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TEETH TALK
I’m a dentist & former Miss Virginia USA – sneaky ways your teeth age you, being yellow isn’t your only problem
Certain teeth being more visible can make you look younger and more feminine, she said
A FORMER beauty queen is warning about how your smile can make you look older — and sharing her go-to dental fixes.
She broke down some lesser-known ways your teeth can show your age and the cosmetic procedures that can add some extra youth to your grin, including a "smile makeup" trick she knows from her pageant days.
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After winning the Miss Virginia USA title in 2012, Dr. Catherine Muldoon, 38, moved on to a career in aesthetic dentistry.
Beauty pageant winners and girl-next-door types both visit her Upper East Side office to seek solutions for their smile needs.
She spoke to The U.S. Sun about why it's important to prioritize your teeth just like you do your skin since it's all part of the anti-aging process.
There are different avenues to take when it comes to making your smile look more youthful, and she touched on the advantages of facial filler, veneers, and aligners.
WHITEN IT UP
It's no secret that yellow teeth are aging — and unhealthy ones that need lots of caps, fillings, and other maintenance aren't keeping your pearly whites youthful, either.
"I tell every single person they need to have an electric toothbrush similar to a Sonicare," she said.
It will remove stains and plaque and is "the basis for healthy teeth."
With that covered, you can tackle some bigger issues.
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YOUNG-SHAPED TEETH
Dr. Catherine explained that the shape of your teeth can actually make you look older, too.
For a more youthful smile, she said, you want more pronounced canine teeth and rounder edges, rather than flatter ones.
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"When you smile and you look at your teeth, the center teeth are supposed to be the longest, and then they're supposed to slope up as you go back," she said.
On the flip side, if your lower lip slopes upward and your top teeth sit across it, that's called a "reverse smile curve" — and it's "considered to be an aged smile."
Some of the things aging your smile are actually about the skin and bones around your teeth.
As we age, she noted, our face sags — including the length of the philtrum, that little groove between your nose and top lip.
And if you have sleep apnea, that can mess with your smile, too.
"All the musculature and bones sit on the lower jaw," she explained.
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"Then you get a sagging lower face and your neck, if you do not have enough support," she said.
She suggested investing in aligners, like from her aligner company Catherine Cosmetics, to fix issues of tooth positioning.
BENEFITS OF VENEERS + ALIGNMENT
Combining veneers with straightening aligners can create facial symmetry, change the overall shape of your face, and help you develop overall better dental health, according to Dr. Muldoon.
Though some people have been spooked by veneers that look unnatural, she insisted that they don't have to.
A lot of people lose weight [with aligners] because they become more conscious of their eating habits and their hygiene habits
Dr. Catherine Muldoon
"Back in the '90s, when veneers were popular, people really wanted that straight, all-across-one-unit kind of look," she said.
"The real reason people think veneers look fake is because the only veneers they know about are the ones that ... look fake," she explained in an .
She noted that some people turn to veneers as a quick fix, but that's not necessarily the best option.
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That's where aligners come in.
There are several perks of aligners that go beyond straight teeth, like weight loss and overall greater confidence.
"A lot of people lose weight because they become more conscious of their eating habits and their hygiene habits," she said.
"As you align your teeth, you're seeing these changes happen slowly and you're seeing yourself transform. It's a more holistic approach to the process because you're feeling better about yourself."
SMILE MAKEUP
If you're still thinking of veneers, Dr. Muldoon says the first step is a bit of "smile makeup," a term she coined.
Starting with a healthy, cavity-free foundation, she applies a temporary composite to teeth to show patients their options.
In one Instagram , she demonstrated applying it to her own tooth.
But while it's a go-to in the lead-up to veneers, it's also a common temporary fix for pageant contestants and models who want a short-term solution for events or photoshoots.
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LIP FILLER + VENEERS
Dr. Muldoon also explained how face injections and dentistry can work together.
"I got some upper lip filler and it covered my teeth," she said.
"I didn't even know at the time that you could dissolve it out, so I just made my teeth bigger so that you can see them."
She got it done after she won Miss Virginia USA in 2012.
"I think there's a big debate on when you do lip filler before or after you do tooth, and it depends on like the overall treatment plan of the patient," she explained.
"You want bigger teeth to match it because you don't want the frame to cast a shadow over the teeth."
A common aesthetic trend that goes hand-in-hand with dentistry is to get a lip lift or "lip flip" so that your upper teeth show more.
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"That's another signal of being a more youthful face, having incisors show," she said.
"The more incisors show, the more it is considered feminine and younger."
REAL RESULTS
Dr. Muldoon said she tends to see more transformations when over a "slower period of time."
In one case, a patient from the United Kingdom whom she started treating 12 years ago had the "most complex treatment plan" with a "super small" jaw.
She described her as "vastly overweight" and said she was missing maybe all of her upper back teeth and lower back teeth except for one each.
"I was like, 'Holy moly. That's the only two she has back there and it's the only two she's using for biting,'" she said.
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The then-26-year-old was worried that if she changed that one tooth it was going to affect her whole mouth and "can't mess with it."
The woman wanted to just get dentures and Catherine refused.
"I'm not giving a woman a denture at 24 years old. I can't even fathom that," she admitted.
"We're actually still not finished with her treatment plan but she's been taking it super slowly because cost-wise she couldn't do it all upfront."
"I developed her treatment plan based on it which ended up being like two or three nastic surgeries braces, we planted her upper palate, and then she ended up getting implants."
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In the end, the woman has lost over 100 pounds since they started working together, which Dr. Muldoon believes is due to undiagnosed sleep apnea.
"It was resolved by moving her upper jaw forward and opening her airway and allowing her to breathe," she explained.
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