Your smile is an important personal characteristic that conveys volumes of information about who you are. Confidence, friendliness, youthfulness, trust and health are all traits that are seen in a smile.
Feel free to browse the services below or just give us a call at 775-465-2388. You can also request an appointment or contact us and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
Looking for Teeth Whitening in Smith? Yearning for a bright youthful smile?
Smith Valley Smiles offers a full range of cosmetic dentistry including professional teeth whitening. Teeth whitening is the #1 requested and performed cosmetic dental procedure. Teeth whitening (sometimes called teeth bleaching) is a procedure that brightens teeth and helps to remove stains and discoloration.
Throughout the day, a thin coating of bio-film collect on teeth. The bio-film can attract stains that can be trapped in the pores of tooth's enamel.
Teeth whitening by a dental professional is key as cavities need to be treated before teeth are whitened. Cavities are problematic because whitening solution can penetrate the cavity allowing decay to reach inner areas of a tooth. People with good dental health may also use a kit to whiten teeth at home. However, in a single office visit, teeth whitening performed by a dental professional will produce brighter results that are more consistent in color across all teeth.
Opalescence Boost features a unique, chemically activated formula that allows your dentist to whiten your teeth without the bothersome heat or ultraviolet rays of a light. Opalescence Boost also contains potassium nitrate and fluoride, which help to improve oral health by strengthening enamel, decreasing sensitivity, and offering increased cavity prevention.
Opalescence Take Home Whitening Gels are only available from your dentist, who will supervise your treatment from initial consultation through completion. The sticky, viscous gel won't migrate to gums and most formulations include Potassium Fluoride (PF), which helps to improve oral health by strengthening enamel, decreasing sensitivity and offering increased cavity prevention.
The most common type of home teeth whitening involves placing a gel-like whitening solution, which usually contains hydrogen peroxide, in a tray that resembles a Nightguard or mouth guard. Over-the-counter mouthpieces are unlikely to fit correctly and can cause gum irritation if the whitening agent seeps out. The tray is then placed over the teeth for a certain period of time, anywhere from an hour or two to overnight.
1 - Preparation We start the whitening process by covering your lips and gums leaving only your teeth exposed. At this time, we can usually estimate how white your new smile will be by matching your teeth with a whitening shade and estimate approximately up to 8 shades whiter from here.
2 - Application Next a high-strength whitening gel is applied to the surfaces of your teeth. This special gel is specifically designed to work with the whitening light.
3 - Whitening The whitening light is placed directly in front of your teeth to maximize exposure to the gel. The special light activates the gel which gently penetrates the outer-most (enamel) layer of your teeth; breaking up stains and discoloration during the process.
4 - Smile Smile with confidence as you leave the office with a brighter, whiter smile!
If you are thinking about whitening your teeth and would like to try our whitening service, call us anytime at 775-465-2388 or request an appointment online and come see what it's all about!
Very little preparation is necessary for dental bonding and anesthesia is generally not required beforehand. We will use a shade guide to select a composite resin color that most closely matches the color of your existing teeth.
The surface of your tooth will be etched and a special cleaning/conditioning solution will be applied to allow the bonding resin to adhere to your tooth. Next, we will apply the bonding resin which is putty-like in consistency and can be molded into the desired shape necessary for your specific situation. Once the resin has been properly placed, molded and smoothed, we will use a special ultraviolet light that quickly hardens the resin.
After the resin has hardened completely, we will be able to fine-tune the shape of the resin as well as polish the material until it matches the sheen and overall texture of your natural teeth.
The entire process may take between 30 minutes to an hour to complete depending on your application requirements and how severe the initial issue was.
A filling is a way to restore a decay damaged tooth back to its normal function and shape. When you get a filling, the dentist will removed the decayed material from the tooth, clean the affected area, and then fill the area with a material deisgned for fillings. There are many types of filling material avaialbe ranging from gold to porcelain.
If your smile is in need of a makeover, crowns can provide predictable results. Crowns can give an unattractive tooth back its beautiful shape and color. For smaller or worn down teeth, a crown can restore the natural size of the old tooth. A crown can replace either part of or the tooth's entire structure. For procedures requiring only the areas visible from the outside, a veneer may be an alternative option.
Because our office can provide a dental crown in a single dental appointment, we do things a little different than other dental offices. We can skip the temporary molds and the time it takes to have a dental lab fabricate your final crown.
1. We start the crown procedure by reducing the overall size of the tooth that's in need of a dental crown. Shaving off existing tooth structure allows for the new crown to fit properly and it also creates a foundation for the new crown to be bonded to.
2. Next, using our state-of-the-art CEramic REConstruction (CEREC) system, we will digitally scan the section of your mouth that has been prepared for the crown. This is done by using a special wand that can be easily positioned in your mouth to ensure an extremely accurate digital representation of the restoration area.
3. We will now be able to see a high-resolution 3D representation of the area and start to design a new crown that will fit perfectly over the prepared tooth. Our patients often love getting to see us create a new tooth for them in real time, right there on the screen.
4. Once the digital representation of the new crown has been created on the computer, we will send it off to our in-house milling machine. We place a block of porcelain that has been color-matched to the shade of your existing tooth into the milling machine and run the program. This amazing machine robotically fabricates a perfect crown restoration that is ready to be placed over the prepared tooth at this time. This crown is the final crown and NOT a temporary crown which means you have just received a new dental crown in a single dental appointment.
Veneers are a thin, semi-transparent tooth shaped "shell" that are custom made of porcelain. They are permanently bonded to your natural teeth which are located in your "smile zone" to enhance their shape, color, length or size. Veneers can fix gaps between teeth and/or improve the appearance of teeth that are discolored, misshaped or misaligned.
1 - The teeth are cleaned and any old surface restorations are removed.
2 - An impression is taken of the prepped tooth and sent to a lab where the veneer is fabricated.
3 - The veneer is applied with bonding resin and a curing light.
4 - After the veneer is set, it is shaped and polished to look like a natural tooth.
The 'gold' standard. Dental gold is about 60% gold alloy which is meant to match the hardness of the enamel of opposing teeth so both wear about evenly, an important trait. Gold does not tarnish or corrode and has some bacterial-inhibiting quality. Gold crowns are strong and will not break. However, gold crowns obviously are not considered aesthetic; they are gold colored. Usually, gold crowns are used for lower back molars because they aren't as noticeable.
The most common type of crown and has a proven track record. PFM crowns are fairly aesthetic and they look like real teeth. However, the margins or borders may appear dark because PFM crowns have a metal substructure with layers of porcelain fired over the substructure. Porcelain is very hard, much harder than natural enamel and may cause excessive wear of the enamel of opposing teeth. Porcelain may break with extreme biting forces.
Stainless steel crowns, also known as 'silver crowns or caps', are a very common procedure used to restore 'baby teeth' (and occasionally permanent teeth) that have large caries or those that had a pulpotomy (baby root canal). Although most teeth can be filled with a white or silver filling material, stainless steel crowns are by far the most predictable and durable option to fix 'baby teeth' with large caries, large defects, or damaged enamel. This is particularly true in very young children that have caries at a young age, since it is preferred that the 'fixed' teeth last as long as possible.
We have bilingual services available.
775-465-2388