No need to advertise with invisible braces in Harley Street

Time was, if you wanted to realign your teeth to create a better-looking smile, you had to endure months, perhaps years, of embarrassing metal braces that everyone would comment on.

Remember the Jaws years? Everyone who needed to have their teeth realigned or bite corrected was saddled with the name of a metal-toothed bad guy from James Bond?

Invisible Braces in Harley StreetJaws not only stopped people going in the water, but also put many adults off even seeking braces, let alone wearing them. Unable to bear the braces, people instead suffered silently, laughing and smiling with their hands over their mouths.

But thanks to major advances in braces research, more and more adults are seeking out invisible braces in Harley Street, glad to finally be able to go through the process of having their teeth realigned.

At Harley Street Dental Clinic, in Harley Street, invisible braces can transform your smile more quickly and less painfully than ever before. Our invisible braces come courtesy of a system called Invisalign.

How does Invisalign work?

Invisalign uses a system of clear plastic trays, rather than brackets fixed to the teeth with wire strung between them. These trays are custom-made for you, after an initial consultation with us, during which we will fully examine your mouth and then plot the progress your teeth will need to turn them into your dream smile. You can see how this will happen with our computer simulation of your teeth moving into alignment.

You wear each tray for a week to 10 days. During that time the tray applies gentle forces to guide your teeth into a new position. Once the teeth have reached that position, you start using the next tray in the series of invisible braces.

As these invisible braces are transparent and fit so snugly over your teeth, no one will be able to see them unless they look very closely.

And, unlike traditional metal braces, these invisible braces are removable, so you can eat and brush your teeth without your aligners getting in the way. Plus, if you want utter discretion, such as for an interview or party, you can remove the trays for a few hours.

Don’t let your smile trip you up

If you want to make the best of those first vital few seconds of meeting someone, then you need to make sure that a great smile is at your command. It can make all the difference to how you are perceived when people first meet you.

If you are at a crossroads in your life, perhaps a big career move or you are starting out again in the relationship department, then ensuring you have a smile to dazzle with can tip the balance in your favour.

Dentist in Harley StreetNot only does a good smile impress others, it can make all the difference to your self-confidence. Here at Harley Street Dental Clinic in London, we can give you a smile makeover to refresh your entire look.

Each cosmetic dentist at our dental clinic has been trained in the most modern methods for bringing out the best in your smile. Dr Mary Shenouda has a special interest in conservative dentistry, and her colleague, Harley Street dentist Dr Abel Moreira is our designated cosmetic dentist.

When you come for a consultation, we will talk you through the various ways to rejuvenate your teeth, whether they have been chipped and worn, are discoloured or even gappy or crowded.

Your Harley Street dentist can offer a range of treatments to help you create the perfect smile, including:

  • Filling new cavities or replacing old amalgam filling with white composite fillings;
  • Teeth whitening to bring back the beauty of discoloured or stained teeth;
  • Porcelain veneers which provide an instant makeover by covering broken, stained or misaligned teeth;
  • Cosmetic dentures, custom-made to match your own gums and blend with your natural teeth;
  • Reshaping the gums in a laser procedure that lifts gums with little or no bleeding;
  • Dental implants, the permanent solutions to missing teeth.

The aim of the cosmetic dentist in Harley Street is to create a balanced smile that is in proportion to your face, using the shape, colour, size and alignment of your teeth to make the most of your features. You will be able to see what we recommend with our 3D computer imaging technology, before you commit to any treatment.

Get your kids ready for teeth for life

If you want to set up life-long behaviours in your kids, you need to start in early childhood. That’s why, at Harley Street Dental Clinic, we believe that it’s best to start them on visits to our dental clinic in W1 as soon as you can.

We want to get your children into good dental habits because we know the serious and extensive effects of untreated dental decay. We recommend that you start bringing your children for check-ups from the age of 12 months.

W1 Dental ClinicWhen their first teeth are through, we recommend fluoride applications to safeguard against decay. At the dental clinic in W1, our dentists paint the fluoride onto the teeth to help mineralise them. We also use tooth-coloured fissure sealants, applying them to the biting surface of the teeth as a way to prevent decay.

As well as fighting against decay, we need to be able to keep an eye on the development of your children’s teeth and jaws so that we can diagnose bite problems early on. Early treatment can prevent them from developing.

