Summer in St. Louis is busy in the best way possible. Our calendars fill up fast with everything from wedding receptions at the Jewel Box in Forest Park and family reunions at the Missouri Botanical Garden, to lake trips, vacations, and the eventual rush to get the kids ready for a new school year.
It is also the season where we take more photos than any other time of the year.
When you’re trying to keep everyone healthy through these chaotic months, running back and forth between a pediatric clinic for the kids and a separate cosmetic studio across town for yourself is the last thing you want to do. That is why so many people are turning to aesthetic family dentistry.
By choosing a dental home that handles everyday family care with an artistic, cosmetic eye, you get one local team that can keep the whole household healthy, picture-ready, and completely taken care of if an unexpected accident pops up.
What is Aesthetic Family Dentistry, Really?
Most people assume they have to choose between two different kinds of dentists: a traditional family dentist who handles routine cleanings and fillings, and a cosmetic dentist who focuses purely on things like veneers or whitening.
Aesthetic family dentistry blends those two ideas together.
Our approach is simple: whether it’s your child’s very first checkup, or a parent’s dental crown, everything is done with an eye for detail. We don’t think you should ever have to sacrifice how a tooth looks just to make it functional.
When a practice operates this way, it changes the level of care everyone in your house receives. A basic cavity repair isn’t just a physical patch; it’s a seamless restoration that completely blends into the natural tooth. A crown isn’t just built to let you chew comfortably; it’s shaped and matched to look exactly like the teeth next to it. You get beautiful, high-end results inside a comfortable, friendly family office.
Preparing Your Smile for Summer Milestones
With so many life events packed into a few short months, different generations of your household have different dental needs. Here is how we look out for everyone:
A Quick Refresh for Parents
If you are getting ready to host a family reunion, speak at a summer conference, or stand in a friend’s wedding, you want to feel completely confident when the cameras come out. Simple treatments like a professional whitening session or quick composite dental bonding can remove years of coffee or tea stains and fix minor chips in a single, relaxed afternoon.
Easy Summer Checkups for Kids
Booking your children’s routine cleanings and exams during the summer means they won’t have to miss critical school hours later in the year. Plus, simple protective steps help safeguard their teeth against all the ice cream, soda, and sweet treats that tend to come with summer break. According to the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, painting protective sealants onto children’s back teeth prevents up to 80% of cavities, giving parents a massive safety net through the sugary summer months.
Balancing Cosmetic Care with Trusted Emergency Support
While summer is great for photos, it’s also the peak season for outdoor injuries. Between slippery pool decks, little league doubleheaders, and bike rides around the neighborhood, accidents happen in a split second. If an accident causes someone in your household to lose a permanent tooth, following immediate Mayo Clinic dental first aid steps within the first hour gives your dentist the absolute best chance of saving the natural smile.
The benefit of an aesthetic family practice is that we can handle a sudden emergency instantly, but we do it with the training needed to ensure the final repair looks completely natural.
If someone in your house chips a tooth or gets a severe toothache right before a family vacation, you don’t want to spend your day waiting in a cold emergency room. Our team leaves open slots in our daily schedule so we can offer quick, same-day relief when you need it most.
Whether we are saving a tooth with a gentle root canal or using a custom porcelain crown to fix a bad break, we focus on stopping the pain immediately while making sure your smile looks like nothing ever happened.
Stress-Free Technology for the Whole Family
We know that dental anxiety is a very real hurdle for both kids and adults. According to a large-scale study published by the American Dental Association, over 72% of American adults admit to experiencing some form of dental fear or anxiety. This hesitation often causes families to delay essential care until a minor issue evolves into a complex problem down the road.
We do things differently by using modern, comfort-focused technology that takes the stress out of your appointments:
- Gentle, Minimal Drilling: We prioritize keeping as much of your natural tooth intact as possible. By using highly precise materials and quieter instruments, we can fix early decay with less noise and much more comfort.
- Easy Sedation Options: If your child is nervous about an appointment, or if you have been avoiding the dentist for years due to anxiety, we offer a completely judgment-free environment. With personalized Sedation Dentistry Options—including relaxing nitrous oxide (laughing gas) and oral conscious sedation—we can ensure your visit is completely peaceful and pain-free.
Simple, Convenient Care Under One Roof
Running a busy household takes a lot of coordination. Trying to juggle different appointments at three different offices across St. Louis is exhausting.
We try to make things as simple as possible. By keeping your care under one roof, multiple generations of your family can get their routine Family Dentistry Care from the same team you already know and trust. You never have to start over with a stranger.
Even better, staying with one dedicated team means your doctors actually get to know your dental history. Because we watch your family’s smiles grow and change over the years, we understand what you want your smile to look like, and how to keep you comfortable.
To make planning easy, we work directly with a wide variety of PPO insurance plans. For elective cosmetic treatments or out-of-pocket costs, we partner with trusted healthcare financing platforms like CareCredit, LendingClub, Proceed, and Cherry to offer flexible monthly payments and zero-down, interest-free terms.
Take the First Step
Your family’s smiles are worth protecting. This summer, give your household the gift of healthy, confident smiles that you’ll love seeing in photos for years to come.
Voted the Best Dental Practice in Metro St. Louis by the Post-Dispatch in both 2024 and 2025, and with a 4.9-star rating across more than 600 Google reviews, St. Louis County Dental is proud to look after our community.
Whether you want to completely update your look with Cosmetic Dentistry, need to book routine cleanings, or want to come in for a $1 New Patient Smile Consultation, our Kirkwood team is ready to help.
Ready to get started? Schedule Your Family Appointment Online or give us a call today at (314) 965-6503.