COSMETIC DENTISTRY IN GRANADA HILLS

"My teeth are yellow or stained"

For most people, the answer is professional whitening, not veneers. Viva Smile has a dedicated whitening specialist on staff, and whitening is done either in the office in a single session or with a custom take-home kit. Whitening lifts stains within the enamel — coffee, wine, tea, age. What it can't fix is discoloration that comes from inside the tooth (an old root canal, certain medications) or from a restoration that's yellowed. For those, porcelain veneers or composite veneers cover the color rather than lift it. An exam tells you which kind of staining you have, so you don't pay for veneers when whitening would do, or waste money on whitening that won't touch the problem.

"A tooth is chipped, cracked, or worn at the edge"

Small chips and worn edges on otherwise healthy teeth are usually repaired with cosmetic bonding — tooth-colored composite shaped onto the tooth and polished so the repair disappears. It's done in one visit with no lab. When the issue is that a tooth is slightly too long or has an uneven edge, enameloplasty (tooth reshaping) smooths and reshapes the enamel itself, often in minutes, with no anesthetic. For chips too large to bond reliably, or edges worn across several teeth, veneers restore the shape properly.

"There's a gap between my teeth"

It depends on where the gap is. A space between two front teeth can often be closed with bonding or composite veneers in a single visit, or with porcelain veneers as part of a larger design. If the gaps are the result of tooth position, Invisalign moves the teeth to close them rather than covering the space.

There's a specific kind of gap most people don't have a name for: the small dark triangles that open up at the gumline between teeth, usually after gum recession or orthodontic treatment. Black triangle closure fills them with composite shaped to the tooth and gum, so the dark spaces disappear and the teeth look the way they used to.

"My teeth are crooked or uneven"

Alignment is a cosmetic concern with a functional root, and the honest answer is usually to move the teeth rather than mask them. Invisalign straightens teeth with clear aligners, and at Viva Smile it's frequently the first stage of a larger cosmetic plan — align first, then refine with veneers or bonding. In cases where the unevenness is minor and the teeth are otherwise well-placed, veneers alone can create the appearance of alignment. Which route fits is a design decision, made from your scans, before anything begins.

"Too much gum shows when I smile"

A "gummy smile" has several causes, and the right fix depends on which one you have.

If the teeth are the right size but the gum sits too low over them, Solea laser gum contouring reshapes the gumline — the laser removes and sculpts excess tissue with almost no bleeding and healing measured in days, not weeks. When the bone underneath also needs adjusting so the teeth can be properly exposed, that's crown lengthening, done the same way. If the gum and teeth are fine but the upper lip lifts too high when you smile, the answer is surgical lip repositioning: a procedure that limits how far the lip rises, so less gum shows. All three are done in-house — more on the gum surgeries and Solea laser pages.

"My gums are dark or blotchy"

Dark or patchy gum pigmentation is common and harmless, but for some people it's the thing they notice most in photos. Laser gum depigmentation lightens the tissue by removing the pigmented surface layer with the Solea laser. It's comfortable, and the tissue heals to a more uniform pink.

"My teeth look too long, or my gums have receded"

Gum recession exposes the roots of the teeth, making them look longer and often causing sensitivity. Gum grafting restores the tissue over the exposed root — using tissue from the palate or a donor source — so the gumline returns to where it belongs and the tooth looks its proper length again. This is both cosmetic and protective: covered roots are healthier roots.

"I have visible metal fillings or crowns"

Old silver fillings and metal-based crowns show every time you laugh, and they often have a grey line at the gum as the years pass. They can be replaced with tooth-colored restorations — composite fillings for smaller areas, porcelain inlays and onlays for larger ones, and full porcelain crowns where a tooth needs complete coverage. Same-day CAD/CAM technology means many of these are designed, milled, and placed in a single visit.

"One tooth is damaged, discolored, or just doesn't match"

When a single tooth is broken down, heavily filled, or has darkened after a root canal, a full porcelain crown restores it completely and matches it to its neighbors so it no longer stands out. When only part of the tooth needs rebuilding, a porcelain onlay does the job while preserving more of the natural tooth.

"I'm missing a tooth in my smile"

A gap in the smile zone is replaced with a dental implant — a titanium post in the bone, topped with a porcelain crown designed to match the teeth beside it. In the visible zone, the shape of the gum around the implant matters as much as the crown, which is one reason implant cases at Viva Smile are planned by the same clinician who restores them. The full picture is on our dental implants page.

"Everything looks worn, tired, or just wrong"

Sometimes it isn't one thing. Teeth worn short over years, a bite that's collapsed, multiple old restorations, uneven color — the smile as a whole has changed and no single fix addresses it. This is full-mouth rehabilitation: the entire smile redesigned and rebuilt as one plan, combining whatever it needs — veneers, crowns, implants, alignment, gum work — into a single coherent result. It's the most demanding work in cosmetic dentistry, and it's the work Viva Smile is built around.