Cosmetic Dentistry

A big, beautiful smile radiates confidence, improves self-esteem and enhances mood.  Even a small step can have dramatic and life-changing effects on a person – when you’re happy you smile more and smiling more can make you happier.  Modern dentistry has brought formerly time-consuming and expensive procedures into the mainstream, making them affordable, accessible and likely even covered by insurance.  Cosmetic procedures can run the gamut from replacing missing tooth to color correction (teeth whitening), to fillings, dentures, crowns/bridges, and orthodontics.  Scheduling a consultation with Dr. Pelaez is a great place to start exploring your options!

We also offer cosmetic orthodontic services as trained providers of Invisalign and Six Month Smiles.  Both can be a great alternative to traditional metal braces if you want to improve your smile.

Invisalign® and Six Month Smiles®

Dentistry of Virginia Beach provides Invisalign^® and Six Month Smiles^® as elective options to correct or improve tooth positioning.  Overly crowded teeth, crossbites, overbites and spacing between teeth are examples of conditions that can be treated with Invisalign® through a series of clear aligners that get replaced typically every 2 weeks.

Six Month Smiles^® is another cosmetically centered orthodontic treatment that utilizes tooth-colored brackets and wires to move teeth with an average treatment length of six months.

Your Invisalign^® clear aligners are custom-made for you. The aligners are virtually invisible and fit snugly over your teeth. Each aligner shifts your teeth slightly, moving them horizontally and vertically and even rotating them when needed. Your aligners are engineered to use the right amount of force in the right place at the right time.

Regardless of the method used to move teeth orthodontically, it is important to remember the importance of retainers.  They are critical at the end of the active movement to maintain the final result. Without a firm commitment to either permanently cemented or removable retainers, teeth will always be prone to drifting slightly back in the direction that they once were.  As a general rule, moving the teeth to their ideal position is the easy and predictable part, while the final retention phase which keeps teeth at their new location has to be a lifelong commitment. Without a retainer, they may relapse, and loss of ideal positioning is likely to occur, frustrating both the patient and dentist.