Case study
Case Study 3
24 year old male originally presented on September 1st, 2021 for a comprehensive exam and to establish care as a patient in our office. His chief complaint: “It’s been years since I have been happy with the appearance of my front teeth. I am ready for a change. I am ready to make them look better. I really feel this will impact my career potential and give me more self-confidence.”
step one
step ONE
We did address his smile and his options. Our practice philosophy is that we look at the whole person and the whole smile. We felt that before we could start on his front teeth, he had a few other dental issues that needed to be taken care of. He had a root canal that I wanted evaluated by an endodontist to make sure there was no infection. He also had one area of decay (cavity) that we needed to take care of. The patient was happy to comply and we had all that taken care of, as well and an amazing visit with our hygiene team where they performed GBT (Guided Biofilm Therapy). This is the most advanced technique to clean teeth with an antimicrobial powder while removing the harmful biofilm around teeth. Biofilm is where the plaque and bacteria sit, grow and cause problems.
Back to the super fun stuff: We presented a plan to him to veneer the upper 10 teeth. He has a wide smile and I wanted to make sure this treatment had the most impact possible. The patient is a planner, and he chose to save his money and let us know when he was ready to proceed.
Fast forward 1 year: he is back and ready to proceed with his cosmetic work. This is where the case took a little turn (for the better). We re-evaluated his photos, smile and HIS DESIRES. When we looked at everything, we actually agreed that we would veneer his front 6 teeth, not the original 10 that we had planned. We discussed color change and what that would mean as far as blending of colors. We all know the person we see that had a “few” teeth veneered but not nearly enough (google Matthew Perry smile). I felt he had great tooth structure and a great foundation to proceed.
Now we take specific records on the patient: a photo series, measurements, and digital scan. With these records we work with a highly skilled cosmetic lab. Our lab, based out of McKinney Texas, has skilled technicians that spent time hand waxing this patient’s case to the ideal proportions I had laid out in my lab script to them. This is how we smile design. The lab sends me the case back in wax and this is our template for his new smile!
step two
step two
Prep Day. August 15th, 2022.
Patient presents excited and ready for his new smile. At today’s appointment we will prep tooth #’s: 6,7,8,9,10 and 11 for porcelain veneers. At this appointment we also need to provide the lab with specific and very accurate digital scans of the patients tooth preparations. We accomplish this with our digital technology of our ITERO scanner. With this advanced technology we no longer need to take messy impressions that patients worry about. After we scan the patient we take a series of photos again to capture the color of the teeth and the color we are desiring when this process is done.
step three
step three
When patient leaves after that first BIG appointment, they leave with the TRIAL SMILE we designed for them but in a temporary state. These temporaries are functional and beautiful. This made the patient even more excited for the porcelain restorations that the lab is fabricating. When I followed up with the patient, he said his whole family loved the teeth and someone had even commented on his “Hollywood smile.”
step four
step four
After 4 weeks lab time, the patient returns for porcelain try-in. We always hope to permanently seat the restorations that day, but we want them to be patient approved before we do.
step five
step five
Day of seating these beautiful restorations. We have to be mindful that gum tissue is irritated and little scratched from what we did to cement these restorations.
We LOVE to take post op photos approximately 2 weeks after our seat dates. This lets us get photos of the patient while their lip isn’t numb and they are healed and ready to shine!
step six
final step
This patient’s whole persona changed. He quit is current job and is following his passion for creativity and formed his own media company quickly getting a huge client in an area he was passionate about.
