Smile With Confidence Now

No longer is your set of teeth just a tool for chewing. Beautiful teeth not only brighten up your smile, but your whole face.

The latest trend in the dentistry is aesthetic treatment: whitening discolored teeth and straightening protruding teeth. Some may regard such treatment to be capitalistic indulgence, considering it does not really affect your health. But to those who have always shied away from smiling because of their teeth, it’s life-saving news.

--Whiter and whiter

Overuse of antibiotics, frequent consumption of cola, coffee, or chocolate, and heavy smoking: though the color of your teeth is largely genetic, these bad habits can also discolor your teeth.

Regular scaling can keep your teeth white. But if the discoloration level is severe, “sleep whitening treatments” can be effective. You put on a “tray” in your sleep, and the medication from the tray will destroy the chrome molecules. Two to eight weeks of usage will show some effects.

The advantage of this treatment is that it is pain-free and safe. One just needs to change the tray every six months to a year. Whitening toothpastes or adhesive whitening products are also effective.

If the discoloration is due to damage in your dental nerves, another treatment is to inject medication directly into the back of your teeth. In this case you need to check in with your dentist every four to seven days.

While on whitening care, you should not drink lemon juice, soda, tea, or wine.

--Straighten those teeth

When your teeth are protruding, it is not only aesthetically bad, but can also effect your dental health, causing cavities or halitosis. Usually, the best period for orthodontics is between six to nine years old. This is because at this age, your chin can also be corrected. Once you become an adult, the treatment period becomes longer and at times, you even have to receive a separate chin correction treatment. Even so, the number of adults receiving orthodontics is continuously on the rise.

Orthodontics takes about two years. There are two kinds; labial orthodontics and lingual orthodontics. Recently, lingual orthodontics, which fixates the braces in the back of your teeth, is becoming popular. The material for the braces is also becoming diverse as well, from metal, plastic, to even ceramics.

When your gums show too much, a simple surgery of cutting down the gums can solve the problem. Recently, another method of treatment is to inject botox underneath your nose so that your upper lip wouldn’t open too much to show the gums.

--Whitening and cavity treatments at once

If you suffer from cavities, by filling in “resin” one can easily cure cavities and whiten teeth. It takes about twenty to thirty minutes per tooth. However, if you chew something hard too often, it could wear out or break. At times, it discolors. It lasts about three to eight years. Another treatment is to cast off 0.5mm of the teeth surface and cap teeth with laminate. A crown is casting off the whole tooth and putting a tooth-like structure on top.

The merit of these two treatments is that they take a short period of time. The whole treatment takes about ten days. Also, the capped teeth are whitened as well.

However, there are disadvantages as well. Laminates can easily fall off, and crowns can lead to irritation of the gums. The high cost is also a downfall. Laminate costs about 400,000 to 600,000 won, and crowns cost 400,000 to 800,000 won per tooth.

(Written with assistance from Professor Choi Kyung-gyu from Kyunghee University, Professor Kyung Seung-hyun from Samsung Seoul Hospital, and Professor Shim Jun-sung from Yonsei University)

Sang Hoon Kim corekim@donga.com