Dental Blog - Harley Street Dental Clinic

Relax…you’ve a smile to be proud of

When you aren’t happy with the way your teeth look, you might wonder what other people are thinking when you flash them a smile. That little bit of self-consciousness may be doing more harm than you realise, as you may be unable to fully relax and be yourself around other people. It’s not a good way to be, and yet smiles are easy to fix with a visit to the cosmetic dentist in Harley Street.

At Harley Street Dental Clinic in central London, we pride ourselves on our cosmetic dentistry treatments. When you come to see our cosmetic dentist in Harley Street, you have a team of highly experienced, skilled cosmetic dentists at your service.

A cosmetic dentist in Harley Street at our clinic has a deep understanding of what makes a great smile. It’s not just about having lovely, white even teeth, they also have to fit the jaw and face they are in, and harmonise with each other in size and shape.

A cosmetic dentist who does not fully grasp the ratios and harmonies required to make a great smile can give people teeth that look too big or too small in relation to each other or to the rest of the facial structure, creating an unnatural and potentially unflattering look.

With a cosmetic dentist in Harley Street, you can trust that you will have that beautiful smile you’ve been dreaming about. Whether you just want one tiny imperfection fixed, or you want to go for a full smile makeover, the dentist will want to have a good chat with you about your hopes before drawing up a written treatment plan.

Once you have agreed to the plan, which will include a schedule of appointments as well as costs, we can get going on the work. Some treatments, such as veneers, may only take one or two appointments. Others, such as cosmetic braces, can take several months or longer to complete.

Whatever you are having done, when you have completed your treatment, you will finally find out what it is to be able to smile spontaneously. We think you will love your new-found freedom.

Why do my gums hurt?

If you experience pain and other uncomfortable symptoms in your gums, chances are that you suffer from gum disease. Gum disease is a very common oral condition that affects many people around the world, but contrary to popular belief, it is not the only reason behind painful gums.

At Harley Street Dental Clinic, our dentist in W1 will examine your gums carefully and determine the exact cause of your discomfort. In some cases, gum pain and discomfort are temporary and will go away as soon as you follow the instructions of your dentist in W1.

Poor brushing techniques

There is a reason why most dentists recommend using a soft-bristled toothbrush and cleaning your teeth with sturdy but gentle circular movements. Teeth and gums are very sensitive and vigorous brushing can bruise your gums, causing them to become red, swollen or sore.

Mouth sores

Mouth sores (also known as canker sores) can appear in the mouth and the gums anytime. They are painful but they are not infectious. While we don’t know why they are caused, they probably result from viral or bacterial infections. Mouth sores disappear on their own after 2 weeks. If they last more than that, you should contact your dentist in W1 as soon as possible.

Allergic reactions

Have you ever thought that your gums are in pain because of an allergic reaction to oral hygiene products? Some people have allergic reactions to the ingredient of mouthwash or toothpaste and these can manifest in the gums. If your gums feel sensitive and/or sore after using a specific product, eliminate it from your routine and monitor the changes. You may also have sore gums because of an allergic reaction to certain foods.

Hormonal changes

For women, various hormonal changes throughout different phases of their life can affect their gums. For instance, shortly before menstruation, gums can become swollen and sensitive. Pregnant women can also develop a special type of gum disease during pregnancy which needs to be treated to prevent problems. Lastly, women undergoing menopause may experience dry, sore and/or bleeding gums.

If you notice gum pain and you don’t know how to explain it, book an appointment with your dentist in W1 today.

Straightening for sophisticates

It can be fun to look goofy every once in a while, but you wouldn’t want to look like a nerd for months on end, would you? Of course not. So, how are you going to get your teeth straightened and still maintain your professional, sophisticated image?

Invisalign in Harley Street At Harley Street Dental Clinic, we have one of the world’s most popular straightening treatments, which allows you to get that smile you have always wanted without having to compromise on your appearance.

It’s called Invisalign. In Harley Street, it’s what most people with mild to moderate alignment issues choose.

Invisalign in Harley Street is almost impossible to spot, which is why you may never have come across it before. All around you people have been getting their teeth straightened with this great device, more than 4 million and counting since it first came on the market in the late 1990s. You may not have noticed though because Invisalign clear aligners disappear from view when they are put on over the teeth.

