How To Improve Your Smile

Written By Maggie Bloom / Reviewed By Ray Spotts

Feeling less than confident about your smile can affect your performance across all life areas. People who don't enjoy showing their teeth often shy away from important social and professional opportunities.

Issues such as cracked, chipped, and discolored teeth can make the simple intimacy of a kiss downright embarrassing. More importantly, oral issues that are left unresolved can greatly impact your marketability. Fortunately, there are five effective ways to improve your smile.

1. Start with Better Self-Care

The easiest way to improve your smile is by practicing good oral hygiene. You should be brushing and flossing twice daily and scheduling regular visits with your dentist. Although many people put dental visits on hold due to fear of treatment, embarrassment, and worry about the overall cost, there are many solutions for mitigating these things.

Look for a professional with multiple options in anesthesia, a good "chair-side" manner, and a range of accepted insurances and payment options. Taking care of minor issues early on will prevent them from spiraling out of control.

2. Consider Your Options in Dental Implants and Dental Bridges

Completing your smile after tooth loss or following severe structural damage is an important step for those with one or more missing teeth. Dental implants and dental bridges have both functional and aesthetic benefits.

These treatments will balance your bite forces to limit wear on your remaining natural teeth. When tooth loss is widespread, it can also significantly improve your chewing and talking abilities. You'll feel more confident with a complete smile, and your marketability will increase.

Dental bridges tend to be much cheaper than dental implants. With a bridge, one or more prosthetic teeth are affixed in the mouth using the surrounding, healthy teeth as anchors.

However, given that dental implants are stabilized with titanium posts that are inserted directly into the underlying bone, these treatments can stave off problems with jawbone deterioration. Once titanium posts for dental implants have been successfully grafted in, the body will treat them much like natural tooth roots.

Blood and oxygen delivery will remain robust across the treatment area to keep the underlying bone intact and healthy. You want to consider dental implants if facial volume loss and facial sagging due to missing teeth are an increasing concern.

3. Close Gaps and Straighten Teeth

Even with a full set of healthy teeth, you may feel self-conscious when showing off your smile. Large gaps and severely crooked teeth are both common issues. Much like tooth loss, certain issues with tooth alignment can accelerate tooth wear. They can also make it difficult to clean all your teeth properly.

You can choose from metal and ceramic braces for orthodontic treatment. You also have the option of using clear teeth aligners to improve your smile if you are not interested in braces.

Unlike braces, plastic teeth aligners can take just months to produce better alignment. They're also removable, inconspicuous, and far easier to use. There isn't a lengthy list of foods that you can't eat when wearing aligners, and you can easily access all your teeth for flossing and brushing.

4. Have Your Teeth Professionally Whitened

Get rid of deep stains with professional teeth whitening treatments. These are perfect for anyone who smokes cigarettes, regularly indulges in red wine or coffee, or has other life habits that lead to tooth discoloration.

Although there are countless products that you can purchase over the counter (OTC) to brighten your teeth, these solutions are only capable of lightening discolored teeth with just one to two shades. Moreover, applying them in visible areas in-between the teeth or around curved tooth surfaces can be a challenge.

When OTC teeth whitening products contain hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide as active ingredients, they can also cause severe damage to the gums and other soft tissues.

5. Completely Remake Your Smile with Porcelain Veneers

Porcelain veneers are a popular choice for smile improvement among people who don't like their tooth shape or tooth sizes. If you have one or more abnormally shaped teeth or teeth that are shorter or thinner than others, porcelain overlays can give you a far more balanced and natural look.

Porcelain veneers can provide dramatic smile makeovers in just one visit. They're also great for resolving problems with chipped, cracked, or inherently weak teeth, and with discolored teeth that are unresponsive to professional whitening procedures.

Your smile is easily one of the most noticeable features on your face. With the right dental or orthodontic treatments, you won't have to shy away from the camera or from social and professional opportunities. Having straight, white, and perfectly spaced teeth will boost both your confidence and your life quality.

Looking for a 100% all-natural liquid tooth oil and mouth rinse? Check out OraMD Original Strength and OraMD Extra Strength. Subscribe to our Trusted Health Club newsletter for more information about natural living tips, natural health, oral care, skincare, body care and foot care. If you are looking for more health resources check out the Trusted Health Resources list. 

Written By:

Maggie Bloom graduated from Utah Valley University with a degree in communication and writing. In her spare time, she loves to dance, read, and bake. She also enjoys traveling and scouting out new brunch locations.

Reviewed By:

Founder Ray Spotts has a passion for all things natural and has made a life study of nature as it relates to health and well-being. Ray became a forerunner bringing products to market that are extraordinarily effective and free from potentially harmful chemicals and additives. For this reason Ray formed Trusted Health Products, a company you can trust for clean, effective, and healthy products. Ray is an organic gardener, likes fishing, hiking, and teaching and mentoring people to start new businesses. You can get his book for free, “How To Succeed In Business Based On God’s Word,” at www.rayspotts.com.

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