Again, I have to put a ’shout out’ to the Synergy Dental Partners. I started purchasing my supplies here a few months ago and have saved significantly on the SAME items I was ordering elsewhere. I have no financial interest in the company, other than saving me (and hopefully you!) some money. Take a look here.
And here’s the final result:
The patient was thrilled to have this area filled in! We’ll get him back soon for a ‘final’ photo, after the tissue has healed completely and the teeth have re-hydrated (they get a bit dried out during the bonding process).
As you can tell, I obviously did not think these teeth were in need of veneers. A little bonding and a few minutes later they looked like new! I told the patient that she might EVENTUALLY need more definitive restorations (veneers) but for now the bonding was the easiest, least invasive, least expensive alternative. She was thrilled with the results!
The orthodontist moved the teeth and carefully created the ideal space for a lateral incisor:
Stone model during orthodontics
Ok. Just a little bit into the tooth and you can already tell there’s a more going on inside than you could originally see.
Hidden cavity
Although this had been fractured for many years, this nice lady agreed to have the tooth repaired after additional small pieces fractured off. And she was heading overseas for an extended trip, too. So we wanted to be sure she had no problems on her trip.
fractured tooth
This was a tough deal. This poor man was on a camping trip with his kids in the middle-of-nowhere when his porcelain crown broke. He managed to slip it back into place and showed up to see us with the piece in hand.
Broken porcelain
So a few minutes later we had bonded some composite onto the tooth, replacing the fractured corner. This was accomplished by layering different shades of the material to simulate the internal colors of the tooth, then covering it with a different shade that was more like the patient’s own enamel. The result was a repaired tooth that looked and felt like the original.
Repaired tooth
And the final product. To look at these teeth you’d never know they originally had such large cavities. And one or both of these will end up having crowns ‘down the road’ due to the extensive damage and amount of tooth that was destroyed from the decay.
Yes, there’s more here than you’d think. Here’s what these teeth looked like after we started cleaning them out. Looks like a lot more is there than when we first saw them!
