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Grin and bare it
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Don't like your smile or the way your canines peep out? Want to get your pearlies tattooed or bejewelled? Smile: rest assured on a dentist's chair, reports BHUMIKA K.
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GET YOUR teeth jewelled. Stick a dolphin tattoo on your canine. Have your smile corrected to your satisfaction. A porcelain crown for those pearlies. Or simply get your teeth bleached. After all, it's all about looking good and going great.
Taking dentistry to new heights (and depths of your root canal) and facial beauty to different levels is Dental Lavelle, a centre for oro-facial cosmetics. The everything-under-one-roof place ensures you get a whole deal at one go with over 28 specialists in dentistry, oro and maxillo facial surgery, orthodontics, endodontics, peridontics, cosmetic dentistry, head and neck oncology, implant dentistry, and so on. Cleft lip and palate surgeries, correcting birth defects of the face, cheek bone corrections, treating facial injuries, providing lip, nose, snoring and even eyelid corrections is part of their expertise.
"I don't like my face", "I don't like my smile", "I don't like my teeth" — that's what Jagadeesh N. Belur hears from his clients who visit the clinic for reasons other than just bad teeth. Dr. Belur started this Lavelle Road clinic some two months ago. A dental surgeon with further qualifications in cosmetic dentistry, implants, peridontics, laboratory ceramics, and other such specialities, he has 33 years of experience behind the dental chair, including a 12-year-stint in the U.S..
"Nearly 80 per cent of my clients come with tooth-related problems. Of these, over 50 per cent are cosmetic needs such as having teeth bleached, veneers put, getting tooth coloured (for "natural look"), tooth crowns, and removal of nicotine stains," said Dr. Belur. "Awareness about preventive dental care is still quite low in the country, though not as bad as it was 10 years ago. But most people still tend to approach a dentist only when they have a problem."
"I'm quite surprised. Even normal people, without any major dental problems, come for regular check-ups and beauty enhancement," he says. Teenagers come looking for jewels for their teeth. And children want colourful tattoos.
IT capital Bangalore spawns its share of techies with toothy problems. And if you haven't heard of this stress-related one, it's called bruxism. Dr. Belur has seen many computer professionals in their 20s or 30s who develop a pain in their jaw, or have tension-headaches — all because of the habit of clenching and grinding teeth when they are tense or in their sleep. "The teeth wear out easily because of this stress-related problem,'' says Dr. Belur. It also affects the chewing muscles, causing pain near the ear.
A Bangalore-based fashion co-ordinator came in looking for what is called "smile correction". A cosmetic and a jaw surgery, a bit of work on the lips and teeth, a year of treatment, and Rs. 70,000 later, he had a "happy smile". A smile correction, though, doesn't always cost the sky. With simple cosmetic contouring and cosmetic fillings, it can come for anywhere between Rs. 500 and Rs. 5,000. "We don't do corrections just for looks," he says. "It's for a longer life of the teeth."
But looking good happens in a jiffy (sometimes), thanks to technology. A prophy jet cleans tobacco-stained teeth in 15 minutes flat using baking soda. Digital X-rays ensure you have your teeth on record in minutes for the doctor to see and proceed immediately with treatment. And there are different dental chairs for different treatments — all imported from Brazil, Germany, Japan, U.S., along with the latest gizmos and gadgets attached.
Safety and preventing cross contamination is high on the list of priorities. After being hand-scrubbed in a separate wash area, all equipment is subjected to high temperature and high pressure cleaning in an autoclave to be stored later in a UV chamber. A sterilium is used to kill viruses.
With Bangalore growing into a hot international health-tourism destination, Dr. Belur says his clinic is set to attract the wise tourist who will prefer to have a precious metal to porcelain crown for Rs. 15,000 rather than for the $1,500 it costs in the U.S.. "I have patients from England and West Asia who are working in the city," says Dr. Belur. Airlines employees are other fly-by clients. One filling of a porcelain inlay or onlay costs $850 (around Rs. 38,000), as against Indian Rs. 8,000. Now, that's something to smile about.
TOOTHSOME TIPS
Watch your teeth.
Brush after every meal.
Floss your teeth every night.
Rinse, rinse, rinse, and rinse every time you eat or drink.<18>
Use toothpaste with fluoride.
If you have a dental problem, get it fixed immediately.
Get a dental check-up every six months.
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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