Teeth whitening is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to brighten your smile. Teeth can be bleached in-office for about a few hundred dollars or at home with a mold and gels purchased from the dental office. Over-the-counter whitening toothpaste, rinses, and whitestrips are available for at-home whitening.

Covering the front teeth with thin porcelain or resin shells is called a dental veneer. These thin shells are cemented to the front of the teeth, changing their color, shape, size, or length. Veneers are a cost-effective way to get that "Hollywood smile."

In dental bonding, a tooth-colored putty-like resin is applied to the tooth and hardened with an ultraviolet light or laser beam. Then Dr. Polin shapes and polishes it. Bonding can repair decayed, chipped, cracked, or misshapen teeth, and it can replace or conceal amalgam or silver fillings. Bonding takes 30-60 minutes and costs a few hundred dollars per tooth.

A dental crown, also known as a cap, covers and restores the entire decayed or damaged tooth above the gum line. Cosmetically, crowns can be used to cover misshapen or severely discolored teeth. Crowns are available in metal, porcelain-fused-to-metal, resin, and ceramic.

Inlays and onlays are gold, porcelain, or composite fillings. Your dentist creates inlays and onlays in a dental laboratory. An "onlay" is a filling that covers the biting surface or one or more points of the tooth. Inlays and onlays preserve as much healthy tooth as possible, providing healthier alternatives to crowns. The cost is about one thousand per tooth.

A dental bridge is made by crowning the teeth on either side of a gap then inserting false teeth. A removable denture replaces missing teeth.

Dental braces, orthodontics, can straighten crooked or misaligned teeth by applying constant pressure to move them in a specific direction.