A smile can send a powerful message. It has the ability to evoke some of our strongest emotions, the energy to radiate passion and positivity and the subtlety to influence personal and professional relationships. Yet not everyone has the confidence to smile and it could simply be because you are unhappy or self-conscious about your teeth or being held back by poor oral and dental health.
This week sees the launch of National Smile Month and The ‘Smile Factor’ Campaign. The aim of the campaign is to put the smile back on peoples’ faces and help them display their full personalities through their smile.
And at Cosmetic White Smiles, we have a passion for making our people smile.
From raising awareness of a healthy diet and the links between oral health and general health, to delivering the latest advances and techniques in preventative and cosmetic dentistry, our aim for you is a healthy, radiant and confident smile.
So if you’re wondering how to capture some of your own x-factor, whether it be at work or in your personal life, take a closer look at your teeth and smile.
After all, whether you love them or dislike them and regardless of their career moves and marriage woes in the very public limelight, Cheryl Cole and Simon Cowell still manage to dazzle us all with their x-factor smiles.
Three Simple Smile-Factor tips to healthier teeth:
- Brush your teeth twice daily with a fluoride toothpaste
Thorough and regular brushing reduces contact of sugars and acid from foods with teeth.A fluoride toothpaste will help strengthen your teeth and prevent dental decay
- Eliminate or reduce sugary foods and drinks
Sugary foods can contribute to serious health problems such as obesity and heart disease.Fizzy, acidic or sweet drinks increase the risk of tooth decay and dental erosion.
- Visit your dentist and oral hygienist on a regular basis
Not just to help prevent tooth decay and gum disease,fillings and tooth loss but also for your overall general health.Scientific research is backing links between gum disease and strokes ,diabetes ,heart disease, breast cancer and premature births.
Holding back the years and maintaing a youthful smile is as much to do with what you avoid eating and drinking as it is to do with what you consume
Follow our tips and guidelines below for maintaining your teeth and a younger looking smile:
- Avoid Smoking:stained teeth, bad breath and wrinkles around the lips-good enough reasons to kick the habit !From a health perspective, smoking also depletes the body of vital nutrients making you more prone to gum disease and infections as well as posing risks to your overall health
- Limit your consumption of tea and coffee and replace with alternatives such as green or herbal tea,water and lighter coloured drinks.
- Red wine may be good for your heart but it’s not great for your pearly whites-you could either opt for white wine or if you can’t bear to give up on your favourite tipple, either rinse your mouth or have a glass of water after consuming red wine
- Other foods which stain teeth include blueberries,cranberries, tumeric(in curries),beetroot and balsamic vinegar.Some of these are nature’s ‘superfoods’ and certainly shouldn’t be eliminated from your diet but rinsing your mouth after eating them will limit the tooth staining effects
- Avoid boiled sweets and chewy sugary treats. These are particularly damaging to your smile due to the length of time the sugars remain in contact with your teeth and the prolonged exposure to the resulting acids generated in your mouth
- Eliminate sugary,fizzy and acidic drinks-your tooth enamel is under attack which in turn leads to dental decay, infection, gum disease and in the long term, the chance of losing your teeth
So look after your teeth and choose your drinks, treats and foods carefully; you could add or eliminate years to how you feel and look.
Not only does a healthy diet maintain and promote a fitter and stronger body, it can also help you look and feel younger.With its array of benefits, green tea seem to be a popular contender on the current list of health related consumption choices we should be considering.
Green tea has been a popular drink in Asian countries for many centuries where it has been hailed as an alternative and natural remedy for a wide range of diseases and illness. More recent scientific studies are also establishing link between green tea consumption,and in particular, cancer prevention, cardiac health and weight control.
But less well known is the link that choosing green tea as part of your daily beverage intake can improve your dental and gum health and give you a great smile. Assuming of course that you are flossing and brushing your teeth regularly because the downside is that tea, albeit mainly the ‘inferior’ brown variety, can stain your teeth.
For those already stained and not so pearly whites, there are ways to reverse the damage. A visit to your cosmetic dentist to discuss your options such as dental laser teeth whitening treatment would be a good start.
The smile benefits of green tea are due to the presence of polyphenols and antioxidants known as catechins; these are believed to promote healthier gums and teeth by preventing the production of plaque, which if left unaddressed, can lead to dental cavities and bleeding gums.
Another reason to include more of these green leaves on your menu to enhance your smile might be as a great replacement for enamel-destroying fizzy and sports drinks or acidic based citrus juices.
And although personal and cultural preferences might dictate whether it served up traditionally hot or cosmopolitan iced, either way green tea tastes pretty good too.
Cosmetic White Smiles is pleased to be supporting The Broad Appeal which is helping raise funds and awareness for Motor Neurone Disease
Click on the links below for more details of the exclusive fundraising event:
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http://www.mndassociation.org/news_and_events/our_news/exclusive_charity.html
Every bride wants to look gorgeous for her wedding and Kate Middleton is no exception. Except hers will be the event of the year, being shared with the entire world and she is marrying the future king.
Although her lovely smile had already captured the heart of her prince, it seems she wasn’t going to leave anything to chance for the photoshoots in the run up to her royal engagement and forthcoming big day.
Kate has reportedly undergone a smile makeover which has resulted in the closure of the gap between her two front teeth as well as a straighter and whiter smile.
It’s all been achieved by a visit to a cosmetic dentist who has treated Kate’s teeth with a revolutionary teeth straightening procedure alongside teeth whitening treatment.
The results seem to have paid dividends as Kate is already dazzling the photographers and the watching world with her poise, charm and radiant smile.
