing smile.
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