Looking for ways to brighten up your smile? Good news: you just found them!

In the guide below, we describe the five most common (and effective) ways to beautify your teeth. From teeth whitening to dental implants, you’re sure to discover the cosmetic dental work procedure that’s right for you.

Learn all about these cosmetic dental care options below.

1. Teeth Whitening

Teeth whitening is by far the most common cosmetic dentistry procedure for many reasons. It’s cheap, fast, painless, and non-invasive.

Anyone can afford it, whether they have dental insurance or not. And that’s a big deal for a lot of people, especially seniors. According to MedicareWire, a lot of seniors have difficulty finding quality affordable dental coverage.

Secondly, because whitening takes so little time, it’s easy to fit it into your schedule.

Thirdly, even the most squeamish of patients have nothing to fear from this gentle procedure. There are no drills, needles, or other unnerving dental devices involved.

Perhaps best of all, it’s effective. You, too, could have a brighter smile in as little as one easy, affordable dentist appointment. However, it may take more than one visit to remove deep stains from your teeth.

2. Enamel Abrasion

Another common way to brighten one’s smile is by enamel abrasion. For this procedure, the dentist uses a device with an extremely fine pumice. The pumice gently scrapes away the outer layer of stains off the surface of your teeth.

This procedure is not for all patients, though. It only removes very shallow surface stains, such as those from coffee, tobacco, and wine. It would do very little for stains that run deeper into the tooth.

It also thins the enamel of your tooth slightly. If your enamel is significantly worn down already, enamel abrasion isn’t a good idea.

3. Enamel Bonding

For worn down, cracked, or chipped teeth, or teeth that have significant decay, dentists often use a procedure called enamel bonding. This procedure is similar to filling a tooth. Typically, it even uses the same white composite dentists use to fill teeth.

But enamel bonding is more extensive than filling. Bonding is used to restructure incomplete teeth into complete ones. Specifically, the missing sections of the incomplete tooth are crafted out of the composite and bonded to the tooth.

Often, the reason the tooth is incomplete is due to chipping or other such damage. But it also happens when the dentist has to remove large portions of a tooth because of extensive decay.

4. Dental Veneers

Dental veneers are basically thin caps made of porcelain that form a protective, and attractive, outer layer around each of your teeth. They encase the true surface of your teeth and basically serve as an artificial enamel. There are many advantages to this.

First, they mask any existing stains under a brand new layer of stain-resistant whiteness. Second, it protects your teeth just like your enamel would.

Third, veneers, like enamel bonding, can be used to restructure incomplete teeth. Plus, veneers usually last longer than the composite used in enamel bonding.

5. Dental Implants

Lastly, dental implants are artificial teeth dentists install into one’s jaw to replace missing teeth.

For this procedure, a false tooth of appropriate size and shape is crafted and color-matched to the patient’s existing teeth. Then, a screw is installed into the jaw to support the implant. Finally, the artificial tooth is attached to the screw.

This procedure is so effective, most people won’t notice the difference between the implant and the real teeth next to it!

Also, the vacancies left by missing teeth lead to the erosion of the jaw bone. Filling these vacant slots with dental implants protects against this.

Do You Need Dental Work?

Were you thinking about getting some cosmetic dental work done yourself? You certainly have plenty of options to consider now. To brighten up your smile, discuss these cosmetic dental care options with your dentist.

Do you have any experience with these procedures? Let us know in the comments section below!