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3 Little-Known Ways Dental Veneers Can Improve Smiles

Everyone wants a smile they can feel proud showing off. If you are unhappy with your smile, then it is important to look into all of the ways you can improve it. You may think you need to wear braces for years or obtain an invasive dental procedure when you don't have to. In fact, fixing your dental problem may be as simple as obtaining one or more dental veneers. 

While dental veneers cannot correct all problems with teeth, read on to learn three little-known ways they can be used to improve smiles. 

1. Restore Youthfulness to Your Smile

If you have noticed that your beautiful smile is looking a bit "lackluster" as the years have passed, then you may not realize just how your teeth change as you age. As everyone ages, their teeth shift and their gums begin to recede slightly, which can lead to the appearance of shorter teeth. Also, while tooth enamel is strong, many years of biting and chewing can also cause teeth to shorten slightly. 

In addition, you may have lost some fullness to your lips that you have not noticed over the years. This loss in fullness over the years is partially due to loss of collagen and hyaluronic acid in the skin of your lips. However, an additional cause of this loss of fullness is the natural wear-and-tear of your teeth as they age. 

A cosmetic dentist can help your smile appear more youthful again by placing dental veneers on your front teeth, lengthening them slightly. Dental veneers can help you obtain the appearance of plumper lips by making your teeth slightly thicker. Your thicker teeth will cause your lips to "plump out" more, so you don't have to plump them up with collagen or hyaluronic acid cosmetic fillers. 

2. Fill in Tooth Gaps

If you have always wondered why you have a gap between your teeth, realize that this condition is called diastema and has a variety of causes. However, it typically occurs when the size of person's jaw bone and teeth are "mismatched" or fewer adult teeth emerge than are needed to fill the jaw.

Whether you have one "gap" in your smile that you would like to get rid of or you have other teeth spacing issues, you may have simply lived with a smile you are not proud to show off for many years due to the belief that correcting it would have to involve wearing braces for a long period of time. However, it is important to know that some teeth spacing problems can be repaired quickly with the simple application of dental veneers. 

Instead of placing braces on your teeth, a cosmetic dentist can simply fill in the gaps by placing veneers that are wider than your natural teeth over the teeth adjacent to the gap. Since the veneers will be shaded to match your natural teeth, this is also a great time to brighten your smile with a teeth whitening procedure.

3. Straighten Your Crooked Teeth

For many years, the only way to straighten crooked teeth was to wear metal braces. Then, clear braces and dental aligners arrived. While both can straighten crooked teeth successfully, unfortunately, it can take many months or even years for them to straighten a smile. 

Now, some crooked teeth can be "straightened" with dental veneers. To help you achieve a straighter smile, your cosmetic dentist will shave off a small amount of your natural dental enamel creating a base for a new, straight tooth to be created with a porcelain or laminate dental veneer. Dental veneers can be used to visually straighten just one tooth or many. 

However, realize that not all crooked teeth are good candidates for dental veneer "straightening." Typically, the less crooked the tooth is, the better candidate it is for visual straightening with a dental veneer. 

Visit a site like https://valleyoakdentalgroup.com/ to find out more about the benefits and uses of cosmetic dentistry.


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