Cosmetic

Gum contouring is cosmetic dentistry’s answer to correcting the appearance of a gummy smile. By carefully and artistically trimming excessive gum tissues, your dentist can significantly improve your smile’s appearance as well as other aspects of your oral health. Today, we examine how gum contouring actually works, and why using lasers to accomplish the procedure can provide even more benefits for your smile and periodontal health.

The Point of Contouring Your Gum Line

A gummy smile describes a smile in which the gums cover too much of one or more of your teeth. This can make those teeth seem smaller and your whole smile seem asymmetrical, which dramatically impacts its esthetic value. The point of contouring your gum line is to surgically trim away the excess tissues to expose the appropriate amount of structure for each tooth. This creates a symmetrical frame around your smile to match the healthy, beautiful appearance of your teeth, and it also helps improve your overall periodontal health.

Gum Contouring with Laser Technology

In many cases, gum contouring can be performed with the use of advanced, specially calibrated laser technology rather than a traditional scalpel. The soft-tissue laser is designed to safely and accurately trim soft oral and periodontal tissues and can achieve amazing results faster and with significantly more comfort. Laser contouring is also more precise, so the results of your treatment will be more lifelike and complement your smile with a more esthetically pleasing gum line.

Find Out if Gum Contouring Works for You

Gum contouring can do wonders for improving a gummy smile, and with the help of advanced lasers, those benefits are even more significant. To learn more, schedule a consultation by calling Modern Smile in North Hollywood, CA, today at 818-763-9353. We also proudly serve patients who live in Burbank, Toluca Lake, and all surrounding communities.

While you can successfully prevent most common issues from threatening your smile, there are some things you may still have to deal with from time to time. For instance, even when your teeth are healthy and free of decay, they can still become stained and dull over time compared to their youthful, healthy appearance. Fortunately, erasing common teeth stains and restoring that youthful appearance is typically an easy and comfortable experience, especially with the help of laser-assisted teeth-whitening.

How does the solution work?

Teeth-whitening consists of a powerful but safe solution that your dentist applies evenly to the surfaces of your teeth. The peroxide-based solution gently but effectively breaks up the deposits on your teeth surfaces that are causing them to stain. It also brightens your main tooth structure so that your smile is not only stain-free, but also as bright and appealing as ever.

Can I really whiten my teeth in one visit?

At our office, we offer a choice of teeth-whitening options, which you can either take home and apply at your convenience or complete during a single visit to our office. To perform the in-office treatment, your dentist will utilize the advanced Epic X dental laser to stimulate the solution into rapidly breaking up and removing stain deposits. In most cases, treatment can be completed in just over an hour.

How often do I need teeth-whitening?

Once you’ve whitened your teeth, the results can last for years, depending on how well you care for your smile afterward. However, your teeth may stain again and require another whitening touchup. If you visit your dentist at least once every six months for checkups and cleanings, then he can help you determine when it may be best to consider teeth-whitening again.

Benefit from Laser Teeth-Whitening

Teeth-whitening can brighten your smile quickly and effectively, especially with the help of the innovative Epic X dental laser. To learn more about laser-assisted teeth-whitening, schedule a consultation by calling Modern Smile in North Hollywood, CA, today at 818-763-9353. We also proudly serve patients who live in Burbank, Toluca Lake, and all surrounding communities.

In most cases, faster doesn’t mean better, especially when it comes to something as precise as improving your smile’s appearance. However, fast and excellent aren’t mutually exclusive. For instance, with porcelain veneers, your dentist can transform your smile with incredibly lifelike results, yet keep your treatment limited to a single procedure. Today, we examine why porcelain veneers are often the fastest way to improve a smile, and how you and your dentist can decide if they’re the best option for you.

What Porcelain Veneers Do

Many cosmetic smile issues occur on the visible surfaces of your teeth, and addressing them requires different solutions, according to the specific situation. For instance, if your teeth’s surfaces are stained, you can erase the stains with teeth-whitening. If a tooth is chipped, you may be able to improve with tooth bonding. Porcelain veneers, however, thin shells of porcelain that are crafted to the precise measurements and specifications of one or more teeth. Each veneer is bonded to the front surface of the tooth, instantly improving its entire visible structure.

Deciding if Veneers Are the Best Option

Because porcelain veneers rejuvenate the visible parts of your teeth, they can be the ideal option for several different types of concerns, including:

• Severely stained teeth
• Multiple chipped or cracked teeth
• Excessive spaces between teeth
• Disproportionately sized teeth
• Slightly crooked teeth
• And more

To determine if one or more veneers is your best option, your dentist will carefully examine your teeth and dental health, then consult with you about your ultimate goals for your smile.

Improve Your Smile Faster with Porcelain Veneers

With an appropriate number of porcelain veneers, your dentist can help you quickly and effectively improve your smile’s function and appearance. To learn more, schedule a consultation by calling Modern Smile in North Hollywood, CA, today at 818-763-9353. We also proudly serve patients who live in Burbank, Toluca Lake, and all surrounding communities.

Wanting a more attractive smile is common. After all, besides your eyes, your smile is one of your face’s most dominant features. If you aren’t happy with it, then your displeasure will show and even further impact your overall confidence. Today, we take a look at some of the most common factors that affect your smile’s appearance, and how our catalogue of customized cosmetic treatments can help you effectively address all of them.

