A beautiful smile can dazzle and sparkle, charm and entice. It says let's talk - I care - Cheer up. A smile communicates your feelings about yourself and others. Like the lines, colours, and shapes in a painting, your teeth should work together to produce a pleasing effect. A bright smile projects warmth, approval, or self-confidence.

Are you satisfied with your smile?

When you look in the mirror, are you happy with what you see? If you answer yes to any of these questions, it's likely you can benefit from cosmetic dentistry:

• Do you have any stained or discoloured teeth or fillings?
• Are any of your teeth crowded, overlapping, or crooked?
• Are your gums red, swollen, receded, or bleeding?
• Are you missing any teeth or do you have large gaps between any of your teeth?
• Do any of your teeth have uneven shapes due to chips, fractures, or rough edges?
• Do your teeth seem out of proportion because they are uneven in length?
• If you answered yes to any of the above questions, it is likely that you have a dental problem that can produce a dull smile.

Changes Possible to Enhance your Smile

Stains: old fillings, an injury, smoking, or some foods may cause stains. Brown or grey teeth, in particular, are often a side-effect of medications taken in childhood. These stains can be got ridden off easily by cosmetic dentistry procedures.

Discoloured Teeth: They will tend to stand out and the entire attention of the person speaking to you will be directed to that one tooth.

Crooked teeth: may develop during early childhood. Not having enough space to accommodate your teeth is most likley the result of your genetic heritage.

Red gums: inflammed, puffy, red gums may bleed and pull away from the edges of your teeth. Unhealthy gums are often caused by inefficient or inadequate cleaning.

Gaps: missing teeth, gum disease or teeth too small for your mouth can produce gaps between your teeth.

Rough shape: injury or daily wear and tear can cause chips and fractures. A worn, flat look may result from grinding your teeth.

Improve your smile

Dental laminate / veneers is often a thin shell of composite or ceramic material that's bonded to a tooth, generally covering only its front and top. Dental veneers have become more popular as a relatively quick way to cosmetically improve one's smile, just like many film stars have done this too. Veneers can beautify your smile by improving the position, color and shape of one or more of your teeth. This process removes less tooth structure than doing a crown, but depends upon sound tooth being there as they are not as strong as crowns. Veneers can be used to close spaces between your teeth, lengthen small, protruded teeth, or whiten darkened teeth. And if your teeth are chipped or beginning to wear, veneers can protect them from damage and even restore their original looks.

If teeth are really dark, they can be bleached lighter first, so Veneers don't suffer from "Dark" shine through!

The Veneer is only as good as the tooth to which it is being bonded. If the underlying tooth is weak or compromised, this is obviously more likely to have problems than a strong, sound underlying tooth. A heavy bite may also fracture a Veneer during use, but this may only be discovered after "functional" chewing usage. Many patients are willing to risk this, knowing they can usually progress to a stronger crown if needed, but not committing to crown preparations with the greater tooth removal, in the first instance. Where many filled teeth are in a heavy chewing forces, then it is wiser to go for the crowns. Specific procedures for correcting each of these defects - tooth whitening, veneers, crowns, bridges, bonding, etc.