40′s+ What’s Happening?

Cumulative damage causes sensitivity and exposes more of the yellow interior. ‘Teeth become spongelike, soaking up stains and darkening faster,’ says Apa. Aging and some medicines {like allergy drugs) dry the mouth. With less saliva, teeth are more vulnerable to discoloration.

Treatment
Continue using bleaching treatments, and brush with a whitening toothpaste designed for sensitive teeth (try Go Smile Zen, right, or Sensodyne toothpaste for sensitive teeth, extra whitening, $5; at drug stores). To counteract the natural decrease of moisture in your mouth, Levine recommends stimulating saliva production by chewing a sugarless gum like Biotène. Saliva also makes teeth shiny so they look brighter, says Harms.

20′s+ What’s Happening?
Dark foods and drinks might have caused your teeth to yellow. Skipped your daily floss? Teeth may plaque, making them prone to temporary stains because substances stick to plaque (this is why teeth discolor after a glass of red wine).

Treatment
Whitening toothpastes can help with surface stains, says Farmingdale, Minn..dentist and ADA spokeswoman Kimberly Harms. Choose one with baking soda and peroxide (like Arm and Hammer’s). Baking soda helps reduce acid in the mouth to curb stains, while peroxide lightens, explains N.Y.C. dentist Jonathan Levine. To keep plaque under control N.Y.C. dentist Michael Apa recommends having regular checkups, flossing daily and brushing with an electric toothbrush (like Sonicare’s).

30′s+ What’s Happening?
In addition to surface stains, you’re now contending with internal stains (as your teeth age, the inside portion turns yellow). Everyday wear thins the exterior of the teeth, so more dark interior shows. Chewing ice, clenching your jaw and grinding your teeth all accelerate the problem.

Treatment
­To erase stubborn stains, peroxide needs to stay on teeth longer, so try a peroxide rinse (like Listerine’s) and a whitening toothpaste to break up stains. Your best bet for lifting internal stains: a home whitening kit (like Crest’s) that you leave on for 30 minutes twice a day. Remember that bleaching kits are supposed to be used for only about 10 days. If you bleach teeth for months instead of weeks, you can damage them, making your smile look “blue transparent,” says Levine.

Celebrity Dentist Dr. Michael Apa

“The number-one way to get teeth straight and white is veneers,” says celebrity dentist Dr. Lana Rozenberg of The Rozenberg Dental Day Spa in Manhattan. Adds Dr Michael Apa, dentist whose clients include Chloe Sevigny and Natasha Richardson, “Veneers are the standard for celebrities.”

With Veneers, dentists shave a very thin layer off the front of each tooth, and in its place they bond thin, white, straight porcelain. “It’s like a press-on nail for the tooth,” says Dr. Rozenberg. The result is an even, bright smile.

“We take into account any asymmetry in a person’s face and create veneers that make over their smile and impact the appearance of their face,” says Dr. Apa. But keep in mind that if your teeth are extremely crooked, you’ll first probably need to use some type of straightening device, like Invisalign clear braces, to fix your teeth’s structure before going for the veneers. Also note that veneers are a permanent investment. They last for 15-25 years and then must be replaced. And they will cost you. “They can range from $1,000 to $2,500 per tooth, depending on where you get them done,” says Dr. Rozenberg.

The second time I am in the office of Larry Rosenthal, D.D.S., there is a patient there – a woman, terribly fearful of dentists, lying in the chair, her red toenails sticking out of her black patient Manolo sandals, a headset plugged into the state-of-the-art office sound system covering her ears.

Rosenthal is preparing her mouth for twelve new teeth, a new bridge, and nine porcelain veneers. He wants her front teeth more dominant (“They were too recessive before”), he is building up her other teeth a bit (“I want to lift her teeth out, widen her smile”), and he is lengthening them by raising her gumline with a laser (“my magic wand’). “She has a great open smile,” he says. “She just needs better teeth.” It is Monday afternoon. By Thursday morning she will have them.

“I said it was this week or never,” she tells me. She had to leave for East Hampton on Friday; she was spending a month in Italy after that. “So he said, ‘OK, let’s go.’ And now, oh my God.” She is looking in the mirror at temporary vertices of the teeth that will give her a whole new look. She can’t wait to get home and show her husband (whose hair, I learn, she blow dries every morning, and whose clothes she chooses and lays out on their bed). “He’ll love this, I love this. I’ve always wanted long teeth. Oh, God, these are gorgeous. I can’t believe it. I should have done this years ago.” An hour after she leaves, she’s on Rosenthal’s line: “Can I have them sooner, and can we do the lowers too?”
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The rumors are true: your teeth tell your age. Fortunately, the new cosmetic “smile lift” can subtract years from your look.

BY JANET CALSON FREED

I’ll bet it could be said for most of us that since childhood we’ve associated going to the dentist with pain. Tension. Headaches. Toothaches. Being told we don’t floss enough. Therefore, we could logically wonder, who in his right mind would go to the dentist if he didn’t absolutely have to?

Well the view from the dentist’s chair has changed considerably in recent years. Cosmetic dentistry has seen great technological advances, and more and more regular dentists today are skilled in cosmetic procedures. Smile design, as Dr. Larry Rosenthal puts it. This New York-based cosmetic dentist has revitalized the smile of the well-heeled, the high-profile, and countless models and film stars. He likes to talk about the artistry he and other dentists can accomplish with a little ceramics, laser and NASA technology (from which dentistry has borrowed bonding materials). Dr Rosenthal sees aesthetic dentistry as an antiaging strategy. “Think of it as a cosmetic smile lift. As someone ages, the entire lower third of the face begins to droop, and teeth yellow.” He promises he can make a 50-year old look 38 by using laminate to not only improve tooth shape and color but also build teeth up and thus fill out the shadowy corners of the mouth.
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