It seems she may not have been the only one wanting to improve on her pearly whites; Prince William is also said to have worn a brace on his teeth for many years when he was younger.
The royal couple both clearly have something to smile about!
Tooth infection or dental decay can cause severe dental pain and sometimes, this can be severe enough to require necessary extraction of a tooth in order for your dentist to address this dental problem. Sometimes, if the dental infection can be contained and treated, removing your tooth can be avoided.
Your NHS dentist or cosmetic dentist may try to repair damaged teeth with root canal treatment rather than extracting them, if possible, as loss of teeth can cause both psychological and functional issues.
Furthermore, decaying teeth, if left untreated, can give refuge to a number of toxic materials and bacteria which may enter your bloodstream. These harmful materials can, in turn, cause other health issues, besides the tooth infection which may require antibiotics.
Root canal treatment works by removing the infected and damaged nerves of your tooth, rather than the tooth itself. Following nerve removal, your tooth and its chamber are then cleaned thoroughly to rid them from the bacteria, so that the canal can be sealed.
In this way, root canal treatment not only gets rid of the harmful infection and addresses the original problem, it also prevents the unnecessary extraction of a painful tooth and avoids the issue of further treatments for replacing the consequent gaps.
However, if you visit your dentist and hygienist regularly, you can avoid dental problems such as tootache from decay in your teeth.
Dental implants are a specialist cosmetic dentistry procedure requiring a good aftercare regimen.
A dental implant is an artificial tooth that looks just like a natural tooth and is used to replace a missing tooth.It consists of two parts. One part is the artificial tooth that is visible in your mouth and the other is the metal connector that attaches the artificial tooth to the jaw. You need to take care of the tooth, the metal and the surrounding area of the dental implant.
Regular cleaning of the dental implant is a must. There are special types of dental equipment and specially bent tooth brushes that can reach the gums and clean the metal connectors and the tooth. After the whole area of the dental implant has been cleaned properly, gauze pieces or a special flossing system is required to clean the posts, gums and the whole area.
This care regimen should be followed every day, if you want to maintain your dental implant properly. You can also buy special “reach” brushes so that it becomes easier to clean. Removable dental implants are comparatively easy to maintain as they can be detached from your gums and cleaned thoroughly.
It is essential to get your dental implants checked at least once every six months as this gives your dentist a chance to make sure that the implants are in good condition.
Maintaining our teeth and keeping them in flawless condition can prove almost impossible. Even if you brush your teeth twice every day, food particles can still remain in the mouth. After all, we cannot carry a toothbrush and toothpaste around with us all the time and it is not practical to brush your teeth every time you eat something, so food particles inevitably remain in your mouth and stuck to your teeth and can cause tooth decay.
Tooth decay occurs due to bacteria produced from food particles in the mouth. Decay can gradually spread resulting in infection of the teeth. This process can go completely unnoticed until your tooth starts hurting and if the infection caused by the bacteria reaches the tooth pulp, the toothache can become unbearable.
At this point, many people will choose to visit a dentist to address the severity of symptoms. If the decay is advanced and has damaged or affected the tooth pulp, root canal treatment may be required, which involves treating the affected tooth and the root to remove the pulp and get rid of the infection.
An easier and alternative treatment that has just made its mark in cosmetic dentistry is the HealOzone treatment. In this treatment, ozone gas is used to kill the bacteria completely and combat the infection. HealOzone is completely painless and drill- free and takes just a few seconds.
HealOzone treatment has proven to be very effective; it uses ozone gas to kill the bacteria and the ozone is able to penetrate around the tightest of crevices and cracks around teeth, unlike a drill.
The cost of a trip to a cosmetic dentist may fill you with dread but if your smile or a lack of it a major problem in your personal, professional or social life, is it worth the investment?
Individuals who are worried about their smile can become introverted due to a sense of insecurity and this can have a major impact on your life.
A number of people suffer from stained teeth,crooked or missing teeth,gaps between teeth, crooked jawlines and many other dental problems. With the advent of better and more proficient cosmetic dentistry techniques to improve and address these issue, you might be able to smile again.
As dental insurance does not cover the cost of cosmetic dentistry, it is essential to gather information about the relevant procedures before paying out. Interest free finance plans are a great way to combat costs. These plans enable you to spread the cost of treatment rather than pay for procedures all in one go. In addition to this, dental care plans often incorporate deductions on certain sorts of treatment, as well as covering the cost of general dental care, such as check-ups and hygiene appointments. A dental care plan will typically incorporate interest a free finance plan as part of it.
There are many affordable cosmetic dental treatments and procedures available to correct and improve your teeth and smile. These can often be aimed at changing the shape, size or appearance of your teeth and in such cases, may involve treatment options such as crowns and bridges,invisible or metal braces,teeth whitening, dental implants or porcelain dental veneers.
However, for some people, the problem may not be just the appearance of their teeth but also their gum line. Too much gum showing when you smile can manifest as a gummy smile which some people find unattractive. To reshape and correct the gum line, a simple and painless dental technique called laser gum reshaping is often used.
Laser gum reshaping (or laser gum contouring as it sometimes known), reshapes and corrects the gumline by removing excess gum and sealing it with a laser. There is no surgery or stitches involved and it is a fairly straightforward and painless process, which is permanent. An instant smile lift can be achieved fairly cost effectively in a short space of time, revealing less gum and more teeth.
Reshaping of the gums is often used alongside porcelain veneers in many smile makeovers in order to achieve a beautiful and healthy looking smile.
