Full Mouth Reconstruction: Cosmetics on the Surface, Dental Health at Its Core

Full mouth reconstruction is a personalized treatment plan that restores the look and health of your smile. This custom treatment plan usually includes a sequence of dental procedures that repair or replace individual teeth. Some patients will require procedures to whiten their teeth or alter the soft tissues of the mouth. On occasion, full mouth reconstruction will incorporate orthodontic treatment.

From this description, you get the sense that full mouth reconstruction can take a while. The good news is that the time and effort you pour into the treatment pays off in a big way. Keep going to find out how.

Candidates for full mouth reconstruction

Full mouth reconstruction corrects oral health issues that affect most or all teeth in the mouth. Common oral health issues that require extensive dental work are:

• Loss of multiple teeth due to gum disease
• Extensive tooth decay that affects most or all teeth
• Injury due to an accident or some other event
• Severe orthodontic issues
• Congenital deformities

There is a common thread that runs through each oral health issue in the list: a smile that could use some work. Gum disease will cause tooth discoloration and a gapped smile, among other issues. The same goes for extensive tooth decay and injury. Then there are orthodontic issues and deformities. These often create crowding, gapping, and other oral health issues that affect the look of a person’s smile.

Correcting extensive dental and oral health issues has the added advantage of improving the look of the patient’s smile. Here is how restorative and cosmetic dentistry intersect.

Common procedures in full mouth reconstruction

Full mouth reconstruction restores the form, function, and aesthetics of every tooth in the mouth. It takes several procedures, spaced over time. The sequence and number of these procedures depend on a patient’s unique needs. The time it takes to complete treatment depends on the severity of the patient’s dental health problems.

Here are the most common of these procedures and their effect on oral health and appearance:

1. Dental restorations

Restorative dentistry has the added advantage of improving the structure and coloration of the teeth. This translates into an improvement in the patient’s smile. Dental restorations include fillings, onlays, overlays, and crowns.

2. Veneers

Dental veneers are wafer-thin shells that look like the front surface of a front tooth. They work like false acrylic nails as they are bonded onto the surface of a tooth with the aid of dental adhesives. Veneers hide chips, small breaks, fractures, small gaps, and slightly crooked teeth.

3. Teeth whitening

Professional teeth whitening removes surface stains and discoloration. This is a cosmetic treatment that dentists will perform at the tail end of full mouth reconstruction.

4. Implant-supported crowns, bridges, or dentures

These solutions provide a permanent way to replace missing teeth. Tooth replacement comes into play for patients who lose their teeth to injury, tooth decay, or gum disease. In rare cases, deformity or severe orthodontic problems may require a treatment plan that incorporates tooth replacement.

5. Orthodontic treatment

Sometimes full mouth reconstruction will incorporate orthodontics to correct a bad bite. The treatment is intensive in terms of time and effort. Dentists will schedule other procedures around orthodontic treatment. They may pause the use of an orthodontic appliance to perform a dental procedure that advances the larger treatment plan.

6. Corrective surgery

A dentist may recommend a surgical procedure to treat malformations of the gums, jaw, or soft tissues of the mouth. This is an aggressive course of action that only becomes necessary for the patient with a severe injury or oral malformation.

A healthy, brilliant smile within reach

Get in touch with us to find out what it will take to achieve your dream smile. Our dentist is happy to walk you through your options, up to and including full mouth reconstruction.

Request an appointment here: https://alexoldtowndental.com or call Alexandria Old Town Dental at (703) 763-1078 for an appointment in our Alexandria office.

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