Apparently the sticker shock is not enough to make patients shy away from purely cosmetic procedures not covered by dental insurance. Teeth are slightly shaved and a mold is made of the teeth. Then a molded tooth is created to go over the front of the real tooth. While the teeth underneath might be crooked and yellow, no one need ever know it once the picture-perfect facade is cemented in place. And for those who just want whiter teeth, there's now a take-home bleaching process.
Dentists make a mold of the patient's teeth.
The patient then fills the mold with a bleaching gel and wears the mouthpiece while asleep each night for two weeks. It has really exploded since 1992 or 1993. He can only guess where dentistry might go in the next decade or two, barely keeping up now with monthly advances in compounds, equipment and techniques. Our dental technology becomes obsolete in six months. Catherine McNaught graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn. with a degree in English, speech communication and journalism.