We resurfaced the bonding on her lateral incisor, leaving the existing bonding on her canine tooth (That will be resurfaced later).  The change was dramatic. It was an easy fix and got this young lady off to college with a new, brighter smile.  A few years from now we’ll consider some conservative veneers.

You’re gonna love this one.  We recently saw this young lady for a 3rd opinion.  She previously had some bonding on a few front teeth that was getting a little older.  She was heading to college and hoped to improve the overall esthetics of her front teeth. The options she was initially presented included veneers alone, or veneers and crowns. Here’s what things looked like initially:

But, when the tooth is opened up, look what’s inside:

This was NOT evident when you looked at the tooth (see below) and was only found with an x-ray.

We tried to save her current, new crown with some bonding and, at the same time add back to the other tooth. This was a quick, painless repair and got her on her way and back to work in no time!

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.

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!!

Look at this tooth. It’s a mess. And it’s just downright ugly.

And here’s the beautiful portrait photo of the patient after having completed her work. She’s SO excited about her new teeth….and so are we!!

So remember where we started? The original teeth were thin, worn, and discolored.

And, with the proper planning and great teamwork, we get to here:

And here’s the final result, along with a photo of where we started. Remember, these teeth were symptom free but definitely had cavities hiding in the grooves. So if your dentist talks about some spots with a cavity starting and wants to complete a filling, don’t wait! Take care of it now while it’s small!