Cosmetic dentistry is generally used to refer to any dental work that improves the appearance (though not necessarily the function) of a person's teeth, gums and/or bite. It primarily focuses on improvement dental aesthetics in color, position, shape, size, alignment and overall smile appearance. Many dentists refer to themselves as "cosmetic dentists" regardless of their specific education, specialty, training, and experience in this field. This has been considered unethical with a predominant objective of marketing to patients.

In today’s age of technology, your dentist has a range of options to help your teeth look great. Stained teeth, dark teeth, chipped teeth, crooked teeth, and even teeth that are missing altogether, can be repaired or replaced. Cosmetic or aesthetic dentistry is the broad heading under which many dental procedures that improve the appearance of teeth may be described.

There are many techniques and options to treat teeth that are discolored, chipped, misshapen or missing. Your dentist can reshape your teeth, close spaces, restore worn or short teeth or alter the length of your teeth. Common procedures include bleaching, bonding, crowns, veneers and reshaping and contouring.

These improvements are not always just cosmetic. Many of these treatments can improve oral problems, such as your bite.

The latest developments in dentistry include tooth whitening treatments, micro-abrasion, bonding and veneers. These techniques can whiten and improve the shape and colour of your teeth, even close gaps.

Tooth Whitening - treatments are designed to whiten your own teeth without any artificial additions. There are several ways dentists can whiten your teeth - with very high peroxide gel concentrations, the dentist may very carefully apply the gel and use some heat from a light source (sometimes a laser is used) to whiten the teeth in a short time. This technique is not common and is usually expensive. Alternatively plastic trays are custom-made by your dentist using models of your teeth, and then you administer the treatment yourself using safe-strength gels at home. 

Micro-abrasion - Micro-abrasion can be used to remove discolouration in the surface layer of the enamel. A paste containing acid and an abrasive is used to remove the outer surface of the tooth enamel. If the discolouration is deep in the enamel your dentist may need to remove the affected enamel with a bur and place an adhesive tooth coloured filling. Usually an anaesthetic is not required.

Bonding - Bonding is a process whereby your dentist cleans and prepares the surface of your teeth and then bonds tooth coloured resin fillings to them. Bonding can be used to repair chipped teeth, close small gaps between teeth, alter the shape of teeth and sometimes cover discolouration in teeth. Bonded resins are simple to re-polish and replace if they eventually discolour.

Veneers - Veneers are thin (usually about 0.5mm thick) pieces of porcelain, or composite material, which are bonded to the front surface of the teeth. Veneers can be used to improve the appearance of teeth by changing the shape of the teeth, by changing the colour of the teeth, by masking stains and by replacing small fractured pieces of teeth.

Home bleaching involves wearing very thin, transparent plastic trays molded to your teeth, which are used to hold a bleaching agent in contact with the tooth surface. They are normally worn for approximately ten days. The active agent in the bleach is usually carbamide peroxide. This is a chemical that quickly breaks down to hydrogen peroxide, which is the chemical that lightens the teeth.