My teeth are worn

Most people are not aware of the slow and ongoing process of tooth wear. Under normal conditions, tooth wear takes place at a rate of +- 0.021 mm per year or roughly 1mm enamel loss at age 60. Pathological tooth wear happens when more rapid tooth loss takes place and leads to functional and aesthetic problems. Problems are group into 4 areas namely, erosion, attrition, abfraction and abrasion. 
The problem with tooth wear is that it mostly affect groups of teeth or sometimes the whole arch or even both arches. To replace the missing tooth structure 'tooth' must be added back-on and therefor the vertical distance between the patient's nose tip and chin when biting down needs to be increased. In other words, the teeth need to be lengthened to improve the loss in vertical height and therefore planning the new smile becomes very important. This often drastically improves the overall look of the smile and creates a much younger-looking appearance!

A) Treatment:

First, we will look at the 9 different treatment options we use in Cosmetic Dentistry, and decide when and what options to apply. Our main goal is to be conservative and minimally invasive. A good teeth cleaning and then possible general teeth whitening will be the start before trying to match any possible bonding or veneer work to mask or hide the dark colour.

Treatment options to treat tooth wear are:

 

• DSD protocol (2D) to design the new smile

 

• Digital or Manual wax-up to get the new 3D design

 

• Composite Bonding to build-up new teeth

 

• Porcelain veneers

 

• Cerec Crowns

 

• Night Guard or Bite plate

 

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	before	after

 

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