Archives for December 2018

Boss Wants Me to Straighten My Teeth

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My boss called me into his office. He started off by telling me he felt awkward saying this but he thinks I’ll understand in the long run. I was so afraid I was about to be fired. Instead, he said, “I want to give you a big promotion, but you’ll need to straighten and whiten your teeth to get it.” I was puzzled until he explained that I’ll be their Public Relations person as well as a division leader. The PR post would require me doing media interviews, which means I’d need a pretty smile in order to make a positive impression. The money would be super worth any expense. It’s a huge promotion and he was right that I’d completely understand. I want to do this right. What do you suggest?

Madison

Dear Madison,

side by side of a smile with braces and a smile with Invisalign

First, let me say congratulations! What a promotion that is. I’m sure you’re thrilled. You have a couple of great choices to meet your cosmetic goals.

Straighten Your Teeth With Invisalign

Invisalign is a type of invisible orthodontics which is ideal for adults who which to straighten their teeth without a mouth full of metal. They use clear aligners. The image above shows a comparison of someone smiling with both braces and Invisalign. They tend to also work more quickly than braces as well.

If you go this route, the aligners can double as teeth whitening trays allowing you to straighten and whiten your teeth at the same time.

Remake Your Smile with Porcelain Veneers

If you don’t care about straightening your teeth and just want them to look straight, you can get a total smile makeover with porcelain veneers.

These use tiny wafers of porcelain to change the shape, size, and color of your teeth simultaneously. They have two big benefits for you.

  • They will be a faster procedure than Invisalign
  • They can completely change your smile, making it celebrity beautiful almost instantly

Their drawback is they’re much more expensive than the first option I gave you. Either one will give you the smile you need for your promotion.

Best of luck to you and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

This blog is brought to you by East Cobb Dentist Dr. Cristi Cheek.

Store Bought TMJ Device

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I’m in the middle of cancer treatments, which comes with thousands of dollars in medical bills. I think it’s the stress but I suspect I’ve started grinding my teeth again because my TMJ is acting up. When I first had it, the dentist made me this device. I no longer have the device but noticed the stores have something similar that’s a one size fits all. Could I just get that? I don’t have a lot of money right now and I need to deal with this jaw pain.

Harriet

Dear Harriet,

a woman holding her jaw from TMJ pain

First, let me say I’m sorry for what you’re going through. I know several people with cancer and it’s not an easy treatment plan to deal with. You’re in our thoughts. Second, I understand the cost issue. Here’s what I’m going to suggest.

If the absolute only thing you can afford is the store bought mouthguard, get that. It’s better than nothing and will at least protect your teeth from the grinding. However, because of its poor quality, you will grind through it and need to purchase them multiple times until you stop grinding.

However, TMJ devices are a tad different than just a mouth guard. While a mouth guard protects you from grinding, the TMJ device will reposition your jaw to a healthy position if it’s out of alignment. The store-bought device will not do that.

See your dentist to find out if the jaw pain is from the grinding or something to do with alignment. If it’s grinding and you want to stick with the store bought device, go ahead. If it’s alignment, you’ll need professional treatment.

There are insurance policies that will at least cover it partially. If your insurance won’t cover it, you can try Care Credit. It’s a medical credit card that allows you to get the treatment and then pay off the cost in low-interest payments. No-interest plans are also available.

Dental Care and Cancer

Most doctors will let you know this, but it is extremely important you keep up your regular dental care during your cancer treatments. Chemo and radiation play havoc on teeth. You’ll have unexpected cavities, even if you’ve never had any before if you don’t get regular treatment.

A small bit of prevention will protect you from needing dental crowns or worse.

This blog is brought to you by East Cobb Dentist Dr. Cristi Cheek.

Same Day Crown Disaster

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I have four crowns. One of them failed due to age. So I needed to get that re-done. The old crowns were done by a different dentist. The new dentist prefers to do same day crowns. I thought it would be great because I wouldn’t need a temporary and two appointments. I wish I hadn’t though. It looks awful. It’s obviously a fake tooth compared to the rest and one of the ones next to it is a crown as well. It that because it is a same day crown?

Deleth

Dear Deleth,

Block of porcelain for a CEREC restoration

Same day crowns are milled from a block of porcelain

Same day crowns (sometimes called CEREC crowns) are great restorations. If your crown looks fake, unless it is a very front tooth, it is not because it’s a CEREC crown.

The more likely problem is the dentist. Creating the look of a tooth is an art form. It is very likely your first dentist, who originally did your crowns, has a more artistic eye than your new dentist. There are many different skill levels when it comes to creating beautiful work.

You can ask him to re-do the crown to see if you get better results, however, if the problem is his skill, I doubt you’ll get any better results. My suggestion is you ask for a refund and try a different dentist.

Same Day Crowns On a Front Tooth

Above, I mentioned an exception to the problem being a same day crown. If it was on one of your very front teeth, that could explain it looking fake compared to the rest. CEREC crowns are milled from a single block of porcelain, which would look pretty uniform.

Our teeth aren’t uniform. Instead, they have varied subtleties and parts of it are more translucent than others. If you’ve got a uniform tooth next to a varied one, then it is going to look fake.

Because of this, most dentists prefer to use traditional all-porcelain crowns. They are made from several different blocks of porcelain in order to mimic the differences in your teeth.

The exception to everything I just said is if you go to one of the top 1% of dentists who will use color changes in the porcelain to mimic the variations. But, even they will need several try-ins before getting things exactly so.

This blog is brought to you by Marietta cosmetic dentist Dr. Cristi Cheek.