The removal of your wisdom teeth is a rite of passage for many teens and young adults alike. The third set of molars typically arrive after your other permanent teeth, and their eruption can be long and painful. In addition to causing discomfort, they may crowd out their neighbors and cause serious problems for the alignment of your bite. They can potentially crack your enamel as they attempt to fit in a jaw without enough space. When fully formed, they can be difficult to clean, which may lead to future cavity development and other issues.
Is your smile as beautiful as you would like it to be? The wear and tear to your teeth from daily living can leave you wondering what choices are available to improve your looks. Cosmetic solutions exist that can improve your grin beyond its current appearance. The placement of realistic porcelain veneers can give you the smile of your dreams with less invasive care. Speak with our Cerritos, CA dentist office to determine if this service addresses your esthetic concerns. You will be surprised at how versatile this solution can be!
A Practical Solution for Dental Damage
Veneers are made from thin layers of porcelain that are applied over teeth. The material mimics the appearance of natural enamel to blend in with your smile and can provide a whiter look for stained and blemished structures. The coverage of each tooth allows existing chips and cracks to be hidden from sight instead of requiring structural alteration. The layer can also cover gaps between teeth by extending their edges to nearly touch side by side. Patients with bruxism can cover the wearing down of the teeth from years of grinding and clenching.
Veneers can improve the function of your bite in addition to improving its look. Small adjustments to the shape and orientation of these restorations can correct certain dental misalignments. The application only requires a minimal shaving of the tooth, so you will be able to show off your new look sooner than you may expect. Remember to care and clean for your improved smile with the same standard you gave before. Continue brushing twice daily and flossing every day.
Additional Cosmetic Solutions
Our practice offers a variety of other treatments to help improve your smile’s appearance while maintaining your overall dental health. Durable ceramic crowns are well-suited to cover stained or damaged teeth. We select a material for each crown that blends in with your natural teeth for a restored appearance. We also offer teeth whitening procedures to brighten your enamel through a gentle bleaching process. This treatment removes stains while leaving your natural structure intact, helping you feel proud to show off your teeth once again! Often a combination of various treatments can address your specific concerns, so make sure to ask your dentist about each procedure.
Contact Your Cerritos, CA Dentist and Improve Your Smile Today!
At the offices of Shawn Hofkes, DDS, we are dedicated to helping you achieve the smile you desire. To schedule a consultation on improving your dental appearance, call our Cerritos, CA dental office at 562-584-4082. We welcome patients of all ages from Cerritos and all surrounding areas such as Lakewood, Long Beach, Buena Park, and more.
You may be grinding your teeth at night without even knowing it. When this condition becomes severe, it can cause serious damage to your oral health. Left untreated, this condition, otherwise known as bruxism, can damage your enamel and expose the inner roots of your teeth making them prone to bacterial infection. Your bite may become misaligned, causing difficulty chewing at mealtime. Because this condition often occurs while we’re unconscious, you should speak with your Cerritos, CA Dentist to identify symptoms and seek a proper solution.
Treating any disease begins with its identification. Attending your semiannual examinations and cleanings allows your dentist to inspect your mouth for the signs of oral cancer. While oral cancer may seem rare, be vigilant in attending examinations because it can be deadly when it develops. The American Cancer Society estimates that oral cancer claims about 11,000 lives while around 54,000 new cases appear each year. One in five of these new cases appear in people under the age of 55. Therefore, oral cancer screening is important at all ages.
Did you know that periodontal disease affects nearly half of all American adults? This bacterial infection of the gum tissue, left untreated, can greatly affect the appearance of your mouth for the worse. In particular, as the disease progresses, the gingival tissue recedes which exposes the underlying roots of your teeth. Sufferers of the disease may develop feelings of embarrassment when observing themselves in a mirror. If you find yourself looking “long in the tooth,” know that a solution to heal your appearance is available!
Gum grafting can take the healthy portion of your tissue and attach your gumline to its original level after experiencing recession. In addition to returning your self-confidence in your facial features, gum grafting will provide further stability to your periodontal health. This can help prevent future damage to your smile, such as the loss of a tooth, which would greatly impact your grin. Your Cerritos, CA dentist happily provides periodontal grafting solutions that can restore the appearance of your gumline.
Wisdom teeth are removed to prevent threats to neighboring teeth, as well as to problems with crowding and discomfort. Simply put, there is often too little space for them. Also known as third molars, they arrive later in life, when secondary (“adult”) teeth are all in place. To prevent them from disrupting your smile, your Cerritos, CA dentist can carefully extract them. A timely procedure to remove them can prevent them from becoming impacted, shifting your alignment, or breaking neighboring molars. Our experience in extractions can lead to positive experiences in the dentist’s chair as well as with your recovery after treatment.
If dental work is going to make a significant difference to the way you look, it must require significant time and effort…right? By looking into treatment options for cosmetic flaws, you can find that the right service can require less time and more conservative changes than you anticipated. This means that cosmetic dentistry can prove effective while still being surprisingly easy to enjoy! At our Cerritos, CA dental practice, we provide services for a range of concerns. For those who want to take on esthetic dental flaws, we can offer care that minimizes alterations to tooth structure while still delivering noteworthy improvements.
What has tooth loss done to your quality of life? For many, this is an issue that leads to immediate embarrassment, as it can leave you with a significant smile flaw. Even if your gap is in an area that is harder to see, the problem will impact your ability to bite and chew food, and it can create complications in how you speak. There are even concerns that the issue will lead to new difficulties, such as the loss of more teeth or poor jaw alignment. Fortunately, these different issues are prevented when the right restorative care is provided. Our Cerritos, CA dentist’s office can provide support with a dental implant-held appliance so that you are not impacted by difficulties with tooth loss!
When oral health problems are caught in time, the services needed to address them are often able to minimize any permanent changes to tooth structure. While you may require a dental filling or dental crown for a problem tooth, you still preserve your complete, confident smile. Unfortunately, there are times when treatment will include the extraction of a tooth. The most common reason why adults lose teeth has to do with the effects of gum disease. However, a severe cavity or injury can also necessitate a tooth’s removal. Our Cerritos, CA dentist’s office can provide expert care to remove a tooth. A proper extraction is important for preventing complications that cause discomfort and delay plans to restore your smile with a custom prosthetic appliance.
Your difficulties with tooth loss can go beyond how it affects your smile. One absent tooth can seriously compromise your ability to bite and chew. It can also lead to difficulties as teeth next to this absence go without support and gradually loosen in time. With all that said, the right prosthetic treatment solution can take on problems with your oral health while also giving you back confidence in how you look. Our Cerritos, CA dentist’s office can provide an effective non-surgical solution to the problem of tooth loss. A custom dental bridge is placed permanently with a pair of dental crowns. With this arrangement, the restoration will remain stable enough to absorb bite pressure, which means you can return to a natural bite function and broader diet.
When you have a tooth that is too severely damaged to be treated with a dental restoration, then we could remove it to protect your smile from major complications. Our…
When you lose a tooth, or if you have lost most or all of your teeth, then you need tooth replacement to obtain a full smile again. From individual missing…
