Cosmetic dentistry refers to dental treatments that improve a person’s teeth, gums, and/or bite. Many dentists advertise themselves as cosmetic dentists without considering their education, expertise, or experience in this field. This is an unethical marketing tactic used by some dentists. There is no officially recognized specialization in cosmetic dentistry. However, there are some dentists who identify themselves as cosmetic dentists without any specialized training.
There are two main branches of cosmetic dentistry: Prosthodontics (prosthetic specialist) and Orthodontics (orthodontic specialist).
Cosmetic dentistry involves treatment alternatives such as adding dental materials to teeth or gums (bonding, porcelain veneers, laminate veneers, crown coatings, gum grafts), removing material from teeth or gums (tooth enamel corrections, gingivectomy, crown lengthening), teeth whitening, gum pigmentation treatment, and orthodontics for improving facial appearance by straightening teeth.
PORCELAIN LAMINATE VENEER
In today’s society, where social skills are important, smiling is the most effective tool for the first step. Our smile is a reflection of our face and soul. Most of us want to enhance our beauty by having an attractive smile. You cannot imagine that many people you admire for their gorgeous smiles actually have porcelain laminate veneers.
Porcelain laminate veneers can make your smile more striking. It is very easy to achieve a natural tooth appearance with porcelain laminates due to their translucent and very thin structure.
Treatment stages:
Appointment: Obtaining work models, taking X-rays and photographs, performing minimal tooth cutting, and taking measurements and making temporary ones.
Appointment: Checking the fit and aesthetics of the temporary veneers, simulating the final appearance, and taking measurements for nightguards (nightguards are made after the veneers are cemented to protect the porcelain laminate veneers).
SMILE DESIGN
FACE ANALYSIS:
Face analysis requires an examination of the face as a whole. In the frontal plane, the line passing through the central teeth (front teeth) should ideally intersect with the midline of the face. The lower jaw front teeth do not intersect with the upper jaw front teeth on the same line in many people. However, since the lower jaw is usually not visible during a smile, mandibular midline discrepancies do not significantly affect natural aesthetics. Therefore, mandibular midline discrepancies are not very important in aesthetics.
In face analysis, the parallelism between the line passing through the pupils in the frontal plane and the line passing through the incisal edges of the teeth is evaluated. To observe the dynamics of a smile in the best way, all lines are evaluated for their parallelism and synergy to perform a complete face analysis.
In sagittal plane analysis, Ricketts’ E-plane (a plane passing through the tip of the nose and the tip of the chin) is evaluated. According to this plane, the average value for the distance between the upper lip and E-plane is 4-5 mm in males and 3-4 mm in females. This distance is significant in terms of the harmony between the upper lip and the dental arch.