Having a perfect smile is something that most of us would say that we want. Being able to show off your smile makes social situations that much easier because you put people at ease. Smiling is good for you too as it increases the flow of endorphins and makes you feel more relaxed and less stressed out by things that might otherwise get you down.
Although there are plenty of products currently on the market which can straighten out teeth – from ‘invisible braces’ to braces that are the same colour as your teeth – dentists agree that the traditional, fixed, metal brace is still the best way of dealing with all of the different ways that your teeth can be imperfectly arranged.
Your dentist will securely attach a series of metal brackets to your teeth and then thread metal wires through them. At regular appointments these wires will be tightened and loosened so that your teeth are gently pushed and pulled into the perfect arrangement. Having teeth arranged as they are meant to be will lessen your chances of grinding your teeth in your sleep (bruxism) and mean that they are easier to clean and look after.
The treatment time is long – often up to two years – but it is worth it for what you get out of it in the end. None of the other different types of new braces and aligners can rotate teeth in the way that traditional braces can. Your Leeds dentist will be able to explain to you exactly what is involved in wearing a brace and you can rest assured that you will get the most dedicated of care throughout the period of the treatment.
It seems like a self-evident solution to a problem that has been with us for many years, but it is only comparatively recently that dentists have had the ability to straighten out smiles with a product that is not only incredibly fast acting but is also notably discreet. The Six Months Smile treatment has been pleasing patients in the United States of America for a number of years and now it is available to patients in Great Britain too.
Teenagers in the United States have been smashing the stereotype that exists of adolescents with mouths full of metal braces. This is because you don’t necessarily have to wear a metal brace anymore if you want to get your teeth straightened into a perfect smile. The product that allows them to do this is now available in the United Kingdom too and it is being warmly welcomed by people who care about their appearance but understand that treatment is needed to correct their crooked smile.
Fluoride is a chemical that helps your mouth stay healthy by strengthening the enamel which protects your teeth. It has been the subject of on-going controversy about how good it is for people; it can be difficult to establish the facts and the fiction amongst all the claims and counter claims which can be found.
You might be one of the many people who grind their teeth while asleep and not even know that you are doing it. It is not a trifling matter either, for it can have consequences for the health of your mouth. With the help of your local dentist you can get to the bottom of problems with teeth grinding so that it is stopped and you are able to rest assured that you are not compromising the health of your mouth.
So many of the activities that you take for granted and probably don’t even think about doing rely on you having a healthy mouth with good teeth and gums. Yet you face a daily battle to make sure that they are all in great working order. Getting into a regular routine is the key to achieving this, as is understanding how and why problems can occur.
If you find that you are frequently waking up the night for reasons you can’t fathom, or even that you are unaccountable tired during the day even though it feels like you have slept all through the night, it is possible that you have some form of apnea. Because one type of apnea is caused by muscles at the rear of the mouth, your dentist can help in the diagnosis of this inconvenient condition.
There are many great reasons to go and see your dentist on a regular basis. They will be monitoring your teeth and gums for any signs of problems which need treatment. This is what they spend years training for and building up a wealth of pertinent experience. In recent times dentists have been trained to look for something else in the mouth which used to be the preserve of general practitioners.
In life, it’s always best to follow an agenda and lay down a set of plans to ensure that you have given yourself the best chance of avoiding catastrophe in the future. The same analogy can be drawn when caring for your teeth and gums, for one of the greatest dangers that can threaten the health of your teeth and your body in the city of Leeds is gum disease; scarily, it affects three quarters of us at some point in our lives. Yet, it seems ridiculous to think it is so easy to prevent; watching what we eat and then making sure we clean our teeth afterwards should be ample enough to stop it from happening. What you are trying to do with oral hygiene is avoid any films of bacteria resting on the surface of the teeth and developing into plaque and tartar- the causes of gum disease. Attention to the way you brush and floss, and how often you do it, is vital in the fight against gum disease and you’d be wise to do your homework on some herbal back-ups too, for if you find your gums are suffering from bleeding and swelling, these can be a great source of comfort in fighting the problem. Then there’s the best back-up you could hope for- your dentist, and if you pay them a visit regularly, as you should, they will be able to give you the ‘once over’ and remove up any tartar from around the teeth and help you if there are any signs of gum disease.
If your teeth are in pretty bad shape, it’s probably your own fault to some extent for not looking after them. But we do put our teeth through the grinder and against all we try to do, they will suffer in the end in some form. So if the state of your teeth is starting to get you down a bit, why don’t you cover up the shame with a veneer? This very flamboyant treatment can hide all the things you hate most about your teeth- their color, the cracks, the wear and that annoying hint of receding gums. Ask your dentist about this treatment, because it’s a winner and when you’re good to go, all you have to do first is to go and get yourself measured up. This involves removing the enamel of the tooth and then having impressions taken of your teeth, so they can then be sent to a lab for your veneers to be knocked up. Until they get back in the post, you will be fitted with temporary ones. It only takes a couple of weeks on average and when they return, the dentist will remove the temps and cement your spangling new veneers into position and set the cement with a heat lamp. The only thing you have to contend with once this is done is the shock when you see how beautiful your teeth look and if you look after them and behave yourself, these gems should last you around 10-15 years.