Dedicated care with Professor Raman Bedi

Your child will be in good hands at our W1 dental clinic. Dentistry for children at our clinic is headed by Professor Raman Bedi. He is particularly experienced in treating children from the Middle East who need full mouth reconstruction because of dental decay. Professor Raman is chairman of the Global Child Dental Fund and co-chair of a committee of international experts on caries prevention and management. He was Chief Dental Officer of England between 2002 and 2005 and has published over 170 scientific paper and four books.

A solid team

Our other paediatric dentists are Dr Dania Siddik, who also holds a post at Guy’s and St Thomas Hospital. Ms Siddik is especially interested in the areas of managing dental injuries and sedation and general anaesthesia for anxious children. Dr Ahmed Abdullah is our other paediatric dentist in London. He is greatly interested in treating the dental injuries suffered by the under 16s which require restorative or mini-surgical dental treatments. He is also passionate about teaching children about oral hygiene as a way to prevent visits to the dentist in London.

Keeping well-nourished with dental implants in Harley Street

As we age, it becomes ever more important to be able to absorb as many nutrients as possible. The body naturally starts becoming less and less able to produce important compounds from around the age of 30. You can see it most easily in your skin, where loss of production of collagen and elastin make it thinner and less bouncy.

Yes, you can take supplements but being able to eat nourishing food is vitally important for bodily health, and so often nourishing food needs chewing, a lot. We are constantly being urged to increase our intake of fresh fruit and vegetables, nuts, protein and complex carbs, all of which need a good chew if we are to be able to absorb the nutrients within them as they pass through our gut.

Dental Implants in Harley StreetAnd guess what we need for chewing? Yes, we need teeth that stay in one place. And the only way to be sure of a good chew when you have lost teeth is to get them replaced with dental implants. In Harley Street, at Harley Street Dental Clinic, we can use dental implants to replace one, some or all of your teeth.

You need roots to chew

Chewing nourishing food requires teeth that are well anchored into the jawbone, so that they can withstand pressures of up to 97kg or 200lbs, the force of the average male chew.

Dentures can only offer about a quarter of this force and as time goes by after fitting, they tend to start sliding around in the mouth. Bridges require adjacent healthy teeth to be ground down to act as buttresses. In Harley Street, dental implants outperform both traditional tooth replacement methods by being integrated with the jawbone, just like natural tooth roots.

No foods are off the menu with dental implants. They also keep the jawbone strong and healthy by acting as the transmitters for tremors that tell the jawbone to keep renewing itself.

To find out more about how dental implants in Harley Street can help you, why not come in for a consultation? We’d love to help you get your mouth back to full functionality.

There’s no age limit to beautiful straight teeth with clear braces in Harley Street

Many people think that once a person gets beyond, say, about 20 years old, it’s too late to get their teeth straightened, and their teeth are now permanently locked into place in their jaw. But at Harley Street Dental Clinic, we know the truth: your teeth can be repositioned in the jaw no matter how old you are.

In fact, the reason why, until recently, almost all adults would not even consider wearing braces, was because of the embarrassment factor associated with ‘a mouth full of metal’.

Clear Braces in Harley StreetNow, however, you no longer have to choose between feeling self-conscious about your crooked, misaligned or crowded teeth and feeling self-conscious about heavy metal braces to correct them. This is because the technology of teeth straightening is always moving forward, and now you can have clear braces in Harley Street, or braces that are positioned in the mouth so as to be almost unnoticeable.

Invisalign

Clear braces in Harley Street come to you courtesy of Invisalign. Invisalign technology doesn’t even use braces, but custom-made transparent trays that fit over your teeth and gradually and gently shift them into their new position. The trays are made from smooth, comfortable BPA-free plastic that will not irritate your gums and cheeks. Your dentist will take pin-point accurate measurements of your teeth using a handheld scanner. Then they will create a computer-generated movie of your teeth moving into alignment. From these measurements and plans, your aligners are made. Each tray in the series uses gentle forces to take your teeth one step along the road to straightening out. You wear each tray for between 20 and 22 hours a day, taking it out to eat and clean your teeth. The average treatment time is one year.

Lingual braces

Lingual braces fit on the inside of the teeth, next to the tongue, rather than on the outer surface, where everyone can see them. We use a system from Incognito, which many consider to be the ultimate in lingual braces. Not only are they individually designed for each patient, but the braces are made from gold alloy so that people with nickel allergies can use them.

