In recent days, owning a perfect face and figure are not impossible. We cannot choose to be borne beautifully but we could enhance our beauty with cosmetics, plastics surgery and dental corrective surgery. Dental plays an important role in the make over as good smile and dazzling teeth contribute immensely to a good look.

Types of Dental Corrective Surgery

Orthodontic Treatment (Braces)

Who needs it?

People having

• mal-aligned (crooked) teeth
• unfavorable smile
• difficulty in chewing or speech
• missing teeth or spaced teeth
• unable to bite with front teeth
• cleft palate and lip patients

Types of dental corrective braces

This is the safest dental corrective surgery. It works by bonding specially made metal, composite, ceramic or clear ( monocrystalline sapphire)  brackets onto your teeth coupled with certain types of wires (Nickel Titanium or stainless steel) to move crooked teeth to a favorable position to give a good smile and enhance dental function. The systems that work this way consist of conventional system (colored elastic rings coiled around brackets) and self ligating system (wire being locked into brackets without the need of colored elastic rings).

Self Ligating system works faster, painless and has some amount of orthopedic effects which allow your bone structure to change with the newly positioned teeth. This system is the advancement of conventional braces and being used widely nowadays.

There is another system called Invisalign. It works by putting on a series of specially made clear plastic aligners to move the teeth. It has its limitation as it requires the compliance of the patient. The advantage is that the clear aligners are almost invisible when worn so people would not notice that you are having orthodontic treatment.

Caveat

Oral hygiene is very important in orthodontic treatment as it would cause unwanted dental decays if the debris and plaque are not removed from areas between brackets and teeth. People who have poor oral hygiene are not a suitable candidate for braces. It would bring them more harm than benefit.

Cost

The cost of braces varies between types of braces intended, difficulty of cases, specialty required and the area you have your braces treatment. They range from $3000 to $10,000 averagely.

Dental Crown

A dental crown is meant to cover a discolored or weakened tooth to help sustain its longevity. It could also help to mask the unfavorable color of present teeth to make them look dashing.

Weakened tooth means

• a heavily restored tooth which filling keeps dislodging
• a root canal treated tooth with no blood or nerve supply to the tooth
• a fractured tooth
• a heavily bruxed tooth which has shortened in height

A linked crown (two dental crowns attached together when cemented) could also help to close a median diastema and large interdental space.

Types of dental crown

There are full metal crown, porcelain fused metal crown, full porcelain crown and zirconia crown. A porcelain fused metal crown could carry different types of metal for different strength. A platinum and gold metal would give better strength than a non precious metal. Full metal crown is seldom used nowadays for aesthetic considerations.

Procedure

The dentist needs to cut the involved tooth into smaller dimension to allow a dental crown to be seated onto it. After cutting, a mold would be taken to allow the dental lab to custom make the crown. The dentist would prepare a temporary crown for you to cover the cut tooth to prevent tooth sensitivity and unwanted gum growth over the prepared tooth. In the next visit, the dentist would cement the dental crown and do minor adjustments if necessary.

Cost

A crown consists of a core and its outer porcelain layer. The prices of dental crown vary between materials used, difficulty of cases, geographic considerations plus specialty and experience of the dentist. A porcelain fused non precious metal crown is definitely cheaper than a zirconia crown. A dental crown would cost $500 to $1100 on the average.

Dental bridge

A dental bridge is actually a series of dental crowns linked together to replace missing teeth in particular. It is very comfortable because it mimics your actual teeth and it is not removable. Dental bridge could also alter the mal-alignment of teeth if that person does not want braces.

Procedure

Its procedure is the same as preparing a dental crown only more teeth to be cut. Sometimes elective endodontic treatment (root canal treatment) has to be performed on really crooked teeth before the dental bridge treatment.

Cost

The cost depends on how many units of dental crown required. The single unit dental crown’s price is as above.

Caveat

Oral hygiene is really important in maintaining its longevity. Super floss is required to clean underneath the dental bridge to prevent food impaction and dental caries to the teeth next to the missing space (the abutments).

Please click to continue to Part 2 of Dental Corrective Surgery.