This young lady has just finished her braces. The orthodontist did an excellent job, but there is still a problem when you look at her smile. Any ideas??
The teeth we were going to fix had many old fillings that were breaking down, had worn edges, an old crown that no longer matched, and were dark and discolored. They needed some help! We started by first whitening all her teeth. Again…..this is where we were starting:
And here’s another of the veneer photos. The tissue now has had a few weeks to fully mature, so you can see how the papilla (the piece of gum tissue we have between our teeth that extends down to a point) has begun to drop into place. Again, no sensitivity and one happy, happy patient!!
Veneers on central incisors
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
So here’s the discussion: To move or not To move. These front teeth were in the wrong position, and the best way to treat this would have been to orthodontically correct the ‘end-to-end’ bite (or another way of putting it is ‘tip-to-tip’). The patient discussed this option with an orthodontist, but in the end decided she could not really afford the braces AND veneers. So our compromise was to re-contour the lower front teeth adequately so that the top teeth had room to function and operate efficiently. This was the PERFECT solution for our patient. She couldn’t wait to finally get her veneers!
Fractured bonding
So to review….this patient has a fractured front tooth that will need a crown. But he’s not ready for that yet, and still wants to have a better looking smile.
A few minutes later, the tooth is once again presentable and will function well for the near future.
So this gentleman is not ready to crown his teeth, but there is a large fracture. It doesn’t hurt, but esthetically it looks less than ideal. He’d like a temporary ‘fix’ until we can crown it (which, again, he is not ready to do right now). What to do???
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.
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!
Here’s a patient that was told she’d need veneers due to the ’severe’ chipping and breakage of her front teeth. Now of course she didn’t like how the teeth looked, but she wondered if she really need something as costly and invasive as a veneer. Take a look below….what do you think??
Chipped, broken teeth-before bonding