Bridge the generation gap

If you are into teeth as much as we are at Harley Street Dental Clinic, you will have noticed that a divide between those who have great smiles and those who don’t. Very often it’s a generation thing. If you are under about 35, chances are you will have a great smile. But if you are over 35, you will have grown up during a time when cosmetic dentistry was less available and affordable than it is now.

If looking as young and healthy as you can is important to you, then it might be time to take a trip to the cosmetic dentist in Harley Street.

Cosmetic Dentist in Harley StreetIt’s not just about vanity

If you are older then you might think that having a lovely smile with straight, pearly white, flawless teeth is pure vanity and that might be stopping you investing in appointments with the cosmetic dentist in Harley Street.

Actually, teeth that are straight and imperfection-free are easier to keep free from plaque and therefore likely to last longer. So, in fact, investing in how your teeth look is also an investment in your health.

Here are a few treatments available from the cosmetic dentist in Harley Street that can make your teeth last longer and look better.

Braces

The best way to extend the life of your teeth is to make sure they line up well together along your jawbones. This makes it much easier to keep your teeth clean with brushing, flossing and hygienist visits. Plaque loves to hide in nooks and crannies and the acid it exudes can eat through your tooth enamel to create decay, and also irritate your gums and lead to gum disease. The endgame with both problems is tooth loss, and then you are into a whole new realm of dentistry and expense.

White fillings

Don’t they look great? And what’s more they are better for your teeth. White fillings require far less healthy tooth material to be removed than amalgam, plus they actually bond with your teeth, so there’s no chance of bacteria sneaking in under your filling where it meets your tooth. White fillings can also be sculpted to recreate the bumps and valleys of the chewing surface of a natural tooth.

Know before you go – endodontics in Harley Street

When we think of teeth, we most often picture the visible part of them, also known as the crowns. But there is much more to our teeth than what is visible on the surface. Deep inside our teeth are tiny, cavern-like passages called canals that contain sensitive tissue, including blood vessels and nerves. Treating the soft tissue inside the tooth, also known as the pulp, is the primary concern of endodontics.

Endodontics in Harley StreetAt Harley Street Dental Clinic in Harley Street, endodontics are an important part of our dental care. Our qualified endodontists have two additional years of education and specialised training in the care and treatment of tooth pulp and the inner parts of the tooth. They work closely with the rest of our dentists to improve your oral health and restore your natural teeth.

What is a root canal treatment?

Root canal treatment involves the removal of the contaminated pulp along with the tooth’s nerve, both of which are located within the tooth’s root canal. The pulp chamber and root canal of your tooth are then cleaned, sterilised and sealed. A dental crown or other restorative option will be used to protect and strengthen the tooth.

Why get a root canal treatment?

Endodontics in Harley Street can save a severely injured, cracked, or decayed tooth when its soft inner tissue becomes inflamed or infected. If the tooth is not treated on time, pain or infection can occur leading to tooth loss.

Root canal treatment is a fairly simple procedure and is usually completed in one or two appointments, depending on the presence of infection and the required treatment plan. After restoration, your tooth will continue to function like any other tooth. With good oral hygiene and regular check-ups, your restored tooth can last a lifetime.

Do not neglect your teeth

If you have an ordinary toothache or tooth sensitivity, you should book an appointment with one of our dentists as soon as possible. Your problem could be simply tooth decay or a loose filling. However, it is possible that you may be in need of root canal treatment. In this case, immediate dental care is needed.

Sensitive teeth – causes and treatment

When you have sensitive teeth, daily activities, such as brushing, flossing, eating and drinking, can cause sharp, sudden pain in your teeth. Sensitive teeth can be caused by worn tooth enamel or exposed tooth roots, but can also be the result of cavities or cracked and chipped teeth.

Sensitive teeth can only be adequately treated by a dentist. At Harley Street Dental Clinic, we will examine your teeth thoroughly to find out what is causing the sensitivity and will find the best way of treating it. Depending on the cause of your sensitive teeth, your dentist in W1 may suggest different treatments.

Dentist in W1What causes sensitive teeth?

Sensitive teeth can be caused by several dental issues. The most common include worn tooth enamel, tooth erosion caused by highly acidic foods and beverages, gum recession that leaves the surface of your tooth roots exposed as well as teeth grinding. Other causes include cracked, chipped and filled teeth or post-treatment sensitivity, which is usually temporary.

What can your dentist in W1 do?

