Smile Design

Just got back from another California Center for Advanced Dental Studies cosmetic dentistry seminar weekend. You could sub-title these seminars 'Smile Design Seminars', or even 'Life-Changing Face Changing Seminars'. That sounds like hyperbole, but let me describe for you one of the cases I saw.

The CCADA doctor/instructors showed us, with slides, a lady who looked to be in her late fifties. She was tired. Her face sagged. Her hair was not done well; neither was her make-up. Turned out, her teeth were ugly and she never smiled because she was so embarrassed by how crooked and discolored those teeth were.

So they fixed her teeth with porcelain veneers. Some teeth required more re-shaping than others, owing either to degree of discoloration or crookedness, but basically, 0.3 to 0.5 mms of tooth structure was removed from the front surfaces of the teeth which allows for the thickness of the porcelain veneers.

When the case was completed, her teeth were straight and uniform and very pretty. The ten front teeth had been restored to more youthful lengths and contours. She probably couldn't stop smiling and looking at herself smiling. She looked ten years younger,

Here's the life-changing part. Because she was smiling a lot, her facial muscles toned up and her face stopped sagging. She started wearing make-up and fixing her hair.

And they told us that her health improved, that she worked on and dramatically improved her fitness level, and that she got a better job.

Fixing this lady's smile, giving her back her smile, really did give this lady 'a new lease on life'.