Cosmetic & aesthetic dentistry

Everyone deserves healthy teeth and a winning smile.

At the St. Louis Dental Center, our expert faculty dentists and oral healthcare team members focus on improving the overall health of our patients, including their teeth, and helping our patients create or restore their smile.

Overall oral health is our first priority. As a dental school partnering with a community health center, we at the St. Louis Dental Center, enable our patients to embrace good oral hygiene practices to help achieve better overall health and a healthy, winning smile.

The goal of aesthetic or cosmetic dentistry is to create or enhance a beautiful, natural smile. This includes procedures restoring or fixing chipped, worn down, discolored, misaligned or crooked, broken, and stained teeth to provide an end result that is not only more naturally beautiful, but also restores form and function. Procedures may include ceramic/porcelain veneers, crowns, composite (tooth-colored) fillings, implants, teeth whitening/bleaching, prophy and polishing, gum surgery, etc. Our group of expert faculty specialists, along with our students and dental team, work as a multidisciplinary team to provide our patients with an optimum result.

What to expect

Patients should expect to receive a comprehensive oral exam and full mouth x-rays, including a panoramic x-ray, pictures, and 3D models of teeth completed by our dental students. This will help our dental team diagnose conditions within the mouth and coordinate the treatment between different specialists. In complex cases, it may take multiple appointments to fully diagnose and formulate a treatment plan. Typically, cosmetic treatments, such as veneers, crowns, implants, etc., are only initiated after we are able to bring the teeth, gums, etc. to a healthy, stable state, and it may take several appointments to complete the process. Our team wants to ensure that each patient’s smile is not only beautiful, but also healthy and functional.

Learn more about common aesthetic or cosmetic terms.

Common dental terms translated.