Nowadays, dentistry is becoming a style statement but a decade back it was related to pain, fear and discomfort. Today, both men and women are becoming increasingly self-conscious about their appearance and smile. Younger generations follow their self made rules for looking fashionable and it applies to dentistry as well. With the increase in modernization, everybody wants to create their own visual style which is unique for themselves and yet identifiable for others. As a dentist, we might come across to people who demand something more from us than treating only diseases. Like any other treatment, dentistry and dental treatments are now one of the necessary aspects of having a healthy life. Various treatments like body art and cosmetic dental treatments are becoming so attractive to achieve their desired aesthetic appearance, attention, to make a fashion statement and to be unique among the crowd. Body art includes tooth jewellery, tooth rings, tooth tattoo, removable tooth jewellery and many more.
Dr Sonal Bhatia
Tooth jewellery is one of the form of self expression and when done properly, it really can add a special confidence to your smile. Infact, this results in increased self confidence of the person. Most commonly tooth jewellery worn by 18 to 35 year old hip-hop artists and disc jockeys to add on to their performance. Infact, It is becoming very popular now-a-days, like any other kind of fashion trend it is also being used in order to increase the standard level of people among their relatives, friends infact society as it is a non-invasive, harmless procedure with less side effects. It is not very costly procedure with price varying according to the designs of the jewel which is being used and depends upon the clinic to clinic. It is a painless procedure, takes upto only 15-20 minutes for its completion.
Moreover, tooth jewellery is a cosmetic dental procedure in which diamond or any other stone is attached on the tooth surface. With the increasing interest of cosmetic dentistry among people the use of dental jewellery has been gaining importance day by day.
But, cosmetic dentistry has not come in trend recently, it has been introduced in the past.
Types of dental jewellery
Tooth gems
Tooth gems are crystals glass mounted on a thin foil of aluminium. It helps in creating spark available in different colors. They are the range of glass crystals that are available in nine different colors i.e. diamond, rainbow, ruby, sapphire, emerald, emerald green, aquamarine, pink, sapphire light. TOOTH GEMS include SKYCE and SAPPHIRE crystals. Skyce (ivoclar vivadent AG, schaan, leichtenstein) are clear whereas sapphire are white or blue crystals. Skyce and sapphire both are high quality tooth jewels but skyce put an extra sparkle into every smile. It is a harmless procedure, can be placed on the tooth surface without any preparation. It can be used on a place of injured enamel, any pigmented spot. It is a painless procedure and takes only 10-20 minutes. Just like an orthodontic bracket, the desired design can be bonded on the patients tooth structure. It can be removed anytime or can be replaced with any other stone , as there’s no drilling involved in the procedure therefore it can be directly bonded on to the tooth surface. The crystal glass stones are available in two different sizes i.e. 1.9mm or 2.4mm in diameter.
Twinkles
Twinkles are specially designed to be bonded to the tooth and its backside is similar to an orthodontic bracket which makes them stay so long. Twinkles are pure gold and precious stones like diamonds, sapphire and rubies. The bonding is not as durable but can easily last for more than 6 months. These are the collection of 24-carat gold and white gold jewellery, the jewellery is available in 50 different designs with some including diamonds, sapphires and rubies. Available twinkles are (twindentAB, Uppsala, Sweden). Most commonly used tooth for attachment are upper incisal and canines.
However, there are some simple steps that help in easy understanding the application procedure of tooth jewllery on to the tooth surface.
* After maintaining proper hygiene, the tooth should be cleaned with a fluoride-free polishing paste.
* Carefully dry and isolate the tooth with rubber dam.
* This procedure is completely done without the use of any anesthesia.
* After isolation tooth is then etched with 37% orthophosphoric acid for about 15-20 sec in order to increase the surface area for bonding. Later on the enamel is treated with topical fluoride to remineralize the etched area.
* Then the tooth surface should be rinsed properly with water for about 1minute and blow dry for 10sec so that no etchant should remain on the tooth.
* In order to get the bonding, apply a light-curing bonding agent, leave it for a maximum of 20 seconds. In order to increase the bonding, distribute bonding through air blowing, then light cure for 20sec.
* Later on apply a small amount of flowable composite to the surface of the tooth.
* Now take the jewel handler in order to pick the jewel easily, and press it into the center of the composite.
* And now you may adjust the jewel while letting the patient check the desired positioning in the mirror.
* After the desired position of the jewel on the tooth surface has been decided by the patient, take the light curing lamp and start curing the composite from the top for about 1minute.
* First of all, light cure from the sides for a few seconds and also cure the composite from the back of the tooth for another 1minute but make sure the composite hardens evenly. Total curing time is approximately 3minutes.
* Whereas, the total time for jewel to set into the composite is 20 sec. thus, it takes about 4minutes to safely affix the jewel.
Instructions to patients
* Most important instruction that has to be given to the patient is to maintain the oral hygiene.
* They should be instructed that it will take few hours for them to get used the small jewel in the mouth.
* They should know that the dental jewel that is attached to the tooth surface with a substance is harmless, which does not damage the enamel.
* Patient should on aware of that the jewel can be removed or replaced or can also be changed without consequences as it is a easy n harmless, painless procedure takes only few minutes.
* The most important thing to be aware by the patient is that the dental jewel that is been used can relatively lasts for a longer duration but it is limited by the stress put on the decorated tooth and dental care, the less you put stress on the decorated tooth , the longer the jewel will lasts. But if the jewel gets loose unexpectedly, it is possible to reattach it without consequences.
CONCLUSION
However being a part of latest trend in the cosmetic dentistry, dental jewellery has become the latest trend that has been most commonly used as it is a safe, non-invasive, harmless, painless procedure. It does not require any anesthesia. It takes 15-20 minutes for the completion of the procedure. It is not very costly procedure , therefore, on the whole we can say it’s a very good option for those who need a nice sparkling smile and that sparkling smile will lasts longer with proper care and maintenance.
(The author is MDS students Swami Devi Dyal Dental Hospital and College, Panchkula Haryana)
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