Our Blog

How to Have a Bright and Youthful Smile

Your smile says a lot about you, including your age. Thankfully there are ways to enhance your smile and keep you looking as young as you feel. Today, Creating Smiles’ own Dr. Cindy Brayer joins Daytime host Maggie Rodriguez and Dr. Anne Herman with Hermann Wellness to give some background information on what you can do to have a more youthful mouth and smile.

From a dental perspective, Dr. Brayer says that one of the top culprits that can make your mouth and teeth appear aged is yellowing and staining – something she frequently sees in our Clearwater and St. Petersburg offices.

“Teeth that are yellow and stained will look [duller] in appearance when you smile. The best option is really just to whiten your teeth and get them brighter looking. And I would recommend going to see your dentist and figuring out what the best options are for you, because everyone has a different situation, and not all options are the same for patients.”

Straightening your teeth, even later in life, can also have a significant impact on the youthfulness of your smile.

“[As we get older], our teeth tend to start getting more crowded and shifted, and they get more chipping and potential wear on the edges of the teeth. And this really ages our teeth over time. [In situations like this], we recommend straightening your teeth, which would help your teeth to look much more youthful in appearance, and it puts the teeth in their ideal position, so that you can maintain your teeth for a lifetime,” explains Dr. Brayer.

“There are patients of ours who have straightened their teeth, like this photo that shows this patient who had crowded teeth. We actually widened his arch with Invisalign and straightened his teeth [at the same time]. And now his teeth are more aesthetic and [he has] a more youthful smile overall.”

 

“The second patient here had both Invisalign and whitening and so now his teeth have a much [more youthful appearance]. Invisalign is really our preferred way of straightening teeth and our patients love it because they don’t have to [have a mouthful of] metal and brackets and wires. Plus we can also do it in about four to six months.”

In addition to whitening and straightening your teeth, there are other factors that can really help give you a more youthful smile. As we age, fine lines can develop around the mouth as well as a general loss of volume. This is caused by a decrease in the amount of collagen in these areas.

To help replace that lost collagen, Dr. Hermann often recommends dermal fillers to her patients.

“We do recommend a very, very fine filler called Volbella and it’s a Juvederm filler. Fillers are so sophisticated now – we can add back just a small amount of volume to replace what’s been lost so that you look the way you looked maybe ten years ago, without looking overdone.”

In addition to Volbella, Dr. Hermann also recommends a radiofrequency microneedling process called Morpheus 8 which she describes as “tiny, tiny needles that deliver heat energy under the skin which helps the collagen firm up.”

For more information on how Creating Smiles Dental can help you have a brighter, whiter, and more youthful smile, give us a call at either our Clearwater or St. Petersburg office and let us schedule your new patient consultation today!


 

Creating Smiles is one of Pinellas County’s leading providers of cosmetic and general dentistry services, including Invisalign, teeth whitening, dental implants, and oral cancer screenings. To schedule your in-office or virtual new patient consultation please call our St. Petersburg office (727-323-0377) or Clearwater office (727-791-8823).

Skip to content