3 Tips for a Holiday-Ready Smile

In every holiday commercial you see (and there are plenty of them), people are beaming from ear to ear. If you’re less-than-thrilled with your smile, though, this time of year might feel a little less merry. 

We can help. Here at Riverside Dental, Gemini Master-Patel, DMD, and our team offer a wide range of cosmetic dentistry services. From laser dentistry to teeth whitening, Dr. Master-Patel can apply her expertise to help you get a holiday-ready smile. 

The good news is that this doesn’t have to mean a major undertaking. You can visit either of our offices — in Yonkers or Thornwood, New York — to put one of our fast and easy-to-implement smile improvement tips to work for you. 

Let’s go over three quick, high-impact ways to improve your smile this holiday season. 

Whiten your teeth

Whiter teeth help you dazzle when you walk into a room. Plus, our teeth whitening services can lift out stains, giving your teeth a more consistent appearance. 

To make this tip as easy as possible to apply, Dr. Master-Patel offers two types of teeth whitening: in-office or take-home. With our in-office option, we can brighten your teeth by up to eight shades with a single visit. With a take-home kit, we customize trays to fit your mouth and provide a professional-strength whitening solution. 

Either way, a brighter smile can help you feel more confident. If you’re looking to refresh your smile this December, whitening offers you a great place to start. 

As an added benefit, whiter teeth can help you look younger. Teeth yellow with age, so a reversal of that discoloration can help you look rejuvenated. 

Ask about veneers

Maybe you have one specific tooth that bothers you, or maybe you have a gap you’d like to close. Veneers give you an easy way to transform the appearance of your smile. In fact, you can get veneers over every tooth to completely change the look of your smile. Some people get veneers to lengthen overly short teeth, for example. 

Whether you want to correct one tooth or all your teeth, veneers give you a way to do just that. Dr. Master-Patel bonds these thin cosmetic shells to the front of the tooth. This way, people see the veneer, not the problem tooth underneath. 

Address a gummy smile

For some people, the problem with their smile doesn’t lie with their teeth, but with their gums. If you’re bothered by a gummy smile, come see Dr. Master-Patel.

With laser surgery, she can remove excess gum tissue to help you get a smile closer to the one you want. For most people, recovering from gum contouring takes a week or less, and you should only have mild soreness afterward. 

These are all relatively quick fixes you can pull off to head into 2026 beaming. Dr. Master-Patel offers other care to further improve your smile. If misaligned teeth bother you, for example, ask about starting Invisalign® in the new year. These clear plastic aligners let you move your teeth into straighter positions without all the visible metal of traditional braces. 

Give yourself the gift of a beautiful smile this holiday season. Call the Riverside Dental office nearest you or book an appointment online today.