One after the other

Resembling mouth guards, these clear aligners are made from extremely thin, transparent plastic. Inside each one are computer-placed pressure points that press on the teeth to get them to move. You receive a series of aligners and wear one after the other, each for 7-10 days. For the first few days, the aligner will feel like it does not fit, but, as the pressure points shift the teeth, the aligner will become increasingly comfortable. When it fits, it’s time for the next in the series.

Eating and cleaning

When you want to eat or drink anything other than plain water, you take out your aligner and put it in its carry case. You brush your teeth as normal before putting our aligner back in. Cleaning is important but not fiddly or time consuming.

Retainers

After you have completed your treatment with Invisalign in Harley Street, you will need to wear a retainer for a while. This is to keep your teeth in position while the bone and fibres holding your teeth in their socket settle down.

If you would like to find out more, we offer free consultations.

A healthy obsession with image

They say that today’s society is far too obsessed with how we look and not bothered enough with what lies beneath the surface. It is easy to get caught up in the endless ways to fiddle with imperfect looks, but how much difference does it really make?

Cosmetic Dentist in Harley Street Well, when it comes to smiles, you may be surprised to learn that good looks are actually very important, influencing how people feel about you when you first meet and how they make decisions that could affect your life.

You may think it’s all about your hair, but when someone meets you for the first time, it’s your smile they will notice. If you’ve got a good one, beaming warmth and friendliness, they will respond with equal warmth and openness. If you are ashamed of your teeth and don’t smile, they may not be so keen to get to know you.

So, next time you want to enhance your looks, make it your smile that gets the investment by bringing it along to the cosmetic dentist in Harley Street at Harley Street Dental Clinic.

At our large clinic, we have the expertise of more than one experienced cosmetic dentist in Harley Street. We also have the full range of treatments that can enhance every aspect of your smile.

You can have individual treatments or you can go for a smile makeover package.

For this, we start off with a consultation with the cosmetic dentist in Harley Street. You will be encouraged to tell them all about how you wish your smile could be improved and they will take an in-depth look at your smile and how it harmonises with your mouth and the rest of your face. You can look at possible treatments together.

The cosmetic dentist in Harley Street will use their findings to put together a treatment package, with a schedule and costings, for your approval.

The length of time the makeover will take will depend on what treatments you opt for. Cosmetic braces, for example, take a few months to work their magic.

Why not give us a call and come in for a chat about how we can help you get the smile you’ve always wanted?

Why do people seek dental care?

Studies have shown that only a small percentage of the population sees the dentist on a regular basis. Most people will visit the dentist if it’s absolutely necessary and in some cases this may lead to extensive and expensive dental treatments.

But why do so many people avoid visiting the dentist? The answer is not simple. At Harley Street Dental Clinic, your trusted dental clinic in W1, we appreciate that many of our patients are busy but sacrificing your oral health is not the ideal solution. With a little bit of readiness for action and a sense of prevention, you can avoid unpleasant surprises.

Our experienced dentists will examine your teeth and gums carefully, remove plaque, polish your teeth and inform you of all the treatments available in our dental clinic in W1.

Prevention is better than cure

Ideally, people should visit the dentist at least twice a year to ensure that their teeth and gums are clean and healthy. Some people, in particular, are more susceptible to visiting the dentist frequently because they have had bad experiences with dental problems in the past which result in complicated and expensive treatments. If more people were conscious of their oral health and were aware of the benefits of preventive dentistry, then frequent dental visits would be the rule rather than the exception.

Witnessing the consequences of an oral problem

Some people will visit our dental clinic in W1 only after they realise that their condition requires dental care and treatment. Symptoms such as pain or interference with daily life are important enough to motivate an individual to seek dental help. In most cases, dental treatment can help alleviate pain and control a dental condition, no matter how late a patient decides to visit our dental clinic in W1. However, early intervention will usually save you time and money in the long run.

Benefits of regular dental care

In order for a patient to take action and start caring about their oral health, they need to know about the benefits of diligent oral care. Our experienced dental team at Harley Street Dental Clinic will show you a wide range of effective ways to take good care of your teeth and gums.

