Cosmetic Dentistry – Chevy Chase, MD
Changing Lives with Beautiful Smiles
Your smile is an important part of your personality, and you deserve for it to be at its very best. Unfortunately, stains, chips, cracks, gaps, and other aesthetic flaws are commonplace among even healthy teeth, and they’re likely to only grow more noticeable with time. Thankfully, Ronan Freyne, DMD is ready to help you achieve an exceptional transformation. Do any of the following situations sound familiar to you?
- Do you find yourself hesitating when you go to talk or laugh?
- Do you feel like your confidence isn’t at the level you’d like it to be or that it’s declined because your smile has changed over the years?
- Do you regularly attend social and/or professional situations where you wish you could make a better impression?
If so, a cosmetic treatment could be right for you. Our team offers several aesthetic-based services that can help you show off your smile with pride once more, and we’ll work with you to determine the one that best suits your personal needs and preferences during an initial consultation. Contact us today here in Chevy Chase, MD to get started!
Porcelain Veneers & Lumineers
With veneers, it’s easier than ever to fix your smile’s imperfections and achieve a much more confident appearance overall. These thin porcelain shells are designed to fit over just the front side of your natural teeth, hiding years of cosmetic imperfections behind a brand-new, representational replacement. They can correct chips, severe staining, gaps between teeth, and even misshapen dental structure.
When choosing traditional veneers, patients will most likely need to have a small amount of their natural tooth enamel removed by Dr. Freyne to make way for the new addition. This makes the procedure essentially permanent. As an alternative, patients can select Lumineers, which are even thinner (about the width of a contact lens) and can be placed without significantly altering the teeth, allowing for an extremely conservative cosmetic rehabilitation. Sometimes, no drilling is required! Our team will be happy to discuss each of these options with you during a consultation and help you determine which one fits your needs best.
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Cosmetic Tooth Bonding
If you only have a minor dental flaw to worry about, such as a small chip or spot of discoloration, direct bonding could provide the simple and effective correction you’re looking for. During this one-visit procedure, Dr. Freyne will use tooth-colored composite resin to cover the affected area, sculpting it into an attractive, lifelike shape that is then hardened into place with a curing light.
Direct coemtic tooth bonding is a very affordable cosmetic option when compared to other common offerings, but patients do need to keep in mind that the results are more likely to not last as long. Diligent oral hygiene and routine checkups can help extend the life of your bonding results, and Dr. Freyne is happy to perform touch-ups or repairs when needed.
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Metal-Free Dental Restorations
Certain patients will surely remember a time where having a tooth treated with an unnatural gold or silver-colored restoration was a certainty. While the addition improved oral health, the confident appearance of the smile was marred. Today, Dr. Freyne is happy to be able to conjoin high-quality materials and seamlessly lifelike aesthetics so that you can enjoy the best of both worlds. Our metal-free restorations are so natural-looking that they even reflect light in the same way as original tooth enamel. Better yet, they’re strong, comfortable, and much more biocompatible.
Teeth Whitening
Over time, most patients will become a victim of gradual tooth discoloration or noticeable staining. This can happen for a number of reasons, from innocent dietary choices to unavoidable factors like age and genetics. Instead of running to the local store for a lackluster whitening product, consider turning to our team for the professional and dedicated assistance you deserve. We offer both lightning-fast in-office whitening and convenient, effective take-home kits for patients who are ready to give their smile a boost.
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Smile Makeovers
If you have a variety of flaws that may require 2 or more of our amazing services above, you’re a great candidate for a smile makeover. By choosing this service, we can correct and repair numerous imperfections like discolored, chipped, cracked, broken, and decayed teeth. Your satisfaction is our main priority, which is why we allow patients to give their input, choosing the exact size, shape, and shade of their new smiles. This service is completely personalized to each patient, and our cosmetic dentist in Chevy Chase takes into account your specific needs. After examining your teeth, we will be able to develop a treatment plan that outlines exactly how we can give you the smile of your dreams.
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Understanding the Cost of Cosmetic Dentistry
While you might like to try cosmetic dentistry, maybe you fear it’s too pricey. That’s understandable – a treatment exceeding your budget isn’t exactly helpful. However, the cost of cosmetic dentistry actually varies by patient; you’ll need to consult Dr. Freyne for an exact estimate. At that point, our team can find ways to make care more affordable. We’ll even walk you through our available cosmetic services and financing options. If you’d like to learn how that works, keep reading or call our office today!
Which Cosmetic Dental Service is Right for Me?
