The big picture
People pursue cosmetic dentistry for all kinds of reasons: chips, stains, gaps, worn edges, or simply wanting to smile without thinking about it. The menu of tooth-side treatments is familiar: whitening for color, bonding for small repairs and gaps, veneers for bigger changes in shape and shade, and modern tooth-colored fillings to replace old metal ones. Those are typically done with your general dentist, and we coordinate closely when they’re part of your plan.
What whitening can and can’t do
There are two very different products under one label. Polishing pastes remove surface stains only. True whitening uses peroxide to lighten the tooth itself, often by several shades. Whitening works best on healthy mouths; untreated gum disease, decay, or exposed roots should be addressed first, and crowns and fillings don’t lighten, so plan the order of work before you bleach.
Where your gums come in
The gumline is the frame around every smile, and it’s our specialty. If teeth look short or the smile shows too much gum, recontouring or crown lengthening can reveal the tooth that was there all along. If recession has made teeth look long or left dark root surfaces showing, grafting restores the frame. And where a lost tooth has left a sunken spot in the gum ridge, ridge augmentation can rebuild a natural contour so a bridge or implant looks like it grew there.
Sequence matters
The best cosmetic results usually follow a simple order: healthy gums first, structural repairs second, color last. It prevents redoing work and it’s the reason cosmetic plans here start with a periodontal exam, whoever ends up doing each step.