Cosmetic Care

By the time that I saw this patient, he had several unsuccessful filling restorations done to try to rebuild the broken biting edge of the right front tooth. We were able to determine that no matter how many fillings were done, they would all fail due to the inherent position of the tooth (leaned back creating pressure on the edge of the tooth). We discussed using a same day crown restoration to provide “instant orthodontics” for the tooth, match the very complex shade of the front tooth, and give him the ability to use the tooth confidently and smile without the embarrassment of a broken front tooth. We accomplished this feat of engineering, art, and science in only 2 ½ hours and we have one very happy patient.

Simple words for this very complex case. Our wonderful patient was a complete dental phobic that had postponed any level of dentistry for years before meeting myself and my team of professionals. We are in the process of creating a whole new her over the span of time. She is over her dental phobia and is actively moving through phased dental reconstruction designed to give her the confidence to smile wide and proud. I know I smile wide and proud when I see or even think of her.

This fastidious, proud female patient came to me and asked if we could do orthodontics to close a space she had between her teeth as she was sick and tired of having to excuse herself from meals to dig food out from between her teeth. I told her we could do her one better and not make her go through years of braces for that single problem… we could do “instant orthodontics” using PlanScan to close the space. She signed on immediately, we did our job in 2 ½ hours (not 2+ years) and she does not catch food in that area anymore.

This wonderful girl has been a patient of mine for many years. She was born with a missing lateral incisor, a very small and misshapen lateral incisor on the other side. We worked with her and her parents to create a plan using orthodontic care, periodontal cosmetic surgery, implants, crowns and veneers to give her a smile to “knock the world’s socks off”. I think we did just that. She is a proud and very smiley college student now and a complete fan of Dr. Bologna and DDS for changing her life.

This young lady came to me with a problem. She said, “I am a multi-sport athlete and I have broken my front teeth and I am embarrassed to smile because of it.” She and her mother had been told she would have to have veneer restorations done on at least 6 to 8 of her front teeth (with weeks in temps as a lab made the new front teeth) in order to repair the damage to the front 2 teeth in order to provide a good match and long-term stability. I told them both that this was ludicrous and we restored ONLY the 2 front teeth, provided a perfect match in a single day in about 3 ½ hours. She smiles all the time now with confidence and true beauty inside and out.

This patient felt that over the years, her front teeth had become chipped, discolored, and crooked. She even considered doing limited orthodontic treatment to straighten the teeth. When we discussed this option, she realized that while straight would be better she would still be left with the chipped and discolored problem. We decided instead to do two veneers on the front teeth and in approximately 3 ½ hours we had answered all of her problems with her front teeth. She is ecstatic with the result of her new smile.

This lovely patient gave us exactly one day before she was to start her college life to help to close the gap that had formed between her two front teeth since she had her braces off years earlier. We gave her the option to go back to the orthodontist or have invisible braces in the office… she flatly declined both as time and no love for the braces process were fresh in her mind. We got her in and in a single day created her new smile with no space between the teeth, a whiter and bigger smile, and in her words “a perfect smile” emerged. She was even able to stay on time for her date with college.

This guy is a real man’s man. He hunts, fishes, plays hard, and works hard. He used his teeth as tools in all of those pursuits and totally destroyed the edges of the teeth in the process. He hated the way the broken teeth made him look far older than he really was, but he hated in his words “the way that front teeth end up looking so fake when you dentists rebuild them”, so we gave him an alternative. We planned and executed with him a totally natural rebuild to his smile which rebuilt the broken teeth while still maintaining the natural spacing inherent to his smile and mind’s eye image of himself. Being able to listen to patients and work on their desires is the true measure being able to achieve an ideal esthetic result.