If you’re like most patients, you want one (or more) of three things from cosmetic dentistry: whiter teeth, straighter teeth, or differently-shaped teeth. That said, our aesthetic treatments don’t accomplish these effects equally; their prices also differ. Given these facts, you should compare your choices before deciding anything. That being said, we provide the following cosmetic procedures:
- Cosmetic Tooth Bonding – Also known as dental bonding, this procedure uses tooth-colored resin to hide smile flaws. (It’s thus great at treating minor stains, chips, and cracks.) While fast and cheap, though, bonding’s effects aren’t long-lasting; they need touch-ups every few years.
- Teeth Whitening – Per its name, teeth whitening directly whitens your enamel. It works by applying bleaching gel that removes tooth stains. In exchange for its high effectiveness, however, whitening’s downsides are its moderate price and that it only affects tooth color.
- Metal-Free Dental Restorations – “Metal-Free” restorations are tooth-colored fillings and crowns made of ceramic and similar materials. Due to being durable and lifelike, they often get a tad expensive.
- Porcelain Veneers & Lumineers – Porcelain veneers are shells that bond to the fronts of teeth. While pricey, they’re excellent at hiding many smile flaws – stains, cracks, misalignments, and more. Meanwhile, Lumineers are non-porcelain veneers with less prep work than other kinds. That means they’re a bit cheaper than porcelain models.
Cosmetic Dentistry is a Worthwhile Investment
True enough, cosmetic dentistry can often get expensive; there’s no question about it. Even so, the fact remains that its treatments are worthwhile investments that pay off over time.
Ultimately, cosmetic dental work offers many priceless perks. One of these upsides is improved confidence, as patients feel more comfortable with a transformed smile. Yet another is how pretty teeth help you socialize, smoothing relationships with friends, family, and coworkers. An enhanced grin can even boost your career by improving first impressions with a boss. From there, you may land a promotion that pays for your treatment.
How to Make Cosmetic Dentistry Affordable
In the end, dental insurance usually doesn’t cover cosmetic dentistry. (Most plans consider aesthetic dental work “medically unnecessary” and unworthy of coverage.) Still, there are other ways to make it affordable. Notable among these alternatives are a dental practice’s payment options.
Consider Dr. Freyne’s office, for instance. We happen to offer flexible financing plans. Through them, you can slip up your treatment costs with interest-free payments. You could then cover the expense with a 3, 6, or 12-month installment plan.
Given the above, our office is eager to beautify your smile in a budget-friendly way. So, learn more about cosmetic dentistry by booking a consultation today!
Cosmetic Dentistry FAQs
Am I Eligible for a Cosmetic Procedure?
The state of your teeth and the rest of your mouth needs to be considered before we can decide whether a cosmetic procedure is right for you. While there are several different kinds of treatment you can get, in general you need to be in good oral health. That means that if you have gum disease or an infected tooth, it’ll need to be treated before you can start worrying about cosmetic treatments. That said, metal-free restorations and tooth bonding can be used for health reasons in addition to making cosmetic corrections.
How Long Will Teeth Whitening Last?
While professional teeth whitening can create dramatic results by getting rid of stains, it can’t prevent new stains from forming. Most of the time the effects of whitening last for about one or two years, with touch ups being required occasionally. You can make your new smile last longer by avoiding coffee, soda, tea, tomato sauce, blueberries and other foods and beverages that cause stains. If you can’t go without your morning coffee, you can at least minimize the amount of contact it has with your teeth by drinking it through a straw.
How Can I Take Care of Porcelain Veneers?
Veneers last an average of 5 to 15 years, but you’ll need to maintain them to maximize their lifespan. The good news is that this is a very simple matter. If you brush and floss like you normally would, you’ll keep your veneers clean and avoid gum disease in the surrounding area. You’ll also need to avoid habits that could damage or break your veneers; that means no crunching on ice, chewing on pen tips or other hard object, or opening containers with your teeth. If you play sports or grind your teeth at night, you might need to get a mouthguard.
Will Dental Insurance Pay for a Cosmetic Treatment?
Every insurance carrier has different policies on what they will and won’t cover. In general, your plan probably won’t pay for purely cosmetic treatments such as teeth whitening. However, if a cosmetic procedure also has health benefits, then your provider might see it as grounds for coverage. For example, if one of your teeth is broken, insurance will usually offer some coverage for a metal-free crown; this is because in addition to restoring the tooth’s appearance, it also prevents further damage and helps hold the structure together. We’ll always work with you to make sure you’re getting all the benefits you’re entitled to under your plan.