The presence of beautiful set of teeth in a person with good alignment and color is one of the most admirable things in a person. People like to have a beautiful smile and try to enhance it by various treatments. Esthetic dentistry is the particular specialty of dentistry, which aims to provide esthetic techniques which improve the overall appearance of teeth.
Many people are likely to have defects in the color or shape of the teeth. On the other hand many people have certain defects in the structure of the teeth that affects their appearance. Television celebrities and other media personalities are required to have good esthetics and smiles, which again forces them to look up teeth beautification methods. In all these conditions, where the aesthetic result is the main need of the patient, with or without any functional defects, the esthetic dentistry comes as the field of specialty.
Through esthetic dentistry procedures, a person can have whiter or cleaner teeth free of stains. The patients may change the shape and color of the teeth. Aesthetic camouflage techniques can help in creating better looking alignments of the teeth in such patients who are not interested in taking long term treatments such as orthodontics or braces.
There are now a huge variety of materials and treatments that are available that can help improve the appearance of teeth. These include filling materials that have the color resembling the various shades of teeth, crowns or caps that cover the entire surface of teeth and thus create a better looking surface of the tooth, bleaching agents and kits that can help lighten stains on the teeth and give a whiter smile, and many others such as lasers.
These materials can be used in combination or isolated according to the needs of the case. Such methods have been extremely helpful for patients whose teeth had been affected by certain medicines which cause disfigurement of teeth and change in the color of teeth. Drugs such as tetracycline can lead to very ugly grey to black colored discolorations in the teeth. These discolorations can be removed by covering them with a casing called a crown on the surfaces of the teeth. The cap covers and hides the dark color of the teeth and thereby creates a more pleasant aesthetic look. Also, children who in their childhood were exposed to high levels of fluoridated water and thereby have got discolorations or defects in the tooth structure can also receive fillings or caps that can hide these defects.
In other cases such as those suffering from cavities or caries and where the teeth have become infected, the color of the teeth can also change. In such cases as well, the esthetic dentistry can help in improving the look of the teeth and make them more natural and lifelike.
Esthetic dentistry is therefore, one of the most effective methods of improving the looks of the teeth. The dentist can provide the patient with more information on the options available and which option is the best for the patient.