My name's Richard Lee, I'm an aesthetic restorative dentist and I spend most of my time treating patients who are coming to see me to improve the way that their smile looks.

I offer a full range of cosmetic and restorative treatments and it might go from something very simple and straightforward to perhaps some tooth whitening, somebody who's not happy with the colour of their teeth or wants to improve that.

It might be the position of their teeth and they might be crowded and we're looking to straighten teeth out, through to things like composite bonding.

So composite is a material that I can sculpt directly onto the surface of the teeth to alter the shape and the form, to give people perhaps straighter, whiter teeth, to correct irregularities, to correct wear.

I do porcelain veneers as well, so ceramic restorations, to really give ultimate aesthetics and beauty to improve people's smiles.

Lots of benefits to composites tend to be that they're perhaps quicker than doing porcelain veneers.

Very often it's the most minimally invasive treatment because we don't need to do any sort of tooth cutting or tooth preparation at all, so it's a purely additive approach.

And for smaller issues, perhaps chips and corners and those sorts of things, composite works really, really well.

Porcelain restorations give us perhaps our ultimate in aesthetics.

These are very thin but strong ceramic restorations that are made in the laboratory. They are hand-bespoke pieces of ceramic that are bonded to the tooth.

So we can make teeth look however we want them to look and give really beautiful smiles, treating a large number of teeth.

Patients are often a bit worried about how things are going to look at the very end.

The way that I work is we go through a process where there shouldn't really be any surprises along the way.

We talk to the patient initially and find out what it is that they like and what they don't like.

Sometimes they bring pictures of things they do and don't like.

When we fit the final veneers, it should be something that the patient is expecting and they know what they're going to get.

There shouldn't really be any surprises on the day.

Sometimes a patient will look at their own smile.

They know something's not quite right, but they don't really know what it is.

They rely on us to be able to signpost what that is and therefore what the solution might be.

So that really, really helps.

I think it's really important when you seek this sort of care that you see somebody who's very experienced and who knows what they're doing.

I've been qualified for nearly 30 years, and I’ve spent a lot of that time doing cosmetic aesthetic treatment.

I have a master's degree in restorative dentistry and I'm one of about a dozen accredited members of the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry in the UK.

There are about 16 or 17 dentists accredited in the UK. I'm one of those, I've been accredited for about 12 or 13 years now, and I also act as an examiner on that accreditation process.

It's essential that patients learn to look after their teeth properly and that everything is stable and healthy, so that when we put in new work, they know how to look after it and can get the best longevity out of it.

If they're going to do this sort of treatment, they want these things to last a long time and look good for a long time.

That relies on really good home care.