Most of us older than our 40s probably remember Billy Crystal’s impersonation of Fernando Lamas on Saturday Night Live back in the mid-80s. His catchphrase was “It’s not how you feel, but how you look. And, darling, you look mah-velous.”
At Gentle Dental, our three dentists have always felt the distinction between “general” and “cosmetic” dentistry is much ado about nothing. After all, the end goal — great oral health — will make great looking teeth, call it cosmetic or whatever you want.
Drs. Strober, Butkofski, and Messer want your smile to look mah-velous, darlings. Here’s some of the tools we use to make it so.
- Porcelain veneers— These thin porcelain shells are placed onto the front surfaces of your teeth to cosmetically cover imperfections, such as small chips, irregular-shaped teeth, discoloration, and the like. They give you a perfect, bright while smile.
- Porcelain crowns— Porcelain crowns can be simply cosmetic or functional. A crown covers the entire tooth, down to the gumline. They can allow a patient to keep a badly damaged tooth that would otherwise be in danger of extraction. Or they can simply be used to improve the look of a tooth or two.
- Invisalign— Every great smile needs straight, even teeth. We use Invisalign, which replaces the metal mouth of the old days with invisible clear acrylic aligner trays to move your teeth.
- Dental implants— A missing tooth or two is anything but aesthetically pleasing. It’s fine if you’re trying out for a remake of the Deliverance, but not for the rest of us. We place dental implants to replace missing teeth. Implants have a titanium base that screws down into the socket occupied formerly by the tooth root. The jawbone accepts titanium and grows around the implant, making it a part of the jaw. We then attach a post to the implant and an artificial tooth to the post. Voila — new tooth! And implants look and function exactly like natural teeth.
- Composite fillings— Who wants molars full of silver? If you’re older, you may have just that. Silver amalgam fillings were the filling of choice up until about a decade ago. Now we replace old amalgam fillings with composite resin fillings. These are also called tooth-colored fillings because you can’t see them when in place.
- Teeth whitening— We all like our coffee, red wine, and raspberries here in Edison, but our tooth enamel shows our love with stains and an overall dingy color. Our in-office teeth whitening remove the stains and whiten your teeth up to eight shades!
Does your smile need a little help to make it mah-velous? Call the team at Gentle Dental, (732) 549-5660, and we’ll make those pearly whites exactly that once again.
