it's time to smile with confidence
After going through life without a smile, Anna's aesthetic dentistry opens up a new life Many people feel self conscious about their teeth or their smiles, but our patient Anna went through much of her life feeling like "a freak." She says she was born with "really bad teeth." They were far apart and some even were missing; she had trouble chewing and she only had four molars. Although she still doesn't know why she was born with such teeth, she grew up feeling grotesque. Once asked by a photographer to smile, she told her, "I don't have a smile."
When she hit the emotionally tough age of thirteen, Anna met a dentist who had an idea for covering up her dental problems. He designed an "appliance" which fit over her teeth and sheathed her mouth in plastic. The appliance allowed Anna to appear normal, but behind the scenes she felt like she lived a secret life geared at hiding the device. She had to glue it into her mouth and worry that it might fall out or break (it sometimes did): it caused sores and pain, it prevented her from eating a lot of different types of food and it limited her normal social interactions.
Anna resigned herself to the fact that she would wear the appliance until she had all of her teeth pulled and got dentures. Dentists suggested they could give her braces, but she didn't have the luxury of exposing her own teeth for six months because her career required her to be constantly in front of people. It wasn't until she began visiting Dr. Schutte for regular preventative care that Anna heard a solution that she thought would actually work. Dr. Schutte suggested braces as well, but when Anna explained her need to be presentable in public during the transition, the dentist came up with a more workable plan.
Instead of telling Anna she would need to suffer through the six months, as other dentists had, she designed a treatment plan that would create an acceptable smile through the orthodontic process.
"Anna's case was extremely unusual and required a unique solution. In addition to her self-esteem, her teeth were beginning to deteriorate under the denture," Dr. Schutte says. "We decided the best course of action was to add cosmetic dental materials to her existing teeth. Her orthodontist then put braces on that same day." This approach allowed Anna to throw away her "appliance." As movement took place, Dr. Schutte recontoured the shape of Anna's teeth to help guide them in the correct location. Once her teeth were in the proper position, she shaped them and placed beautiful restorations to reinvent Anna's smile and restore her confidence.
"It sounded simple when Dr. Schutte explained it, but no one else thought to do what she did," Anna says. She adds that the difference in her new smile is self esteem she never had before. The aesthetic changes to her mouth also allow her to better taste food, chew anything, and speak without a lisp. "When someone wants to take a picture or offers me a bite of something I couldn't eat before, I celebrate my triumph," she says. "I smile all the time now."
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