How to safely get a Hollywood smile with cosmetic enhancement at home

Guest post by specialist orthodontist, Dr Marc Ackerman, DMD, MBA

Each and every year, my wife and kids gather around the large flat screen in the TV room to watch the Academy Awards. For my wife, it’s the dresses and the jewelry. For my daughter, it’s the hair and makeup. For my son, it’s spotting the actors who play superheroes in his favourite action movies. For me, it’s the entire canvas.

The night of the Academy Awards is a celebration of the arts but it’s also a celebration of the actors, directors, producers, technical people, agents, spouses, and friends. On this night, it is tradition to look your best and put your best foot forward on the red carpet.  Actors who a few hours before the event could have been taking the trash out at home and were indistinguishable from any other neighbours are now transformed into larger than life figures.  They have momentarily gone from normal to beyond normal. In my specialty of orthodontics, we call this enhancement of human appearance.

The high and lows of cosmetic enhancement

Enhancement of human appearance comes in many forms, some being reversible and low-risk and others being irreversible and high-risk.

Low risk cosmetic enhancement
Some of the common reversible low risk enhancements are hair styling, manicure/pedicure, laser hair removal, botox injections, and of course teeth straightening with clear aligners.
These non invasive procedures come with little or no side effects, and they don’t remove or add a permanent foreign material to the body.

High risk cosmetic enhancement
Some of the most common irreversible, high-risk enhancements include rhinoplasty (plastic surgery on the nose), genioplasty (plastic surgery on the chin), face and brow lift, tattoos, and gastric bypass surgery for weight loss. Each of these categories of procedures can massively enhance your appearance, but with different costs and greater risk to benefit ratios.

Any type of surgical intervention carries the risk of general anesthesia and post-surgical infection, and many of these high-risk cosmetic enhancements cannot be fully undone.  Asymmetric results in nose or chin modification do occur and can require a second surgery.

Cosmetic enhancement that will give you a radiant smile

Having your teeth straightened with clear aligners is a great example of a low-risk reversible enhancement of human appearance.

A safe and predictable method:
The Straight Teeth Direct™ system was designed with safety in mind. Aligners are custom-fitted to your mouth and are made of a medical grade plastic material.

After sending back your teeth molds to the lab you’ll receive a report, including a 3D smile simulation of your teeth now and how they could look by the end of your cosmetic teeth straightening treatment. Only if you are 100% happy with the predicted result you can choose to continue further with the process.

A method you have full control over:
Unlike other irreversible body transformations, the movement happens over a period of months and if you want to stop in the middle you can. The aligners are removable and it’s up to you to commit to wearing them or not, though the orthodontist supervising your case will be there to remind you and check in with you. Clear aligner teeth straightening is not a procedure like dental veneers (when your teeth are filed down and permanently covered with porcelain), so you can choose to opt in or out at any time.

One click away from your cosmetically enhanced smile

To get started and see what your new enhanced smile will look like, download the ‘Straight Teeth Direct’ app from the Apple App Store, or for Androids and other devices visit app.straightteethdirect.com to take short quiz about your smile.

You take some photos of your teeth on your smartphone and use the app to send them. It’s a free, fast and convenient smile assessment, which determines if remote clear aligners could help you achieve the smile that you want.

If approved, you can order a home mouth molding kit with easy instructions. If you like the plan and want to go for it, you place the order and a sequence of cosmetic aligners are fabricated then shipped back to you. Over the course of treatment, you’ll check in with your virtual orthodontist who will evaluate your progress and answer any questions or concerns.

The Straight Teeth Direct™ service leverages the expertise of an orthodontic specialist like me, to deliver a state of the art product at a fraction of the cost of other in-office orthodontic aligner services.

Shouldn’t we all look like we’re headed for the red carpet? With this app you can finally afford and fit safe cosmetic enhancement for your smile into your life.