A smile makeover may sound self-explanatory. Isn’t it something dentists do to make your smile look better? Technically yes. But smile makeovers can involve more than one procedure, depending on exactly why you require a smile makeover.
Patients seek smile makeover procedures for various reasons. For example, smile makeovers can help make your teeth look straighter or whiter. It can also help with more serious issues such as missing teeth.
If you want to understand what a smile makeover is, what procedures are involved, and how much you would have to pay for one, read ahead:
Who Needs Smile Makeovers?
Smile makeovers are largely cosmetic dental procedures. However, in some instances, these procedures may also help restore bites and prevent regression of jawbone density. Here are several instances when you can seek a smile makeover:
Yellowing Teeth
If your teeth are quite yellow and discoloured, this would definitely hurt the appearance of your smile. You might hesitate to smile because you want to hide your yellow teeth. Tooth discoloration is actually a very common issue that leads to smile restoration. This problem is completely reversible and fixable with a smile makeover procedure.
Broken Teeth
Fell on your face and chipped an incisor? The accident may be small, but the damage to your smile would last a long time. People who play contact sports, for example, are at an elevated risk of physically damaging their teeth. Once the damage is done, it may seem irreversible. Actually, a smile makeover can fix your broken teeth, no matter how severe the problem is.
Misaligned Teeth
Teeth misalignment can be caused in various ways. Missing teeth is a leading cause of the misalignment of adjacent teeth. Bad habits like thumb sucking can also cause some teeth misalignment. A smile makeover can be a permanent solution to this problem.
Misshapen Teeth
If your teeth are naturally misshapen and they’re affecting your smile, it may seem like nothing could ever fix this. Genetics can’t be changed, right? But your teeth certainly can be. Whether its genetics or bad tooth decay that caused your teeth to become misshapen, a smile makeover can make it right.
Missing Teeth
Are you missing a tooth or more, possibly caused by physical trauma, or more typically, by old age? Cosmetic dentists can either replace the missing teeth or design dental products to cover up the unsightly gaps. This is a rather common part of smile makeovers.
Uneven Gum Line
Sometimes teeth are not the cause of smile problems. The issue could lie in the gums. Gums may appear over the top of teeth or gums may recede exposing the very tops of teeth. Either scenario can cause your smile to appear less than perfect. This is also another issue a smile makeover can easily fix.
How Can Dentists Improve Your Smile?
As you can read above, the causes of unsightly smiles are many. Therefore, fixing these issues require various procedures. Your dentist is the best authority to determine what type of procedure is best suited to improve your smile. But here are some of the most common procedures involved in smile makeovers:
In-Office Teeth Whitening
This is the least costly and easiest procedure to perform for smile makeovers. In-office teeth whitening can remove hard-set stains on teeth enamel to restore their original, whitish appearance. This procedure takes only a matter of hours and there’s no recovery period afterwards. You can leave the dentist’s office with a shiny new smile.
With Dental Veneers
Dental veneers are very thin shells made out of durable material like porcelain or ceramic. These shells are shaped to look like your teeth and would make your smile look better. Dental veneers can help improve your smile in multiple different ways. Veneers can be shaded to look as white as you want your teeth to look. If your original teeth colour is naturally yellowish, veneers can give your teeth a new colour.
A veneer can also hide minor physical damage to teeth like chippings or cracks. If you have crooked or misshapen teeth, a veneer can help hide these imperfections. Veneers are nearly permanent and can last for decades in your mouth. Dental veneers can be expensive for a full set of teeth, but dental veneers in Turkey are quite affordable for many foreign patients.
Using Dental Crowns
Dental crowns are like caps that a dentist places over a tooth, so it covers the entire tooth. Dental crowns are placed over implants or natural teeth. If you have a tooth that is seriously damaged because of trauma or decay, a dental cap can restore the enamel so your tooth looks like it used to.
Dental Implants
Dental implants are screw-like devices used to replace missing teeth and fix gaps in teeth. Implants are placed surgically, therefore this is a time-consuming and expensive procedure.
Oral Surgery
If you have gums that are growing over teeth or receding, dentists can surgically contour your gums to appear more normal. This procedure is only slightly invasive and can be beneficial depending on your condition.
How Much Would It Cost?
A short and quick procedure like in-office teeth whitening should not cost you much. However, if you need products like veneers, crowns, or implants, expect to pay several thousand dollars per procedure. As smile makeovers sometimes involve multiple procedures, you can be burdened with a very expensive bill that runs into tens of thousands of dollars.
As an alternative to expensive dental costs at home, you can seek care in a country where overall costs are low, like Turkey. While you pay less, the quality of care is comparable to the care you get in western Europe. You will also receive the same branded dental products that are used in developed countries. You can save significant amounts of money with this option.
However, do your research before choosing a clinic. Make sure the overseas clinic that you choose is well licensed, staffed by qualified doctors, and offers guarantees for the procedures you undergo. Once you find a clinic that checks all these boxes, you will be able to get the smile makeover you want at only a fraction of the cost.
