Woodland Hills Cosmetic Dentist

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Baby boomers are putting their money where their mouth is, driving a dramatic increase in cosmetic dentistry from whitening to straightening. They should be sure to consider function as well as face value, says Dr. James Douglas of South Bend.

Douglas, a longtime dentist who performed his first whitening 15 years ago, has seen the cosmetic side of the practice sparkle in recent years.

"Cosmetic dentistry is kind of a recent phenomenon in dentistry," he says. "I've noticed a lot more of it just in this last decade. I don't think the dentists were the first moving group in cosmetic dentistry. I think it was being pushed more by things patients were bringing to dentists -- 'Can you make my teeth whiter?'

"You don't see a dentist on TV saying 'I can make your teeth whiter, your smile better.' People want to look like people who are in Hollywood and in the public eye. They want to have a better smile and brighter teeth."

Douglas figures the dental emphasis is part of a larger look good-feel good focus among a generation that is also going for enhancements in skin, hair and eyes.

"We're doing all these things trying to look better," he says. "There are a lot more people with discretionary funds. They've got money to spend on this."

In earlier days, the dentist tried to make what he put in the mouth look natural. Now he makes the natural look better.

"As long as I've practiced, I've tried to match crowns and various tooth replacements in the mouth with what the patient already has. It didn't appear that they had anything false in their mouth.

"It's a different phenomenon now. Now, people are striving to have much lighter -- prettier, if you will -- teeth. "A lot of people today are interested in things like laminates on their front teeth so their teeth look straighter and whiter."

Sometimes, the rush to improve appearance has failed to take into account the complex, interrelated systems of the face and mouth.

"You can make a tooth look prettier, but it has to work with all the functions that go on in the mouth -- speech, chewing, muscle function, joint function, you might even include swallowing in that," Douglas explains. "If you don't property arrange a reconstruction in the mouth, the patient could have a swallowing problem as well as a speech problem.

"We don't want to put something in a patient's mouth that is not functional. They're trying now not only to work with aesthetic dentistry but they're focusing a lot more on function. There's a way to do both."

Douglas, who had only one whitening patient the first year, says the demand is now so high that he can pay for a new piece of whitening equipment in a week or two.

Much of the cosmetic work involves orthodontics.

"I think the majority of people seek out orthodontics for cosmetic reasons, not functional reasons," he says. "There's an awful lot more adult orthodontics going on. That is cosmetic. They usually just want them straightened in the front."

One woman wanted only her front teeth straightened, but she came back for work on the back teeth when she realized that they weren't functioning as well.

"Most adults I treat are just concerned about what's going on from here to here," Douglas says, point to the corners of his smiling mouth.

The anti-aging effect means 70-year-old patients want whiter crowns, veneers and bridges than they would have in earlier years. One patient in her 60s came to have one bottom tooth removed and the others straightened.

"We see a lot more older people because our population is increasing in age on average," he says. "I tend to look at them cosmetically. Just a couple of decades ago, they would have thought they were on their way out and wouldn't want to spend much on dentistry."
Woodland Hills Cosmetic Dentist

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