An attractive smile presents a smooth white surface. However, gaps in your smile can make your smile less attractive. There are many potential causes of gaps in your smile. The best way to fix your smile gaps depends on what caused them. Here’s a guide to the different types of smile gaps and how a Rancho Mirage cosmetic dentist can help close them to ensure you have a smile that you’re happy to share.
How Best to Treat a Diastema
A diastema is a common cause of a gap in your smile. A diastema is a developmental gap in your teeth. It occurs when your teeth come in. They develop a space between them as they emerge. Often, this is due to the presence of a large labial frenum–the connection between your lips and your gums.
Anatomically speaking, people who develop this type of smile gap often have large central incisors. This means that we want to choose a treatment for this type of smile gap that doesn’t enlarge the incisors.
This means that most people will benefit from orthodontics for diastema. At Country Club Dentistry, Rancho Mirage cosmetic dentist Dr. Rod Strober uses SureSmile clear aligners. These almost invisible aligners can move your teeth relatively quickly, leading to fast orthodontic results.
How Best to Treat Small or Narrow Teeth
Another potential cause of gaps in your teeth is small or narrow teeth. Perhaps you have retained baby teeth. Maybe you have peg laterals. Perhaps your teeth are just too small for the size of your jaw.
No matter the cause, you need a smile gap treatment that enlarges and potentially reshapes your natural teeth. Probably the best treatment for enlarging and reshaping your natural teeth is porcelain veneers. Porcelain veneers are thin shells of advanced ceramic that go over your teeth, building them up to close the gaps between them.
Rancho Mirage cosmetic dentist Dr. Strober offers traditional porcelain veneers, but he also offers other options that can get results faster. You might choose porcelain veneers made in our office using CEREC. Instead of sending impressions off to a dental lab, Dr. Strober can make your veneers while you wait. Then you can get your new smile in one day, instead of having to wait a week or two for restorations made in a lab.
How Best to Treat Crooked Teeth Gaps
Sometimes the gaps between your teeth might be caused by crooked teeth. Often the crooked teeth are tilted sideways, creating spaces between them and their neighboring teeth. Other times, the teeth tilt backward. Even if this doesn’t create a literal gap between your teeth, it can create a dark space that looks like a gap.
Dealing with this type of tooth gap sometimes requires orthodontics. Other times, Rancho Mirage cosmetic dentist Dr. Strober recommends what we often call “instant orthodontics.” In this procedure, we use a combination of porcelain veneers and/or dental crowns to reshape your teeth. This makes them look straight but doesn’t require moving the tooth roots.
Instead of taking about a year to straighten your teeth, instant orthodontics can give you results in under a month. Plus, they can brighten, repair, and reshape your teeth at the same time.
How Best to Treat Black Triangles
Our front teeth are all generally wider at the top than at the bottom. This means that when teeth touch at the top, there is space between the lower parts. Normally, this extra space is filled by gums and bones, so there’s no gap.
However, if you have gum disease or brush your teeth too hard, you might experience receding gums. When your gums recede, they leave behind triangular open spaces near the gum line, usually called simply black triangles.
Rancho Mirage cosmetic dentist Dr. Strober often recommends BioClear to close this type of gap. BioClear is like a flowable veneer. This lets it fill in the space at the base of your teeth, closing up the black triangles, so your smile looks whole and healthy again.
How Best to Treat Missing Teeth
Of course, one of the most feared tooth gaps is the missing tooth. Gum disease is the leading cause of tooth loss among adults in America, but trauma, decay, and other causes can leave many people with one or more missing teeth.
There are many potential solutions to replace missing teeth, but the best is one or more dental implants. A dental implant anchors in the jawbone similar to the way natural teeth do. The implant can then serve as a support for dental crowns or bridges to replace any number of missing teeth. Dental implants look natural, function like natural teeth, are easy to care for, and can last a lifetime.
We Treat Smile Gaps in Rancho Mirage
Hopefully, reading the above helps you understand that, no matter the cause of your smile gaps, Country Club Dentistry in Rancho Mirage can treat them. Although we propose the best smile gap treatment in each case, we offer alternatives. Dr. Strober can clearly explain the benefits and drawbacks of each treatment approach so that you can choose the one that’s best for you.
To talk to Rancho Mirage cosmetic dentist Dr. Strober, please call (760) 832-7915 or use our online form to request an appointment at Country Club Dentistry, located right next to Rancho Mirage Country Club.
