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Services Offered
Cosmetic Dentistry | Smile Makeover | Invisalign | Veneers | CEREC | Lumineers | Bonding
Bridges | Crowns | Fillings | What's Right for Me? | Implants
Cosmetic Dentistry
Your smile is one of the most important aspects of your appearance. With the advent of new aesthetic dental treatments, a stunning, memorable smile is now easily within your reach!
Are you ready for a Smile Makeover?
- • Do you hesitate when you smile?
- • Would you like to increase your self-confidence?
- • Do you want to look your best in social or professional situations?
- • Are you ready to reverse dental imperfections caused by Mother Nature or an accident?
Our office can help you achieve your smile goals. Cosmetic dentistry is art and science working seamlessly together to offer smile enhancement, restoration, and maintenance for your optimal dental health. Using cutting-edge techniques and advanced materials, our office proudly offers you a beautiful, natural smile and all the benefits that come with it. You will look and feel better because a beautiful smile is a healthy smile.
You no longer have to suffer missing, chipped, discolored, or crooked teeth. We encourage you to visit our Smile Gallery to find a treatment that works for you.
Contact us today to schedule your Smile Makeover consultation!
Invisalign®
Consider Invisalign to get the beautiful straight teeth you've always wanted – without braces. Invisalign uses a series of nearly invisible, removable, and comfortable aligners that no one can tell you're wearing.
Veneers
There's no reason to put up with gaps in your teeth or with teeth that are stained, discolored, badly shaped, chipped, or crooked. Today, a veneer placed on top of your teeth can correct nature's mistake or the results of an injury and help you have a beautiful smile. Veneers are a highly popular solution among dental patients because of their life-like tooth appearance.
Veneers are thin, custom-made shells crafted of tooth-colored materials (such as porcelain) designed to cover the front side of your teeth. To prepare for veneers, your doctor will create a unique model of your teeth. This model is sent to the dental technician to create your veneers. Before placing your new veneer, your doctor will remove a small amount of your tooth to make room for the veneer.
When placed, you’ll be pleased to see that veneers look like your natural teeth and even resist staining. Though veneers are stain resistant, your doctor may recommend that you avoid coffee, tea, red wine, and tobacco to maintain the beauty of your veneer.
You may be a candidate for a new type of veneer, called a Lumineer. These contact-lens-thin veneers can usually be placed with no natural tooth reduction and no anesthetic! Simply come in for a custom impression of your teeth and two weeks later your veneers will be ready to be seated…no need to get numb or wear temporaries! Visit our page dedicated to the Lumineers procedure to learn more.
Call our office today for a complimentary smile consultation and begin the process toward a brighter, straighter or more aesthetic smile!
CEREC®
CEREC is a technology for restoring damaged teeth, and this restoration can be completed in a single visit to the doctor's office. It makes your teeth stronger and more beautiful – all while keeping your teeth looking natural.
Lumineers®:
Are your teeth chipped or stained? Would you like to improve your smile permanently, without any painful processes? We are pleased to offer Lumineers as an alternative to traditional porcelain veneers.
Bonding
Bonding is a conservative way to repair slightly chipped, discolored, or crooked teeth. During dental bonding, a white filling is placed onto your tooth to improve its appearance. The filling “bonds” with your teeth, and because it comes in a variety of tooth-colored shades, it will blend in with your natural teeth and in most cases be indistinguishable.
The same material used for bonding can also be used to repair and fill cavities instead of amalgam (or silver) fillings. Many patients prefer bonding fillings (also called composite fillings) because the white color is much less noticeable than the silver amalgam fillings. Bonding fillings can be used on front and back teeth depending on the location and extent of tooth decay.
Bonding usually can be completed in one visit to our office depending on the number of teeth involved. It is necessary for you as a patient to know that bonding can stain over time and is easier to break than other cosmetic treatments such as porcelain veneers. Dr. Sunwoo will always describe all of your options during your exam or consultation and inform you of the treatment that is most likely to be a success for your individual case.
Bridges
A bridge may be used to replace missing teeth, help maintain the shape of your face, and alleviate stress in your bite.
A bridge replaces missing teeth with artificial teeth, looks great, and literally bridges the gap where one or more teeth may have been. Your bridge can be made from gold, alloys, porcelain, or a combination of these materials and is bonded onto surrounding teeth for support.
The success of any bridge depends on its foundation -- the other teeth, gums, or bone to which it is attached. Therefore, it's very important to keep your existing teeth, gums, and jaw healthy and strong. If you are interested in replacing missing teeth, please ask Dr. Sunwoo if a fixed bridge may be right for you!
Crowns
Crowns are a cosmetic restoration used to improve your tooth’s shape or to strengthen a tooth. Crowns are most often used for teeth that are broken, worn, or have portions destroyed by tooth decay.
Crowns are “caps” cemented onto an existing tooth which fully cover the portion of your tooth above the gum line. In effect, the crown becomes your tooth’s new outer surface. Crowns can be made of porcelain, metal, or both. Porcelain crowns are most often preferred because they mimic the translucency of natural teeth and are very strong.
Crowns are often preferable to large silver amalgam and composite fillings. Your crown is created in a lab from your unique tooth impression which allows a dental laboratory technician to examine all aspects of your bite and jaw movements. Your crown is then sculpted just for you so that your bite and jaw movements function normally once the crown is placed.
With traditional crown placement, you can expect to wear a temporary crown for about 2 weeks while the lab fabricates your permanent restoration; however, this usually not necessary as Dr. Sunwoo is a certified CEREC dentist and depending on your case, may be able to complete your permanent all porcelain crown in one visit, while you wait! Please visit our page dedicated to CEREC technology and be sure to ask if CEREC crowns and restorations are right for you!
Fillings
Traditional dental restoratives (fillings) include gold, porcelain, and composite/ amalgam. The strength and durability of traditional dental materials continue to make them useful for situations where restored teeth must withstand extreme forces that result from chewing, such as in the back of the mouth.
Newer dental fillings include ceramic and plastic compounds that mimic the appearance of natural teeth. These compounds, often called composite resins, are usually used on the front teeth where a natural appearance is important. They can be used on the back teeth as well depending on the location and extent of the tooth decay. Composite resins are usually more costly than the older silver amalgam fillings.
What's Right for Me?
Several factors influence the performance, durability, longevity and expense of dental restorations:
- • The components used in the filling material
- • The amount of tooth structure remaining
- • Where and how the filling is placed
- • The chewing load that the tooth will have to bear
- • The length and number of visits needed to prepare and adjust the restored tooth.
The ultimate decision about what to use is best determined in consultation with your doctor. Before your treatment begins, discuss the options with your doctor. To help you prepare for this discussion it is helpful to understand the two basic types of dental fillings: direct and indirect.
- • Direct fillings are fillings placed immediately into a prepared cavity in a single visit. They include dental amalgam, glass ionomers, resin ionomers, and composite (resin) fillings. The dentist prepares the tooth, places the filling, and adjusts it during one appointment.
- • Indirect fillings generally require two or more visits. They include inlays, onlays, veneers, crowns, and bridges fabricated with gold, base metal alloys, ceramics, or composites. During the first visit, the dentist prepares the tooth and makes an impression of the area to be restored. The dentist then places a temporary covering over the prepared tooth. The impression is sent to a dental laboratory which creates the dental restoration. At the next appointment, the dentist cements the restoration into the prepared cavity and adjusts it as needed.
Implants
If you have missing teeth, it is crucial to replace them. Without all your teeth, chewing and eating can destabilize your bite and cause you discomfort. When teeth are missing, your mouth can shift and even cause your face to look older. Implants are an effective and natural looking way to replace your missing teeth.
An implant is a new tooth made of steel and porcelain that looks just like your natural tooth. Your implant is composed of two parts that mimic a tooth’s root and crown. The implant’s “root” is a titanium steel rod placed into the jaw bone to act as a root. This rod will be placed by a periodontist; if you are not already working with a specialist, we can refer you to a top periodontist in the area. Once the rod is in place and you have completed the requisite healing time, you will return to our office and Dr. Sunwoo will take an impression that he will send to a lab for the fabrication of your crown. After the impression appointment, your permanent crown will be ready to be placed in about two weeks
Implants may also be used to anchor dentures, especially lower dentures that tend to shift when you talk or chew. Patients who already have a removable partial denture but are interested in a more natural-looking smile, implants may be an option to replace the missing teeth, resulting in a more comfortable and functional dentition.