The NC Dental Society is sponsoring a free dental clinic this summer here in Charlotte. This is a fantastic effort by organized dentistry to help those truly in need. Watch the video and you’ll want to help too!
And here’s a final look at our before:
Fractured bonding
And after whitening and 2 veneers:
Final Veneer photos
A photo of the new veneers. Again, since these are brand new the tissue has not had time to completely mature around the veneers. In a few more weeks the tissue will look perfect, just like these new teeth!!
New veneers
Here’s another view of these teeth. You can see some of the fractured bonding, but more importantly, look at the relation of the top and bottom teeth and the inward angulation of the top teeth. The primary reason these teeth, and the bonding that is on them, continue to fracture is a ‘tooth-positional’ problem. They are in the wrong place. So the obvious solution would be to move edge of the top front teeth OUT, and the edge of the bottom front teeth IN. This would position these teeth more ideally, so that when we restored them with veneers they would function properly and last a long time. Would you consider orthodontics if you were in this situation??
The easiest, fastest way to at least temporarily fix this tooth was some bonding. Yes, it will DEFINITELY need a more definitive restoration (a crown) in the near future. But this will get him out the door and looking presentable!
This young man has recently finished braces, and the orthodontist sent him to us because of the gap that was left between these two teeth. All the other teeth were placed ideally, and if this space was closed the other teeth would be in the wrong spot so they would not function correctly or look right. So we talked about bonding to solve the problem.
For those of you involved in the dental industry, here’s a quick story. I had been purchasing my dental supplies for years and years from one of the ‘big’ dental supply companies. I really liked my dental rep, but the company basically treated my like dirt. Anyway, along comes Synergy Dental. They’re a group purchasing organization that has gotten special pricing from Darby Dental Supply, Brasseler USA, Orascoptic, and others. Anyway, I’ve already saved a bunch of money just by ordering the SAME supplies through them. You really should check it out.
And FYI, I have NO financial interest in the company at all.
….and the laterals were bonded to close the spaces and make ideally-sized teeth:
After the bonding to close the spaces and re-create the correct tooth proportion
Ultimately we decided to go with the first discussed option…..leaving ideal spaces and then bonding them closed. Now I have to warn you—-the orthodontist has to be VERY good for this work. If not, you will end with two teeth that do not match in size or proportion. Here’s the first tooth, before and after:
Small tooth with spaces before bonding
Tooth after bonding to close spaces and correct the size
We (the orthodontist and myself) discussed our two options.
1. Move the lateral incisors into the middle of the spaces, bond the teeth to make them ideal for size and proportion, finish the orthodontics.
2. Complete the ortho, leaving ideal spacing for the laterals, THEN bond the teeth after the orthodontics is finished.
Both are fairly difficult. We’ll talk about them in separate posts.
