Yarden’s Smile Makeover:
5 Dental Procedures to
Look 10 Years Younger
Most of us reach a point in our lives when we look in the mirror and notice a little age starting to show, and some of us may begin to consider ways to turn back the clock a bit. While skin care and cosmetic facial procedures tend to be the most common approaches, some sensible dental work can make you look a full decade younger. We see it all the time with our patients, and it’s remarkable!
Dr. Butensky’s long-time friend Yarden came to him all the way from Miami with teeth worn down due to bruxism. She’d been involuntarily grinding her teeth since childhood and, in her late 30s, determined to repair the damage that habit had done to her teeth. Yarden is a physician who understands that everyone deals differently with stress; and so many of us internalize it in ways that can cause undue wear and tear to our bodies.
It’s essential to address the stress itself, its causes, and its effect on our lives in order to care for body and mind. But once we’ve done this, are we stuck with the marks that stress has left on our appearance? No! At The Dental Studio in Summit and Westfield, NJ, Dr. Daniel Butensky specializes in Smile Makeovers that can resurrect your younger smile. Yarden’s veneers and crowns were life-changing. She is more confident in her career, feels free to smile big for her infant son, and has, for the first time since childhood, happily started to allow photos of herself and proudly share them.
What might it look like for you to reverse the signs of stress or aging in your smile? Following are the top five dental procedures that can rejuvenate your appearance and make you look 10 years younger.
Porcelain Veneers
When you see those perfect Hollywood smiles, that’s usually thanks to the magic of porcelain veneers. These thin, custom-made shells are designed to cover the front surface of your teeth, providing an instant transformation. Veneers are ideal for making imperfections like discoloration, chips, and gaps disappear. They can also work wonders for improving regularity when teeth are misshapen, like in Yarden’s case. Veneers are best for rejuvenating healthy and minimally restored teeth, but if you have extensive restorations, such as large fillings or onlays, then you still have options! And that brings us to…
Dental Crowns
Dental crowns offer an outstanding option for replacing damaged teeth with beautiful, durable porcelain restorations. These custom-made caps replace the entire crown of the tooth to erase wear, discoloration, and other imperfections. Crowns repaired Yarden’s back teeth, where tooth shape and bite force make veneers inappropriate. Dr. Butensky used crowns to build her molars back up where she’d lost nearly all of her enamel. The benefits of dental crowns as part of a Smile Makeover include:
- Aesthetics + natural appearance: Porcelain is miraculous in its ability to mimic the appearance of our natural teeth. Additionally, a crown—with the help of a dental implant—can also fill in for a tooth that’s missing.
- Strength + longevity: The strength of dental crowns is one of their most notable benefits. Crowns sometimes last decades. They can break and require repair or replacement, but these incidents are few and far between.
- Biocompatibility: Besides its good looks, dental porcelain is highly biocompatible, meaning it is well-tolerated by the human body, causing minimal adverse reactions when used in dental restorations.
I’m ready to book
my smile makeover
consultation now!
Dental Bonding
A step in the opposite direction—less intervention than veneers—is something called dental bonding. We use the same material for this as for tooth-colored fillings, but what we’re filling in this case might be a chip or minor crack instead of a cavity. Bonding is a quick, painless, and inexpensive procedure that can fix some imperfections, even gaps (diastema) in some cases.
Teeth Whitening
Another quick and easy approach to a more youthful smile is teeth whitening. As we age, the enamel on our teeth wears away, causing the yellow layer underneath (dentin) to show through. At The Dental Studio, we offer in-office whitening treatments that can significantly lighten the shade of your teeth.
Teeth whitening is a small measure that can go a long way on its own, or many patients choose to pair whitening with their clear aligner treatment, finding that once they possess a fuller and better-aligned smile, whitening provides a lovely icing on the cake.
Clear Aligners
Aside from discoloration, one of the most common signs of aging we see in teeth is dental arch collapse, where teeth begin to point inward, which can lead to a sunken facial appearance. Clear aligners, or clear braces, offer a discreet and convenient way to straighten your teeth and bring back a more youthful facial structure.
These custom-made aligner trays are virtually invisible, and you can easily take them out for eating and brushing. This convenience makes clear aligners a tremendously popular choice for adults looking to gain a broader, more vibrant smile and improve their long-term dental health.
BONUS: Botox and Fillers
We’ve already covered five dental procedures, but consider this a bonus! Botox and dermal fillers are not dental procedures in the strictest sense, but your dentist at The Dental Studio can absolutely provide them! These cosmetic treatments are quite often part of a Smile Makeover.
As a cosmetic service, Botox reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles in and around the following areas:
- Mouth
- Eyes
- Forehead
- Chin
- Jawline
- Neck
This non-invasive injectable treatment smooths out facial skin by relaxing the nearby muscles, giving a younger look and adding to your beautiful smile. Botox can be a standalone treatment, or it may add extra sparkle to other cosmetic dental improvements.
Dermal fillers are another injectable cosmetic treatment that we offer to our Smile Makeover patients. Fillers add volume to the face, reducing the appearance of wrinkles and sagging skin. The basis for this treatment is in something your body produces on its own, though we make less of it as we age—hyaluronic acid. Dermal filler gives your body a little boost of this molecule, which helps your skin hold water, giving it a plumper (younger-looking) quality.
At The Dental Studio, we believe everyone deserves to smile with confidence. We work with the top labs in the country to provide you with the best custom-made aligners and porcelain restorations, ensuring your Smile Makeover is both beautiful and long-lasting. Whether you’re interested in a complete Smile Makeover or a specific standalone cosmetic procedure, we’re here to guide you through every step of the process. Schedule a consultation at our Summit or Westfield location today and take the first step towards looking 10 years younger!