Michael Finley
"Understanding Cosmetic Dentistry"
Reprinted from his "What Ails You?" columns for Twin Cities Business Monthly
© 2003 by Michael Finley
The soul of a new smile
Go to a museum and look at the old faces. Open a history book and examine the portraits. You know what the past lacked? Teeth! Not for the artist, and not for the camera. Nobody smiled.
Or if they did, it was a tight simper like the Mona Lisa’s. Think of the dingy rack of enamel lurking behind those lips. She looked positively British.
In our time, things changed. In the 1950s, new compounds transformed the craft of dentistry from “pulling and filling” into something to an art and craft – the remaking of smiles, and thus of personalities, and thus of careers.
There’s a cosmetic solution for almost every dental problem.
- Whitening helps teeth that have become discolored from coffee, smoking, or just too many years of use.
- Bonding is the process of restoring a tooth that has broken or chipped with an enamel-like resin.
- Fillings are still done, only now they are now color matched to the rest of your teeth.
- Bridges can be built when a tooth is missing, to improve appearance and shore up the remaining teeth.
- Braces or orthodontia reshape your teeth until they are straight and pointing in the right direction.
- Crowns fit over a tooth to give it greater biting strength.
- Porcelain and ceramic inlays are advanced tools for repairing broken teeth.
- And porcelain laminate veneers and jackets are super-strong structures used in cosmetic enhancements.
It all sounds clinical enough. But the effects of cosmetic dentistry cut to the heart of people’s deepest fears and yearnings. Psychological studies have shown that, when we are with another person, we glance from their eyes to their mouth, and back and forth. What are we scanning for? Trustworthiness.
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