1. Stains and discoloration

Teeth stains aren’t just the most common cosmetic smile blemish; they can also be the hardest to spot at first. If you keep up with good hygiene, then you see your own teeth in the mirror every day, so a gradual change in their overall color due to staining may not be obvious to you. However, you might still notice that your smile doesn’t seem as vibrant as it used to be because of the change, which your dentist can fix with customized teeth-whitening.

2. Tooth alignment

Crooked teeth can affect your smile even if you’ve never needed orthodontic treatment, and when it does, correcting the condition is the only way to reverse its impact on your smile. Fortunately, you may not need braces to do it – with Invisalign® clear aligners, you can improve your smile’s appearance and your bite’s function discreetly and conveniently, without brackets and wires.

3. Tooth structure integrity

Like tooth alignment, other issues with your teeth can affect both your smile’s appearance and your long-term oral health simultaneously. For instance, a chipped or cracked tooth not only interrupts the uniformity of your smile, can also become more easily infected and interfere with your bite’s proper balance. With lifelike veneers or a porcelain dental crown, your dentist can improve the tooth’s health, integrity, and appearance, all at once.

Improve Every Aspect of Your Smile

There are many things that can affect your smile’s appearance. With the right cosmetic dental treatment, you can improve all of them. To learn more, schedule a consultation by calling Modern Smile in North Hollywood, CA, today at 818-763-9353.

Whitening teeth stains to brighten your smile is one thing, but when your teeth have more than just stains to contend with, improving your smile can seem more complicated. Stains are just blemishes on the surfaces of your teeth (usually), but things like chipped edges, odd spaces, minor alignment issues, and more can require more direct cosmetic improvement. To help you avoid the need for undergoing several different procedures, your dentist might suggest making over your smile with one or more custom-designed porcelain veneers.

Fixing More than Other Treatments Can

Porcelain veneers are wafer-thin shells of advanced dental ceramic, or porcelain, that are designed to recreate the visible surfaces of your teeth. Each veneer is bonded to the front of a tooth, instantly rejuvenating its appearance by correcting all of its blemishes. This means veneers can address a wide variety of blemishes at once – more than most other cosmetic treatments can address alone.

Recreating Your Beautiful, Healthy Smile

While their application makes veneers a highly versatile option, the porcelain they’re made of is the secret to their highly lifelike appearance. Veneers recreate your healthy, beautiful smile by being custom-tinted to the specific color and shade of your tooth. Porcelain is even semi-translucent like natural tooth enamel, and when layered properly, it can reflect light just like your natural teeth.

Preserving Most of Your Tooth Structure

Because veneers are so thin, placing them is simple and doesn’t require significant alterations to your tooth structure. By carefully sculpting a minimal amount of enamel from the fronts of your teeth, your dentist can ensure that each veneer fits comfortably and naturally with the contour of your smile. This helps you preserve a maximum amount of your healthy tooth structure, which in turn improves the long term health and integrity of your teeth.

Give Your Smile a Makeover with Custom Veneers

Cosmetic smile improvement means something different to everyone, but with veneers, you may be able to address all of your concerns with just a single treatment. To learn more, schedule a consultation by calling Modern Smile in North Hollywood, CA, today at 818-763-9353.

Your gums may not seem like a significant part of your smile’s appearance, unless they’re uneven and cover too much of your tooth structure in some places. Known as a gummy smile, excessive gum tissues create an asymmetrical gum line that can make some teeth seem smaller than others and your whole smile seem off balance. Fortunately, cosmetic gum contouring provides a convenient but highly effective solution to correcting them. Even better, fixing a gummy smile improves your oral health in several different ways, including reducing your risks of destructive gum disease.

Gums and Gum Disease

When a gummy smile is highly noticeable, its visual effects can seem like the most pressing concern. Every time you show your smile, you might be reminded that its appearance isn’t what it could be. However, your gums play an important role in your oral health – protecting your teeth roots – and when they don’t frame your teeth properly, that role can be interrupted. Oral bacteria can easily reach your teeth roots and lead to severe infection, or settle underneath your gums and cause severe gum disease. If your gums become diseased, then your smile’s appearance, and much more, can face the greater threat of tooth loss.

More Benefits with Laser Contouring

While cosmetic gum contouring has long been a popular solution to fixing a gummy smile, today’s treatment often involves the use of lasers rather than a traditional scalpel. A specially-calibrated soft-tissue laser can quickly and precisely trim away excess gum tissues, creating a better and more attractive frame for your smile with minimal bleeding and no need for sutures afterward. In addition to more esthetically pleasing results, the laser also helps eliminate harmful oral bacteria that may have gathered underneath your gums, reducing your risks of developing gum disease.

Improve More than Just Your Gummy Smile

Besides affecting your smile’s appearance, a gummy smile can also increase your risks of periodontal (gum) disease. To learn how laser gum contouring can fix both, schedule a consultation by calling Modern Smile in North Hollywood, CA, today at 818-763-9353.

Over the last decade or so, the popularity of Invisalign® clear aligners has soared, and for good reason. Patients who’ve previously debated dealing with their crooked teeth or wearing metal braces to correct them no longer have to choose. They can enjoy a straighter smile without having brackets and wires semi-permanently bonded to their teeth. Invisalign® is a system of clear orthodontic aligners that are digitally designed to guide crooked teeth through corrective movements. Instead of a wire that your dentist tightens, each aligner progresses your treatment through a specific phase, and is then replaced with the next in the series as you continue. True to their name, they also remain virtually invisible even from up-close inspection. (more…)