Having a conversation with your dentist is the first step in determining the cause behind your discomfort. Describe your symptoms, let your dentist know when the pain started and tell them if anything makes you feel better.

After they determine the reason for your sensitive teeth, they will create a treatment plan. Treatment may be as simple as using an antibacterial mouthwash, fixing a cavity or replacing a worn filling. However, if sensitive teeth are the result of exposed root surfaces, your dentist in W1 may suggest a gum graft or root canal treatment. If you are suffering from sensitive teeth due to teeth grinding, your dentist can take impressions of your teeth and then used them to create a mouth guard that you can wear during the night.

Shield your teeth against sensitivity

To prevent sensitive teeth from recurring, your dentist will offer advice to help you maintain your oral health. Brush and floss your teeth gently at least twice a day and make sure to use a fluoride toothpaste. You might also consider limiting acidic foods and drinks, such as carbonated drinks and citrus fruits, which can eat away small amounts of tooth enamel over time.

All you need to know about invisible braces in Harley Street

Whether you missed getting braces as a teenager or went through a treatment but forgot to wear your retainer, you may feel that your teeth are not quite in the state you would like them to be. Luckily, today, there are many teeth straightening treatments available that will help you achieve a beautiful smile without sacrificing your appearance.

At Harley Street Dental Clinic, we offer a wide variety of invisible braces in Harley Street, including lingual braces. Lingual braces look just like fixed braces but they are ingeniously placed behind your teeth for discreetness. Just like regular braces, lingual braces are capable of treating the vast majority of misaligned teeth.

Invisible Braces in Harley StreetWhat are lingual braces?

Lingual braces are fixed behind the teeth, opposite the tongue. A great solution for closing gaps, correcting crooked teeth, and even solving more complex issues such as jaw problems, lingual braces can help you carrying on smiling while you are having treatment.

How do they work?

Lingual brackets are usually made of stainless steel or gold alloy. Depending on the type you choose, your brackets might be standard sized or custom-made to fit your teeth. Your dentist will fix your brackets in place using a special dental cement. This should keep them in place for the duration of your treatment, allowing your dentist to remove them easily once your treatment is over.

Just like regular braces, invisible braces in Harley Street apply light but constant pressure to your teeth in order to move them into their correct position. The treatment can take anywhere from 18—36 months, depending on the severity of your dental problems.

Benefits of lingual braces

Lingual braces offer many benefits, yet the most important of them is invisibility. They are much more discreet than other types of braces. For this reason, they are ideal for image-conscious adults and teenagers as well as athletes and musicians. Lingual braces are easy to maintain and since they are fixed onto your teeth, you do not need to remember to wear them each day. Last but not least, they are very effective when it comes to treating complicated dental issues such as heavily misaligned, rotated or gapped teeth.

Why visiting the dentist in Harley Street when you are pregnant is important

Many changes start to happen to your body when you become pregnant. Various hormone changes increase your chances of developing gum disease, which is why it is very important to visit the dentist while pregnant. Your body will start to produce higher levels of oestrogen and progesterone, and these hormones can have an effect on your gums. Studies have shown that pregnant women are prone to developing gum disease during their pregnancy.  If you are already pregnant and have had gum disease in the past, it is even more important to visit your dentist throughout your pregnancy.

Dentist in Harley StreetAt Harley Street Dental Clinic, we offer specialised services for women who are expecting. Just as you visit your doctor for prenatal check-ups, it is also important to visit your dentist in Harley Street for prenatal dental care. Your dentist can help discuss changes in oral health during pregnancy and what to look for. There is a connection between your health during pregnancy and your baby’s health, so visiting your dentist in Harley Street regularly will help avoid any unnecessary problems.

What to expect during a dental examination

Other than the normal oral check-up, your dentist in Harley Street will examine for pregnancy-related symptoms that could cause oral health problems. Morning sickness, lack of vitamin A and vitamin D and bad eating habits during pregnancy can all cause major changes in oral health. Your dentist in Harley Street will clean your teeth thoroughly and suggest the use of antiseptic oral rinses to keep the bacteria at bay. They will also stress the importance of regular brushing and flossing at home.

What if there is an emergency?

If there is a need for emergency dental care during your pregnancy, your dentist will consult with your obstetrician before any procedures that need to take place. Emergency care can be performed on the teeth even during pregnancy and it is not dangerous for your health or the health of your unborn baby. At the time of your visit to our dentist in Harley Street, make sure to let us know the number of weeks you are into the pregnancy.