At 57, I knocked a decade off my teeth and face without any needles, swelling or recovery time. This is exactly how I did it and how you can too

Of all the non-surgical tweakments I’ve tried that promise to turn back the clock, one has instantly and painlessly knocked a decade off my face – no needles, swelling or downtime.

The only thing I had to do was lie for five hours in a dentist’s chair listening to podcasts – so relaxing, my fitness tracker registered an epic nap.

It’s cosmetic dental contouring – a smile makeover using fine slivers of composite bonding (the same material as a white filling) to improve the lustre, shape and symmetry of your teeth, while subtly filling in gaps and smoothing unsightly edges. It’s a paint job that improves your smile immeasurably – but still looks like you.

In dentistry, just as in facial aesthetics, there’s a move towards undetectable treatments. It’s rarer to see the dazzling white blocky veneers of the noughties, where every tooth (and every celebrity) looked identical. Even Simon Cowell doesn’t have his signature X Factor smile any more.

Things have even gone the other way, with quirky grins – as seen on White Lotus actress Aimee Lou Wood – being celebrated.

However, looking ‘cool and interesting’ does not extend to looking ‘lived in’. No one wants their teeth to tell of late-night Merlots, anxious grinding and tearing open HRT patches in a head-to-toe sweat.

This is where cosmetic contouring comes in.

‘We can make slightly crooked teeth look straighter,’ says Dr Edward Li, principal dentist at the a.b.c smile in London. (If you have crooked teeth, you may need straightening work such as invisible aligners first). ‘We can make uneven edges look symmetrical and we can make slightly darker teeth look lighter.’

Greying teeth come to us all, says Dr Li, when I ask him why my regular teeth whitening doesn’t seem as effective.

The reason is that our teeth become thinner and more translucent with age. This glassiness means the light doesn’t bounce off them as well and so they appear dull.

Because they are more see-through, the natural orange of the dentine inside the tooth is more visible, as is the black cave of the mouth behind it – hence the grey.

This limits the effect that whitening can have, says Dr Li, ‘so combining whitening with subtle touches of composite bonding to add an extra layer of glassy white, helps to reverse the appearance’.

That doesn’t mean that whitening is pointless. It’s a key step before cosmetic contouring, which is still dependent on the underlying colour of your teeth.

So my first ­procedure was to have custom-made trays and to spend four to six weeks whitening with hydrogen peroxide gel every other night. Going ­gently (i.e. not every night) reduces sensitivity.

You don’t have to forego red wine and coffee during that time – it’s a myth that whitening makes your teeth more porous; it stems from when whitening gels were much stronger (now illegal in the UK).

To stop your teeth staining so much in the first place, Dr Li advises having a glass of water after your coffee or turmeric latte (turmeric is the worst, apparently) to rinse. It’s the ‘lingering’ period afterwards when the teeth gradually acquire colour ‘not the short window it takes to drink a tea or coffee’ that stains.

He has no love for abrasive whitening toothpastes. Better to have a good polish at your hygienist to restore a youthful shine. Those who are serious about their smiles see their hygienist every three months.

And forget anything with blue LED, at home or in the dentist’s chair. You may have seen these devices on social media, but they do nothing.

True, their heat can accelerate chemical processes, says Dr Li, but it’s no warmer than simply closing your mouth. If the process requires you to keep your mouth open for 15-20 minutes, your teeth will look whiter only because they dehydrated without saliva.

With my whitening completed, I return for the cosmetic contouring process.

Dr Li layers on up to five wafer thin slivers of colour to my top six and bottom four teeth in an ombre effect, blending them into my natural enamel near the gum line. Our teeth naturally have varying shades and textures and Dr Li’s artistry gives mine a lifelike depth.

B eing ‘long in the tooth’ with receding gums may be synonymous with being past your prime, but who’s looking at your gum line unless you are a horse?

What’s more telling is the way we become ‘long in the philtrum’. As gravity drags our faces towards our feet, this channel between the nose and the mouth droops, often completely covering our top teeth. This has an ageing effect because our subconscious likes to see teeth when we see someone talk or lightly smile. ‘We like to see one to two millimetres of at least the middle two teeth,’ says Dr Li.

I am happy when he makes my top teeth a little longer, so they now peep out from below my lip. People self-conscious about their teeth often actively pull their philtrum down. With this smile makeover, that ageing behaviour changes too.

This is modern artistic ­dentistry and one of the best age-proofing tweakments you can have done.

Cosmetic contouring costs from £495 per tooth at the a.b.c smile (abc.dental). Victoria’s treatment cost £5,500 for contouring ten teeth