Smile like you mean it...

Wear a perfect smile on your wedding day with these modern dentistry procedures, writes Dr Trivikram Rao

You’re donning that bright red traditional wedding dress with beautiful jewellery as you blush in front of your beloved on your wedding day. But when the photographer asks you to smile for that signature shot, you start panicking. Because you don’t want to spoil the photographs clicked on the happiest day of your life: your wedding day.

Don’t worry! You can be a part of the latest trend catching up fast in cosmetic dentistry i.e. ‘wedding smile makeovers’. If you have a dentist-phobia, be rest assured that wedding smile makeovers are for anyone with crooked teeth, dark teeth, protruding teeth, teeth with gaps, overlapping teeth, fractured teeth, old, ugly crowns and bad fillings. And they are painless, too!

Perfect pearlies

There are several procedures to improve your smile such as cleaning and polishing and instant teeth whitening that can be done in just one visit. Teeth-whitening is a safe, comfortable way to get a bright, white smile. Procedures such as composite bonding take just one to two visits. Composite bonding is a cosmetic technique wherein a type of dental material such as composite resin is shaped and moulded on your teeth to give the appearance of a straighter, whiter smile. It can be a great cosmetic solution for chipped teeth, gapped teeth and staining in both teeth and fillings.

Oher smile makeovers such as teeth recontouring and ceramic veneering may take three visits in five to seven days. The procedure is generally done to improve appearance by creating more synchronisation and balance in the look of the smile. A cosmetic dentist will advise you the perfect treatment depending upon your teeth, the shape of your face, personality and preferences. Recontouring or reshaping the teeth is one of the most common and conservative cosmetic treatment procedures. It is quick and painless with immediately visible results. In the procedure, small amounts of tooth enamel are removed to change a tooth’s length, shape or surface.

Similarly, ceramic veneering is also a painless procedure to restore a tooth that may have been fractured or discoloured. Ceramic veneering is gradually becoming more of an aesthetic dental procedure in India. Interestingly, dental clinics all across the country are offering several smile packages across budgets.

It takes months to plan a wedding. The venue, theme, trousseau, jewellery, invites, make-up, hair and whatnot; the list is endless. But if you have consciously or otherwise excluded your teeth and dental health out of your list, it might well be your first beauty crisis. Your smile is the only way you can express your happiness to the outside world without having to tell a word. And with all those guests coming to wish and bless you, you certainly have to have the perfect one on your D-day. You can easily get a smile that will boost your persona to face the wedding photo-shoot with confidence.

Let your smile shine this wedding season. After all, the most precious jewellery you can possibly wear on your wedding is your smile!

(The author is cosmetic dentist & implant surgeon, All Smile Dental- Cosmetic Dentistry)