This is a major week for pictures. As schools and colleges across the country head back to school, the social media posts of first day of school photographs pop up one after another. From the first day of kindergarten photos to the cleverly named first day of 14th grade pictures of sophomores in college, the smiles are hard to miss. And while many of these photos are only of the students themselves, some also include parents as well.
Makes you wonder, doesn’t it, which parents place themselves in the photos beside their children and which one are always hiding behind the camera? In a world where cameras are everywhere, what is keeping you from being in the photos of the days that are important to your child and your family? Is an embarrassing discolored, chipped, or missing tooth keeping you from creating the photographic memories that your child will look at for years to come?
The Prettiest Thing You Can Wear Is a Smile
Could the latest dentistry techniques return your smile to something that you are proud of? Nearly 98% of people indicate that a great smile can help you be successful. Beyond the success, however, a healthy smile is the ticket to feeling great about yourself. Unfortunately, when something is wrong with your teeth, your best smiles may be harder to come by. Chipped teeth, a missing tooth, or even discolored teeth cause people to hide their natural grin, creating instead a closed mouth grimace the is far from picture perfect. Fortunately, the latest dentistry techniques can repair any problems and get you back to sharing the natural smile that is your greatest accessory.
Dental Crowns and Bridges
Crowns and bridges are permanent materials that are adhered to teeth that have been chipped, worn down, broken, or missing. By visiting your regular dentist or a dental surgeon, crowns and bridges can be made that exactly match the color of your teeth, creating a natural looking replacement. Very popular and needed, as many as 15 million Americans have crown and bridge replacements for missing teeth.
One popular kind of crown placements is the CEREC method which was developed by Professor Werner H. Mormann and Dr. Marco Brandestini in 1980 at the University of Zurich. This effective method allows patients to visit the office just once, instead of the normal two times that is often necessary in other procedures. Clinical research indicates that the success rate of CEREC restorations is 95.5% following a period of nine years, The success rate drops slightly to 84% after 18 years. Dependent upon the highly accurate 3D X-ray technology, dentists have been using CEREC for implants since 2009. The continued accuracy of computer aided design creates a faster replacement that is amazingly accurate.
Regular Visits
While the parents of school age children may be visiting the dentist to improve their smile, they are at the same time trying to instill a practice of good dental health in their children. Even the most advanced dentistry techniques require the most basic maintenance. Regular visits to the dentist, for example, at family dentistry offices are the first step to a healthy smile and teeth.
Interestingly enough, while parents often recognize the benefits of regular dental appointments in creating good oral health, they some times take their children to the dentist, but miss their own appointments. Like anything else in life, however, the best way to instill the best habits in children is to do the things that you talk about. This means, of course, that taking your child to the dentist when he or she is young may have little impact if your child does not see you going to your appointments. Teenagers are especially quick to notice when a parent says one thing and then does another.
Consider the two following statistics:
- Only 50% of adults say that they visit their dentist every six months.
- 74% of adults have had a tooth extracted.
One has to wonder if better prevention, including twice a year dental appointments may have helped these adults keep their teeth longer. It is unfortunate that in a time of many advanced dentistry techniques 50% the population indicates that they are unhappy with their teeth, ith as many as 64% indicating that the main reason for being unhappy is the discoloration of their teeth.
