When a patient comes to our dental clinic, it can be for a variety of reasons, but we can almost always separate them into three main categories: generalwhich would be those visits for servicing, cleaning or, in other words, 'maintenance'; urgencywhich are those that come to solve a specific discomfort, which does not always mean that they are urgent, as sometimes this pain or discomfort is postponed for months; and aestheticsThese are those visits that come to address just that: the aesthetics of your smile.
In the latter case, many patients begin their treatment with orthodontics, as it is a branch that is as closely linked to aesthetics as it is to oral health, which is why I usually recommend it to almost all patients who come to us looking for aesthetic solutions. Aligning teeth is an essential part of achieving an aesthetic smile, which is why many veneer treatments begin with an orthodontic part, or conversely, many orthodontic treatments end in veneers.
Today I want to talk to you about that last kind of patient who comes to my chair, the one who has finished their orthodontic treatment but looks in the mirror and is not 100% satisfied with the result. This may be because, if you have waited a long time to take the step of orthodontics and the teeth have been crowded and biting asymmetrically for a long time, they may have generated wear or breaks that will still be there when the orthodontics are finished, but not only. If the problem we perceived was in the shape of our teeth, their size or colour, it is not something that orthodontics is going to solve either.
And that is when many patients wonder.
OK, I've finished my braces, now what?
This is a question with a somewhat open-ended answer that depends both on our needs and the state we start from and our objectives and the result we want to achieve, but basically we could talk about two types of basic treatment when we finish the orthodontic phase:
Aesthetic fillings
Aesthetic fillings consist of using the composite (yes, the same material we use for fillings) to correct small defects or close small spaces between teeth. It is, as you can imagine, the ideal treatment when it comes to making changes to smiles that are already quite good, as in the case I present to you:
Ceramic veneers
Porcelain veneers have already been discussed at length. in this blog on various occasions. They are indicated for major changes, as they offer much more versatility when it comes to modifying teeth, colour and closing spaces in a lasting and minimally invasive way. As in the case we see below, they are capable of much more spectacular changes:
