Cosmetic/Elective Dental Work

If you could choose to have any cosmetic or elective dental procedure done what would it be and why?

For me I think it'd be one of two things. The first would be a gum graft to correct a bit of recession on one of my upper incisors. The tissue is healthy but the gum line looks jagged and unnatural. It's not medically necessary to fix it but I am just ever so slightly self conscious about. Nothing I'm chomping at the bits to get done but if an opportunity presented itself I might get it done.

The other would be replacing an extremely large filling I have on my lower right wisdom tooth with a gold inlay. There's enough healthy tooth left that it doesn't need a crown but I've also had that tooth worked on 3 times in the past 8 years. I'm looking for a more long term solution and something I wouldn't mind looking at in the mirror either. I think it might class up the joint a bit. ;-)

Realistically I could talk to my dentist about getting both done but there's also me not wanting to part with my savings account so I'll settle for the wish list for now.

I would elect to have amalgam in all of my molars...I have a healthy set of teeth that has never required any work, and I love the idea of a good set of teeth at first sight, but actually has plenty of silver hidden in the back. I would love to finally experience the drill as well. I can't imagine how I'd go about explaining that to my dentist though...

I had extensive cosmetic dental work done 14 years ago and love it, do not regret it. Three broken teeth were replaced with implants the rest are crowns. My gumline was contoured and it all gives me a feminine "pageant quality"

The work was done in luxurious spa environment and the dentist was one of the ones that was on "Extreme Makeover"

Cwest94, I feel your pain. My teeth are tough as f and I’ve only had a few cavities filled with boring composite... Some have yellowed and tbh I’d rather see polished amalgam fillings any day - so shiny and obvious haha. I’d love to get every molar and premolar filled with amalgam one day but I can’t really ask a dentist to do that to healthy teeth...

Also, in Australia most dentists I’ve been to don’t even offer amalgam... I found a few that do so I visited for a checkup. If I get a cavity how do I argue with them and demand amalgam instead of them assuming I want a “tooth coloured” composite...

@HappilyReclined

If you are so into well polished, shiny metallic restorations instead of resin composite, why not have gold inlays or compacted gold foils?

I would but it’s a little too expensive unfortunately.

Extractions/implants and orthodontics.

Personally, I would want to get my 2 front teeth repaired or however, it is done as they have slightly crumbled from all the pen biting and other habits I collected many years ago. They aren't huge chips but enough that it is noticeable in photos so I would like to get them fixed. Also, I would like to get braces put back on as I had them before but the Orthodontist on my last appointment never told me when I can stop wearing the retainer so after I hit a suitable age I stopped wearing them and never notices their shift. So braces definitely. Dream-wise would be headgear, braces and either Herbst or an expander.

I would love to replace a large amalgam filling on my premolar and get a full set of veneers

I'd love to get amalgam fillings in all of my molars and premolars, especially deep and wide ones

I wanna get two front teeth pulled, and wear a partial denture....

I have spent the last 4 years having all my composite fillings replaced with silver amalgams (7 molars in total) but I had to do this by visiting 3 different new dentists that were still using amalgam and using the story that the composite fillings i had just received from the previous dentist were really sensitive and obviously not suited to restoring my teeth unlike the amalgam fillings I already had that caused me no issues. I managed to get 4 fillings replaced at the first 2 dentists (2 each) who were happy to whip out the composite and pack the teeth with amalgam. The final 3 done in one go at the third attempt, however this lady dentist seemed a bit more sceptical and couldn't understand why I wanted large silver fillings in my teeth that looked to be ok so she took a bit of persuading however in the end she accepted my decision and replaced for silver. It was a bit of a long winded process but I couldn't really go to my family dentist and ask for all 7 composites to be replaced for silver amalgam in one go! 😆. I haven't been back to my original dentist in 4 years as we moved to another town but I often wonder what she would think if I went for a check up now and she saw a mouth full of metal that didn't match her records.

@RooRoo amazing how backwards it is. If you had 7 amalgams and asked for them to be switched to composite they’d do it no hesitation