Cosmetic dentistry can improved your smile, self-esteem, social opportunities, and even your career opportunities.

Haight Street Dental provides a number of options to help you create and maintain a beautiful smile.

Composite fillings-  restorative procedure to repair decay, weakened tooth structure.  Made of stone and resin, matches to existing tooth shade, creating aesthetic blend. Detailed sculpting, polishing to create natural appearance.

Crowns– the portion of tooth that is seen and in function, above the gumline.  Coverings made of ceramic or noble metals to reinforce compromised tooth structure, caused by decay or fractures

A crown is used to cap or completely cover a tooth being restored. All-Ceramic Crowns, as the name implies, do not contain other materials.

Teeth are naturally translucent. Porcelain crowns fused to metal make it impossible to have a translucent restoration that mimics the natural teeth. Only All-Ceramic Crowns have such translucency.

All-ceramic crowns or “caps” offer a natural looking solution for a broken tooth, cracked tooth, or teeth that are too badly damaged to be corrected with fillings or veneers. Ceramic crowns can be made white and natural looking. Incorporating bonding with all-ceramic crowns potentially can restore both the strength and beauty of unblemished natural teeth.

All-Ceramic Crowns are not as strong a porcelain fused to metal crowns. All-Ceramic Crowns require bonding to the existing tooth, and a dentist with expertise in this procedure.

Ceramic restorations have no metal and are totally made of ceramic glass, sometimes strengthened with a translucent material such as zirconium.

Feldspathic porcelain is the standard, traditional porcelain that is used for crowns. Many cosmetic dentists feel that this is the most beautiful porcelain.

• Empress is, strictly speaking, not a porcelain, but more like a glass. Empress can be called a ceramic material. The Empress material is cast rather than baked, as a feldspathic porcelain crown is. The fit of Empress is more precise than the baked feldspathic porcelain. However, the color in Empress is mostly baked on the outside. Empress can be very beautiful. For appearance’s sake, some expert cosmetic dentists prefer the feldspathic porcelain, and some prefer the Empress.
• Lava Zirconia is a milled ceramic on the inside with a more traditional porcelain baked onto the outside. The advantage of Lava is its exceptional strength. However, the milled ceramic core is opaque, so many cosmetic dentists feel that it isn’t as natural-looking as the more translucent materials. An advantage of Lava is that it doesn’t have to be bonded to the tooth but can be cemented with ordinary crown and bridge cement, a technique familiar to all dentists.
• Procera is similar to Lava, but the milled ceramic on the inside is more translucent than an opaque white material. The Procera crown can also be cemented with traditional techniques. However, any crown cemented with a traditional crown and bridge cement is going to be susceptible to a compromise in the appearance if that cement line ever shows.

Excellent options for instantly improving the appearance of small, stained, or worn teeth, porcelain veneers are thin sheaths that firmly adhere to the surface of the teeth. They can mask chips and cracks, improve the color and shape of teeth, and close small spaces between teeth to give you a beautiful smile.

Dental bonding is a conservative cosmetic dentistry procedure designed to correct tooth damage or perceived dental imperfections with natural-looking results. During the procedure, a color-matched composite resin is bonded to the surface of teeth to repair chips, cracks, discoloration, or gaps. Cosmetic bonding can resolve minor aesthetic concerns while preserving more natural tooth structure than porcelain veneers or dental crowns. Using versatile dental bonding techniques, our cosmetic dentist can rejuvenate your smile with beautiful results.

Cosmetic bonding is one of the fastest ways to correct several aesthetic issues concerning the shape, color, and spacing of teeth. This cosmetic dentistry technique can be used to:

• Repair chipped and cracked teeth
• Conceal tooth stains and discoloration
• Minimize the appearance of gaps and spaces between teeth
• Modify tooth shape

Unlike porcelain veneers or dental crowns, cosmetic bonding can preserve most if not all of the natural tooth structure. The entire procedure can typically be completed within one visit, improving the beauty of your smile almost instantly. Finally, dental bonding is a more economical way to rejuvenate your smile compared to other cosmetic dentistry techniques.

Before the cosmetic bonding procedure begins, Doctors will clean and examine the affected tooth to determine if any preparation is required. Next, a bonding solution is applied to the tooth as a foundation for the composite resin. Layers of composite resin are then built up upon the tooth, and then sculpted and textured to create a natural-looking appearance. The entire procedure can usually be completed within an hour and typically requires no anesthesia.

To protect the health of your rejuvenated tooth, We recommend that you brush and floss as normal. Since composite resin can become stained just like teeth, daily oral hygiene can help extend the duration of your dental bonding work. With proper care, cosmetic bonding can last from five to ten years before a touch-up or replacement is necessary.