We’ve covered this before, but it happens SO often that I still need to post about it. Many teeth can APPEAR to be fine, but they actually have cavities hiding inside. Here’s a normal-looking tooth:
So here’s the story. This young lady was in a rush to get to work, was looking down, and forgot about the glass doors ahead of her. After she ran into them the only damage was to these two teeth. She had just had a new crown placed on her upper right central incisor (the broken tooth on her right, or the left in the photo) just before she moved to town. The other tooth had some bonding. Understandably, she was upset. And we needed a quick fix to get her on her way back to work.
Teeth meet glass door……….teeth lose. Glass door wins.
So that was a bad looking tooth. This looks better. The crown that was placed on this tooth has an all-porcelain margin (that’s the area where the tooth and crown meet). There’s no metal in this area to give the gray appearance you can see so often around crowns. Ask your dentist what esthetic alternatives you have when you are getting a crown. Tell him or her you want it to look as good as this tooth!!
Remember how the front teeth were originally so thin when we started? (see here) Well now look at them.
They look great!
The front teeth have worn so much that they don’t even touch the lower teeth. See here:
Notice how you are able to see through the very thin edges of these teeth. And very little tooth actually shows when her lips are relaxed and at rest. This is something usually seen in someone much older. As we age, the edge of our teeth often will wear, and we show less and less of the tooth. When this happens prematurely it gives us an ‘older’ looking smile.
As I’ve stated before, the best plan when restoring teeth is to start with the end result in mind. This pretty smile is where we finished. Stay tuned to see where we started.
Take a closer look at the final results, and where we started before the appointment. The teeth look SO much better and we really gave this patient something to smile about!!
This patient was busy having a child and wasn’t able to get some much-needed dental work taken care of. Since her child is a little older she was ready to get started. We decided to get started here in the front. These two teeth had obvious cavities around old fillings that were a real detriment to her smile.
