Cosmetic Dentistry – A Specialty or Not?

Do you know that cosmetic dentistry is not recognized by the American Dental Association as a formal specialty area of dentistry? This is quite surprising, right? The term has become so popular that an average person will think that there’s really such a specialization in dentistry. Just typing that phrase in a Google search will yield about 13,800,000 results. How come?

According to an article in “The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association,” cosmetic dentistry is not a recognized specialty. Since by its nature, dentistry’s goal is to improve the appearance and function of teeth, calling yourself a cosmetic dentist doesn’t mean anything and can even be considered as unethical because it’s just used as a way to maket your services to patients. Whether you’re a general dentist, orthodontist or periodontist, your main goal is to improve the appearance, function and health of your patient’s teeth – so there shouldn’t be a distinction.

Do you agree to this? Do you think that dentists shouldn’t refer to themselves as cosmetic dentists just because they only provide whitening, tooth reshaping, bonding, dental bridges, veneers, gum lift and bite reclamation?