Can You Really Change or Lift a Person’s Face with New Teeth?
You can make someone look years younger by fixing their teeth.
Natural aging and tooth wear can lead to a shortened vertical face dimension, resulting in wrinkles and thin, compressed lips that can make you look older than you are.
The vertical dimension describes the complete and youthful appearance when our teeth first come in our younger years. When you reverse these steps, a more vibrant look appears without the need for painful cosmetic surgery or short-term injections.
The aging face can appear naturally years younger by optimizing the teeth and maximizing the bite. The results are long-term, and they can take 15 years off your face.
Remolding The Teeth Creates a New Look
As we get older, our teeth get shorter, and we lose support for our faces. The teeth get shorter in all dimensions as the enamel erodes from the front and back. Teeth shorten from years of clenching, grinding, chewing, and biting. With age, faces can shorten, chins move back, cheeks hollow, and wrinkles appear. Those changes can be partially reversed by remolding teeth, part of the scaffolding of the face, to create a new look. When the teeth are in the correct position, it fills out the facial volume allowing you to see more teeth, creating a more youthful appearance.
Dental Procedures That Make You Look Younger Than Your Age
Adding Length Or Bulk To The Teeth
Procedures vary widely, from changing a few teeth to a total remake of a person’s bite. Most procedures involve adding length or bulk to the teeth.
Slightly thickening side teeth, for example, can create a wider arc over the lip, smoothing wrinkles. Thin lips can appear fuller without artificial fillers and implants because the teeth support them. The face lengthens to smooth out wrinkles and minimize fine lines. The teeth begin to support the cheeks for a younger and healthier appearance. The jawline is more vigorous or in better proportion to the rest of your face so that your look improves from every angle.
Bite Correction with Invisalign
Patients who look older than their actual age or even angry because of short and worn down teeth can reverse these signs of aging caused by a bad bite. Other patients suffer from a lower jaw that appears forced back and too small because of a deep over-bite. Deep bites are easier to fix than in the past with Invisalign treatment.
New or Updated Dentures
One of the most dramatic changes that I see with my patients occurs when I make a set of dentures. When I refer to a denture, I find that turning back the hands of time can occur with a partial denture too. Newer materials allow me to create a partial denture without metal or wires. These materials are flexible and hold onto teeth in a much gentler and predictable fashion.
When I provide a patient with a new or updated complete denture, the face returns to a fuller appearance than the traditional sunken look that we see as we age. More life-like teeth and customized tooth positions provide a rollback in time.
Let Us Help You Look More Youthful
These are just some of the dental procedures available to you to help make you look more youthful.
We are all stuck in looking out the windows at our white landscape. One favorite pastime for many is checking out the mirror. Now is the time to assess what we would like to see to make us all appear a little more youthful. Please call Nikki at 440.951.7856, and we can discuss it and explore options.
Jeffrey Gross, DDS, FAGD is an Ohio licensed general dentist and is on the staff of Case Western Reserve School of Dental Medicine.