Cosmetic Dentistry

All Ceramic Crowns

I have always had a problem with the term, "Cosmetic Dentistry". If we believe, as some dentists would have us do, that there are a group of dentists who are practicing what might be called a specialty of "Cosmetic Dentistry", then all of the rest of the dentists in the world are practicing "Uncosmetic" or maybe "Ugly" dentistry... It's a ridiculous premise and as a Prosthodontist, I am very wary of dentists who promote themselves as "specialists" in this area. There is no specialty of "Cosmetic Dentistry" and, in fact, all dentistry by definition should look natural and meet the esthetic demands of the patient.Why then do we have so many dentists who constantly advertise themselves as "cosmetic Dentists" or specialists in "Cosmetic Dentistry"? The answer is that this is a pretty successful marketing ploy used to convince the unwary that one dentist's dental restorations will make them look better than another's. This, of course may be true, but we would always be hard pressed to identify the so called "Cosmetic Dentist" as providing anything that is indeed superior to the dentist that you go to every visit for your routine dental work.Prosthodontists are actually the only dentists who have gone through advanced training in designing and developing the most artful aspects of a person's smile. Much of the three year Post Graduate training program that a Prosthodontist undertakes has to do with properly evaluating a patient's appearance and planning and executing ways to improve that appearance in such a way that the patient will have a dental condition which will be consistent with what we all feel "looks good" for that patient. This involves more than slapping on some ceramics or plastic to change the shape and color of teeth. It requires definitive applications of principles that are difficult to learn and even harder to master... much more than a weekend course in "BondoDontics"...Click on the Preoperative portion of the menu at the left to see more of what I'm getting at here.SRD