Rooted replacement teeth

The big problem for makers of artificial teeth is how to get them to stay still. Dentures adhere to the gums, bridges are fixed to neighbouring teeth. Neither is an ideal solution. What teeth need are roots. Just like trees, they need to be anchored into the bone beneath if they are to withstand the powerful forces created by chewing.

Dental Implants in Harley Street But finding root material is not easy. The human immune system is there to protect us from invaders this includes artificial tooth roots. However, all that changed back in the 1950s, when a Swedish scientist discovered that the body treats titanium in a super-friendly way, and titanium tooth roots were invented.

Today, dental implants in Harley Street have become most people’s first choice if they have to replace teeth. At Harley Street Dental Clinic, we regularly transform people’s lives by giving them back their full chewing power and teeth that look as natural as the ones they lost.

Getting dental implants in Harley Street

The process starts off with an in-depth consultation, where we look at your teeth and also at your jawbone, which needs to be in good condition if it’s going to support metal screws used for chewing. If your jawbone has deteriorated, it’s possible to improve it with bone grafts and sinus lifts, or we can use very long implants that anchor into your cheekbones.

We draw up a detailed treatment plan, with costings and a time schedule, so that you know how the treatment is going to pan out. You will also be encouraged to ask as many questions as you like. It’s important to feel comfortable about getting dental implants in Harley Street.

The procedure

We insert dental implants using a local anaesthetic. This is plenty to numb the jawbone, which has few nerves in it. It can’t make you less anxious though, so we offer oral or intravenous sedation to nervous patients.

After the treatment, you will need to wait up to 6 months for your implants to integrate with your jawbone before you will be up to full chewing power.

Want more information? Why not come in for a chat?

Tooth life and straightness

Probably one of the most important things you can do for your teeth and those of your children is to make sure they are well aligned and that your jaws are too.

Very few people in the modern world have naturally straight teeth, so you may need the help of orthodontics in Harley Street to get that well aligned smile.

Here at Harley Street Dental Clinic in central London, we have dentists who are highly experienced in orthodontics in Harley Street. They are ready and waiting to give you teeth that will last longer than wonky ones.

Why do straight teeth last longer?

The main enemy of teeth is bacterial plaque, which gives off acids that cause tooth decay and gum disease. Both of them eventually lead to tooth loss if they are not treated.

Plaque builds up on teeth and needs to be removed twice a day with your toothbrush. But it’s hard to reach some of the places it hides out if you have wonky teeth. Straight teeth are much easier to keep free from plaque.

Also, when teeth are not aligned properly, one or two of them can tend to take the brunt of the powerful forces created by chewing, especially if you also grind your teeth at night, which is not unusual with malocclusions. Years of being chewed on harder than the surrounding teeth can make them crumble away in later life. And then you get into a whole new realm of tooth replacement, which can be as expensive, if not more so, than getting your teeth straightened.

Bring your teeth in for a consultation

The best to way find out what orthodontics in Harley Street at our dental clinic can do to straighten out your smile is to come in for a consultation. If you are an adult brought up in the UK, you will probably only need cosmetic braces, otherwise you would have had your teeth straightened on the NHS as a child.

Bring your child in from around age 7 for an orthodontic check-up. We can start treatment at age 9 and have it all done and out of the way by the time they turn into a self-conscious teenager.

Different ways we can help you keep your teeth

Tooth decay and gum disease: these are the 2 main culprits behind the vast majority of people’s dental problems, but they are not the only ones. Teeth can fail for other reasons. They can crumble away from too much grinding. Bad breath may be an issue. Plus, there are other problems that patients come to their dentist in Harley Street for help with.

Dentist in Harley Street At Harley Street Dental Clinic in London, we offer a range of services to help you keep your natural teeth in great working order for as long as possible. Whereas, in the past, dentists seemed all too keen to pull out teeth, the mantra of the modern dentist in ‘teeth for life’. And that’s our mantra too.

Here are a number of treatments from the dentist in Harley Street that can help you make your natural teeth last as long as possible.

