How a cosmetic dentist can transform a smile using orthodontic treatment, dental veneers, and dental implants.
Dental discussion:
This cosmetic dentistry makeover will require orthodontic treatment.
We did something with this picture that we don't usually do,
we edited a cosmetic dentistry smile makeover case where orthodontic treatment will be needed.
Our usual intention is to only show those kinds smile transformations that the typical general dentist who is interested in cosmetic dentistry can provide.
Since most orthodontic work should be left to an orthodontist (a type of dental specialist) we typically aren't interested in simulating its use in our smile makeover cases.
With this picture two things impressed us so contrary to our usual policy we decided to go ahead and edit it.
First off this picture suggests that this person puts good effort into keeping their teeth and gums healthy.
This is commendable. We like seeing that. The other aspect of this picture that impressed us is that
it is IN FOCUS (take a hint anybody submitting a photo).
This smile's cosmetic dilemma ...
The crux of the problem with this smile is that this person is missing two permanent teeth.
You can clearly visualize her upper two center teeth.
These teeth are called central incisors and although there is a gap between them (a diastema) they look like normal healthy teeth.
Now, when you look to the side of each of her central incisors you do see teeth but these teeth are actually
this person's eyeteeth (cuspids), not the lateral incisors that should be present. So from eyetooth to eyetooth, whereas most people
will have six teeth this person only has four. Just for your own information, the teeth on each side behind her eyeteeth
are actually baby teeth (deciduous teeth) that were never lost.
Our cosmetic dilemma with this makeover case lies in the fact that when we look at a smile we expect to see six teeth.
Each of these teeth having their own characteristic and relative shapes and sizes.
If we decided to include the baby teeth in our count we could total six teeth but the whole relative "shapes and sizes" thing would still be off.
Cosmetic dentistry treatment plan:
There just really isn't any way to take the teeth that are present and only by performing dental work on them transform them into the typical looking smile.
Instead here's the only cosmetic dentistry treatment plan we would have to suggest:
The baby teeth need to be extracted.
Orthodontic treatment (braces) needs to be used so to bring the eyeteeth back into their normal position and to close the gap between the two center teeth.
Once this realignment has been completed the lateral incisors need to be replaced.
This could be accomplished by placing two dental implants, two dental bridges, or even a removable partial denture.
Our "after" picture illustrates shape changes for both the central incisors and the eyeteeth.
These shape changes could be accomplished as a part of the dental bridges treatment if that approach was chosen.
In the case of replacing the missing teeth with dental implants or a removable partial denture, the shape changes illustrated could be accomplished by placing either dental crowns or dental veneers.
The cosmetic dentist performing this work would need to make the decision about which of these types of dental restorations would be the most appropriate.
Additional notes about our cosmetic dentistry treatment plan.
Even though our "after" picture does not illustrate it, when the orthodontic treatment is performed all of the alignment irregularities of the teeth other than just the upper six could be corrected also.