How can I safely reshape my smile?

Many patients ask our staff about reshaping, redesigning, or modifying their natural smile. With modern dentistry, there are many ways to accomplish changes to your teeth for clinical and cosmetic purposes. However, patients are understandably concerned about doing any procedures which might cause harm. Some procedures come with unnecessary dental risks or potentially have long-term side effects that are undesirable for the patient's daily life.

To answer patient questions about which cosmetic or voluntary procedures are safe to do or recommended to be done, we follow the "minimally invasive philosophy" for dental procedures. In addition to keeping our patients informed about their options, we suggest performing treatments using the least invasive methods first. One typical example is when patients are looking to change the shape of their teeth, often jumping to the conclusion that a veneer or a full crown will achieve their desired outcome. While this is certainly one option, we could also recommend performing some teeth straightening via Invisalign first to change the position of the teeth and then only perform a smaller dental filling or bonding procedure. This way, less natural tooth is sacrificed compared to drilling for a veneer or crown.

How can I make my two front teeth match?

This question may be best illustrated with a fictitious but representative example story. Perhaps a fictitious patient named Bob is bothered by a difference in the length of his two front teeth. Throughout his life, one tooth has continued to "hang" lower than the other – and his friends suggested he get the longer tooth shaved down so it looks more natural. Bob just got engaged to his partner and looks forward to celebrations, photos, and a wedding in about 12 months.

When Dr. Yu is consulted about this, she sees that Bob also has a history of a "deep bite" and some wear and minor chipping on his bottom arch. To manage this condition, typically, a nightguard would be prescribed to prevent further wear or damage. The additional observation would be that the wear on Bob's teeth has likely reduced the amount of enamel of his natural teeth already.

Bob asks Dr. Yu to perform an "enameloplasty," which is also known as tooth "reshaping" and "contouring," to remove the "taller" portion of his front tooth. While this is certainly an option, Dr. Yu informs Bob that due to the amount of tooth she would have to remove and his existing wear on the natural teeth, he would likely experience sensitivity to cold food and drinks and be at more risk of exposing the pulp of the tooth.

As an alternative for a less risky and less invasive option, Dr. Yu recommends considering an Invisalign treatment to "push" the longer-appearing tooth upwards and bring the noticeable difference in height to be more even. In this way, the natural teeth do not have to undergo further procedures or reduce the amount of natural tooth structure. After the Invisalign teeth straightening procedure, Dr. Yu recommended to Bob they evaluate if he was happy with the length; if not – then she would perform a much smaller filling to match each tooth's appearance.

The side benefit to going this way is that Bob's teeth will also be overall straighter, and if he chooses to have Dr. Yu perform a comprehensive Invisalign case, his "deep bite" can also be improved to minimize additional wear to his natural teeth.

Each case is different, and no outcome for one individual means it is good for another. The main point of our philosophy is to perform cosmetic-type procedures with care and consideration for long-term dental health. While our office certainly does veneers and crowns for cosmetic purposes, we consider all available procedures and consult that patient on what is best for them. We don't want to recommend "quick one-time" procedures that yield an immediate but short-term result, which might result in difficulty in keeping dental hygiene best practices, more prone to cavities, or issues with chewing/eating.

To safely "reshape" your smile, we recommend discussing your goals with your top Winter Park dentist to understand the available options, pros, cons, and other considerations for you. We suggest asking questions beyond how the outcome will look, but also:

• Will I need to change how I brush/floss my teeth?

• Does this procedure limit my future options for other dental procedures (like further straightening, whitening, etc..)

• What happens to this dental work if my wisdom teeth grow in / further in the future?

• If I'm also looking to have my teeth whitened, teeth pulled, or other active treatment, what is the best (and most cost-effective) order to have my procedures done?

If we can be of any help, please don't hesitate to contact our office!