Scale and polish

Generally speaking, you get a scale and polish twice a year at the dentist in Harley Street. The hygienist will use tools to remove any plaque that has hardened into tartar and then polish your teeth to make it harder for plaque to stick to your teeth. Getting plaque removed is the most important thing you can do to preserve your teeth, as it is the acids in plaque that eat away at your tooth enamel, inflame the gums and attack your tooth roots and jawbone.

Grinding

People who grind their teeth at night (known as bruxism) can, over the years, wear them down and even cause them to crumble. Maybe your partner hears you grinding your tooth and can alert you. If not, watch out for sore jaws, headaches and achy teeth. We can protect your teeth by making you a bite guard to wear at night.

Bad breath

This may be indicative of trapped food or something more serious affecting the health of your teeth. Come along for an investigation, but don’t hide your bad breath with fresheners when you do.

Cosmetic braces

Teeth that are well aligned are easier to keep clean, and with well aligned teeth, chewing forces are evenly distributed. Cosmetic braces not only make your teeth look good but they can make them last longer too.

New teeth, new life

Getting older can feel like one thing after another going wrong with the body with no prospect of getting it to work as well as it used to. You’ve got glasses on your nose for reading, plastic in your ear for hearing, no hair on your head and now your teeth are coming to the end of their life too. What with the hearing aid, the glasses and now the dentures, soon there won’t be any room on your bedside table for the lamp and a glass of water.

Dental Implants in Harley Street Well, at Harley Street Dental Clinic in Harley Street, we are here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be that way as far as your teeth are concerned. Sure, you may be finding that some, or even all of your beloved food processors are coming to the end of their life, but you can replace them with something equally as good if you have dental implants fitted.

What’s so great about dental implants?

Dental implants are different from dentures because when you have them fitted, they don’t come out again. Dental implants are inserted into the jawbone where they fuse with the bone, replacing the roots of your teeth. These little titanium posts then have new crowns made of dental porcelain attached on top.

People say that dental implants are expensive, and they certainly cost more than dentures, it’s true. But for every dental implant you have put in, you can have 3 crowns on a bridge. So, if you need to have an entire arch of teeth replaced, you can do it on relatively few implants. There is a way to get an entire arch fitted on just 4 implants, which really brings the cost down.

Also, you can expect your dental implants to last for at least 15 years, very possibly for decades. All you have to do is take good care of them with diligent brushing and flossing to remove any plaque. Your dental implants can’t decay, but if you let plaque cause gum disease, they can become loose and fall out.

Want to find out more? Why not give us a call and come in for an exploratory chat?

Don’t let it happen in the first place

If you could, wouldn’t you like to end your days with all your teeth intact and still biting and chewing away? As dental research advances, this is becoming increasingly possible at the dental clinic in W1. We dentists have a modern mantra that is ‘teeth for life’, whereby, instead of taking all your teeth out and fitting you with dentures, as was popular in the mid-20^th century, we now do all we can to allow you to have strong, healthy teeth for as long as possible.

At Harley Street Dental Clinic, we have a range of treatments that come under the umbrella of preventive dentistry. Some are for kids, some are for older people. Let’s take a look at what’s on offer at this dental clinic in W1 now:

Keep it clean

The root cause of many dental woes is bacterial plaque. This builds up on your teeth between brushing, building up quicker when you eat or drink sugary things. Dental hygiene is mostly done at home, but it is also important to have regular deep cleans at the dental clinic in W1. The hygienist removes any build-up of plaque that you haven’t been able to reach.

Keeping gums healthy

Having healthy gums is vital for keeping your teeth. Gum disease is caused by plaque and if it has gone beyond its early stages, we will need to treat it so that it doesn’t begin to erode your tooth roots and jawbone.

Breath of a dragon?

If you have bad breath, it is important not to ignore it but to find out what’s causing it. Try upping your dental hygiene routine, but if that doesn’t work, bring your bad breath to us and we will try to find out what’s causing it. It could be trapped food going rotten or a symptom of an illness.

Sore jaw?

If you are waking up with a headache or an ache in your face or jaw, then you could be well grinding your teeth in your sleep. If grinding goes on for some time, the teeth start to crumble and fall away. We can help prevent this by making you a bite guard to wear while you sleep.

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