Do You Have a Perfect Smile?
A healthy, beautiful smile should be part of your wardrobe. When you're getting dressed in the morning, don't forget that a perfect smile is a vital part of your total image.
Your smile is often the first impression people have of you. A psychological study reported in Perceptive Motor Skills found that people judged a person's physical attractiveness by "the mouth, eyes, structure of the face, hair, and nose" in that order!
What is "attractive?"
Psychologists have trouble defining "beauty." But they agree that beauty is important in every social relationship. For example, it was found that mothers cuddle their physically attractive babies more than their so-called "ugly" babies.
Take a moment to smile at yourself in the mirror. Do you have white teeth? Is your smile attractive, appealing? Or, is your smile weakened by cosmetic dental problems? Do you have a broken or missing tooth? If so, you can do something about it.
Cosmetic dentistry has made great strides in the last 20 years. Not only do cosmetic dentists make it possible for people to keep their natural teeth all their lives, they help people look and feel better about themselves.
You can change your profile
A cracked tooth, or stained and uneven teeth can be restored. Gaps between teeth, poorly positioned teeth or a jaw that recedes or protrudes, can often be successfully fixed with orthodontics. Did you know that dentists do 95% of all face reconstruction in this country? Through procedures called maxillofacial surgery or orthognathic surgery, many bone and jaw deformities or conditions caused by accidents can be corrected.
Developing a beautiful smile - even if you weren't born with one - is important at any age. Make your smile your strongest fashion asset.
+Jim Du Molin is a leading Internet search expert helping individuals and families connect with the right dentist in their area. Visit his author page.
How Do I Care For My Perfect Teeth After Visiting a Cosmetic Dentist?
Have you had esthetic enhancements to your teeth or just naturally have great looking, perfect teeth? Here are some tips to maintain your picture perfect smile.
In order to maintain a healthy smile, you have to know what types of things are damaging to the teeth. Identifying and eliminating bad oral habits is the key to retaining a great smile for many years. Sometimes we are not aware that we are harming the health of our teeth. Do you:
- Grind your teeth?
- Casually bite your fingernails or a pen?
- Crunch ice?
- Have a diet high in sugar (such as soda, chewing gum and candy)?
- Drink coffee, red wine and tea? Smoke or chew tobacco?
- Force your tongue against your upper teeth?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are in danger of causing a detrimental effect on your new smile.
How Detrimental Are the Effects?
No one can predict the exact effects that the habit will have on your newly perfect teeth, however, the longer the duration of the habit, the greater negative effect it will have on the longevity of your smile enhancements.
How Can I Eliminate My Bad Oral Habits and Protect My Perfect Teeth?
The first step to eliminating a bad habit is to identify and acknowledge that you have one. If your habit is crunching ice, you must alter or eliminate it from your day-to-day routine.
Other habits are harder to break like grinding your teeth. Grinding the teeth is generally an involuntary action and usually occurs when asleep. Because the habit is difficult to break, a plastic night guard is the best solution to prevent excessive wear of your teeth.
A night guard is a clear plastic mouthpiece that is custom-fitted to snap over your teeth, much like an athletic mouth guard. The night guard is designed so your teeth grind on the plastic, not your teeth. The night guard will wear out, but your teeth will not.
Do not neglect your teeth, especially if you have had esthetic enhancements. Your enhancements will not last forever, so in order to preserve your perfect teeth, visit your dentist regularly and do your best to eliminate bad oral habits.
By Benjamin O. Watkins, III, DDS
+Jim Du Molin is a leading Internet search expert helping individuals and families connect with the right dentist in their area. Visit his author page.