FAQ Videos

Dr. Dattani explains: A smile makeover is basically a personal thing. What I don’t like about your smile is different to what a patient doesn’t like about your smile. It’s more important first of all to find out what upsets you about your smile. A lot of times it’s just the colour of them so it can be as simple as whitening them or cleaning them. A lot of times you don’t like the shape of them, the size of them. So if it’s the position and the angulation we’re looking at braces. If it’s the shape and the size or they’ve worn down then you might be looking at veneering or cosmetic crowning so it really does vary what cosmetic dentistry is, depending on what bothers you and what the actual problem is. So weíre here to facilitate the right treatment for you depending on what actually bothers you.

Dr. Dattani explains: Have them cleaned! Within half an hour you have stain free teeth, I get that done on a regular basis to keep my teeth looking white. Look after them. Visit your dentist regularly, that will keep them white. Failing that and time has gone on and teeth have become darkened then I would always suggest we work with home whitening first because quick isn’t always long lasting. A lot of people out there will just laser your teeth and you’ll walk out thinking wow, but I tend to find within a couple of months the colour’s regressed. So I always start someone with home whitening if cost is an issue because that is long term, and then combing home whitening with laser whitening should they want a more whiter smile than that. So the quickest way is either to get them cleaned or consider home whitening.

Dr. Dattani explains: A lot of research went into the safety and the efficacy of laser tooth whitening, it has been proven to be safe in the right hands. What it is is basically an LED light, which is shone upon your teeth for an hour to an hour and a half while the solution of hydrogen peroxide. The light basically heats the hydrogen peroxide releasing oxygen, which then actually gets rid of the inherent staining and the darkness of the teeth. It has to be done in the right setting. The dentist has to assess there’s no decay causing the discolouration because it actually damages teeth if the teeth aren’t healthy. That’s why it’s important that teeth are healthy before any of these processes are done.

Dr. Dattani explains: You can, there’s a process called home whitening, which we do professionally here, we take impressions of your teeth. It’s really important impressions of your teeth are taken because if the trays aren’t accurate it doesn’t work. There’s a lot of products you can buy from chemists, which actually take your own impressions, they’re not accurate so they don’t work long term, bit of a waste of money. We take really nice accurate impressions and make, our technicians make the moulds and trays that fit perfectly. You then line the trays with a carbamide peroxide solution, strength depending on your teeth and the dentist’s assessment and you can wear them one hour a day for ten to fourteen days or there’s other products out there you wear them over night time, it’s a personal preference. I usually go for the day white because people find that works just as well and also it’s only an hour of your time, while watching a bit of Eastenders! Whereas the home whitening at night people do struggle with because of issues of sensitivity and they tend not to wear them because wearing them all night really makes their teeth sensitive

Dr. Dattani explains: A lot of products are out there, baking soda, smoking cigarettes, which actually physically get rid of the stainings by abrading the teeth’s surface. Initially they do, then people continue to use them. What happens is, it actually wears away the outer layer of the tooth, the enamel we talked about earlier, the white bit, so your teeth actually end up more yellow in the long term. Most patients don’t realise the damage they’re causing to their teeth and start wondering ‘why are my teeth looking more and more yellow?’ That’s because you’ve worn the enamel away, so you might get increased sensitivity, increased problems, increased risk of decay and yellower teeth. We advise all patients to steer clear of smoking toothpastes. We do recommend things like Colgate whitening and Sensodyne whitening, because what that does, it kind of stops the build up of staining as opposed to gets rid of them. We do not recommend baking product on your teeth.

Dr. Dattani explains: It varies from home whitening, which is around 299 pounds, or should I say the clean, which is about 45 pounds, all the way to the deep whitening, which is where we home whiten then laser then home whiten again, which is around 750, 800 pounds.

Dr. Dattani explains: The best way is actually first of all, a lot of the problems are staining so first of all we say to anyone who comes for a whitening consultation, let’s give them a good clean up because a lot of the time people walk out just happy with that. Now there’s a difference between getting them done in a whitening clinic, say in Bluewater shopping centre, to actually having a dentist look at your teeth and actually realising the reason why they’re discoloured. If after that you’re not happy, that you still think they’re dark, then we go through the different processes of whitening. It is really a personal choice. You can have home whitening, where you wear trays for an hour a day for 7 to 14 days all the way to laser whitening where a light is put onto your teeth for an hour and a half, which naturally then whitens your teeth, all the way to having both done. It all depends on how dark they are and a personal patient preference.

Dr. Dattani explains: As we get older our teeth discolour, they pick up the stains, also the enamel on teeth becomes weaker and the inside layer, known as the dentine, which is more yellow, starts showing through. So it’s unfortunately a part of the aging process as well as the stainings we have in our lives, the red wines, the cigarettes, the teas, the coffees, all these stain and you get inherent staining from them.

Dr. Dattani explains: It’s all individually assessed, if it’s only two teeth that are wrong then you just need two veneers, if it’s just one itís just one. If it’s a whole smile then you would need ten veneers because we usually work from premolar to premolar. So every case is individual. A lot of times patients come to me saying they want veneers but they’ve got beautiful straight teeth, all they’ve got is a bit of staining, so they walk out after having their teeth cleaned for about 40, 50 quid

Dr. Dattani explains: Teeth veneers it varies, you can buy cheaper ones for three hundred per tooth, four hundred per tooth but the ones we use at Kent Smile studio are very high grade, theyíre called Emax veneers. Now Emax is a material that looks exactly like a tooth and feels like a tooth. The difference of veneer grading is how the light reflects onto the porcelain. If it reflects the same way as a normal tooth it will look like a normal tooth. So the ones we use here are in the region of six hundred pounds per tooth upwards. Then the differences are really on the complexity of the case. If itís a simple one tooth it will be more in the region of six hundred pounds, if itís more teeth then obviously it will be more expensive. If theyíre more crooked, they need more adjustments it will be more expensive thereafter.