Esthetics and Cosmetics in Prosthodontics: A Review

Abstract

The demand for cosmetic dental prosthetics has grown considerably during the last few years. Rush-to-market products, media-driven ideas, as well as dentists keen to please, have formed a challenge for the dentist to calculate benefits /risks ratio for every single treatment modality. The difference between Cosmetic and Esthetic prosthodontics is that Cosmetic prosthodontics implies treatment that is done strictly for visual appearance that may not be considered essential such as Veneers, Cosmetic crowns as well as teeth whitening .On the other hand, Esthetic prosthodontics uses an approach that helps to solve more complicated  problems such as missing teeth or missing part of maxillary or mandibular jaws  that both fixes the problem from a functional standpoint, but also helps the patient to look and feel better it also requires harmony and balance. In other words, esthetic prosthodontics is a more broad approach than cosmetic prosthodontics For this reason this literature review investigated the traditional and recent techniques and materials in different branches of prosthodontics that helps to give the patient the most esthetically satisfying dental experience.