When Your Smile Starts To Look Older Tinley Park Dentists Can Help

Written by Dr. Zaibak on Jun 2, 2020

As you grow older you may notice that your smile is changing as well. While no one can stop the hands of time, our Orland Park cosmetic dentists can refresh your smile and show it off proudly again.

Here are 3 things that can make your smile look older:

  • Discoloration: healthy and young enamel is usually a shade of white. As your teeth age, and as they are exposed to all kinds of foods and drinks, they can start to look stained and darker than they were. Some key culprits when it comes to staining are coffee, tea, red wine, deeply colored sauces, and all tobacco products.
  • Thinning Enamel: your dental enamel, as the outermost layer of your tooth, is designed to protect more vulnerable tooth layers. However, the enamel itself can start to wear down with regular exposure to acidic substances and sugars/refined carbohydrates. Bruxism—or dental grinding and clenching—will also harm enamel due to tooth-on-tooth contact.
  • Ground Down Teeth: bruxism sufferers may also notice that their teeth look worn down, short, or blunt. The tooth shape can change as well, as your teeth grind against one another.

Once we know what you want to change about your smile, our dental team can make a recommendation regarding restorative and cosmetic treatment:

  • Professional Dental Whitening: whitening lifts stains from the tooth surface, and restores the tooth to a brighter level of whiteness. This treatment is non-invasive, it delivers results quickly, and the process can be repeated over time in order to improve results.
  • Same-Day Dental Bonding: while whitening actually changes the color of your enamel, dental bonding covers enamel with composite resin. So, bonding is used not only to change to the color of your smile, but also to bulk up small or worn down teeth, and to treat dental damage.
  • Customized Veneers: like dental bonding, this treatment resurfaces the patient’s natural tooth surface; veneers simply use porcelain rather than composite resin to do this. Because a single veneer is as thin as a contact lens, it does not make your tooth feel or look bulky once it is in place.

An aging smile doesn’t have to look its true age; our Orland Park cosmetic dentists have the tools to help you achieve all of your dental goals!