Cosmetic dentistry is generally used to refer to any dental work that improves the appearance of teeth, gums and/or bite. It primarily focuses on improvement in dental aesthetics in color, position, shape, size, alignment and overall smile appearance. Many dentists refer to themselves as "cosmetic dentists" regardless of their specific education, specialty, training, and experience in this field. This has been considered unethical with a predominant objective of marketing to patients. The American Dental Association does not recognize cosmetic dentistry as a formal specialty area of dentistry. However, there are still dentists that promote themselves as cosmetic dentists.
A crown, sometimes known as dental cap, is a type of dental restoration which completely caps or encircles a tooth or dental implant. Crowns are often needed when a large cavity threatens the ongoing health of a tooth. They are typically bonded to the tooth using a dental cement. Crowns can be made from many materials, which are usually fabricated using indirect methods. Crowns are often used to improve the strength or appearance of teeth. While inarguably beneficial to dental health, the procedure and materials can be relatively expensive.
Prosthodontics, also known as dental prosthetics or prosthetic dentistry, is the area of dentistry that focuses on dental prostheses. It is one of nine dental specialties recognized by the American Dental Association (ADA), Royal College of Surgeons of England, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, Royal College of Surgeons of Glasgow, Royal College of Dentists of Canada, and Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons. The ADA defines it as "the dental specialty pertaining to the diagnosis, treatment planning, rehabilitation and maintenance of the oral function, comfort, appearance and health of patients with clinical conditions associated with missing or deficient teeth or oral and maxillofacial tissues using biocompatible substitutes."
The UCLA School of Dentistry is the dental school of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) located in the Center for Health Sciences building in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. The school has several educational and training programs, conducts oral and dental health research, and offers affordable dental care at three locations: Westwood, Venice, and Inglewood. The school also participates in several outreach endeavors, including numerous health fairs during the year, STEM pipeline programs and provides dental care for underserved populations in the region. The School of Dentistry is considered among the nation's best research-intensive dental schools.
In dentistry, a veneer is a layer of material placed over a tooth, veneers improve the aesthetics of a smile and/or protect the tooth's surface from damage.
A dental auxiliary is any of the dentist's supporting team who helps with dental treatment. They include dental assistants, dental therapists, dental hygienists and dental technologists. The role of dental auxiliaries is usually limited by regional dental regulations, which help define the boundaries of treatment that can be performed.
A denturist in the United States and Canada, clinical dental technologist in the United Kingdom or a dental prosthetist in Australia, is a member of the oral health care team and role as primary practitioner who provides an oral health examination, planning treatment, takes impressions of the surrounding oral tissues, constructs and delivers removable oral prosthesis treatment directly to the patient.
Dental tourism is a subset of the sector known as medical tourism. It involves individuals seeking dental care outside their local healthcare systems and may be accompanied by a vacation. Dental tourism is growing worldwide; as the world becomes ever more interdependent and competitive, technique, material, and technological advances spread rapidly, allowing providers in developing countries to provide dental care at significant cost savings when compared to their peers in the developed world.
Dentistry throughout the world is practiced differently, and training in dentistry varies as well.
The American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (AACD), founded in December 1984 by Dr. Jack Kammer and Dr. Jeff Morley, is the world's largest organization for cosmetic dental professionals.
Adhesive dentistry is a branch of dentistry which deals with adhesion or bonding to the natural substance of teeth, enamel and dentin. It studies the nature and strength of adhesion to dental hard tissues, properties of adhesive materials, causes and mechanisms of failure of the bonds, clinical techniques for bonding and newer applications for bonding such as bonding to the soft tissue. There's also direct composite bonding which uses tooth-colored direct dental composites to repair various tooth damages such as cracks or gaps.
Pediatric dentistry is the branch of dentistry dealing with children from birth through adolescence. The specialty of pediatric dentistry is recognized by the American Dental Association, Royal College of Dentists of Canada, and Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons.
Irwin Elliot Smigel was an American aesthetic dentist, innovator and philanthropist.
Dentistry provided by the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom was originally intended to ensure that dental treatment is available to the whole population. However, for dentistry it has been limited centrally for some time, struggling to even see 55% of the population in a one-year period. Unlike medical care, charges are made to most people. In England, a new but experimental target system of UDAs was imposed by government on 1 April 2006, but by 2008 the Parliamentary Health Select Committee investigation found the UDAs were unfit for purpose. Dentists act as private contractors to the NHS, which, simply put, means the dentists buy the building and equip the surgery, hire all the staff and pay all of the running costs including wages, materials and insurances, to provide an NHS dental service.
Single Visit Dentistry is a recent technologically enabled phenomenon in dentistry that allows crowns, veneers, inlays and onlays, bridges, and implant restorations to be fabricated within the duration of a single dental appointment. Traditionally these procedures take upwards of two appointments, but as more dental offices are investing in digital Chair-side technology, the term 'Single Visit Dentistry' is becoming commonplace rhetoric among industry experts and scholars.
Tibor Botos is the founder and owner of the Tibor Dental London dental agency and of PlanMaster 3D dental software.
