Mark was a very satisfying and fun case for us. He was born with 3 congenitally missing teeth – including his upper left lateral incisor. That is the tooth directly to the left of your upper front left tooth. As a teenager, he had orthodontic treatment, bone grafting, and then implants placed. When the crowns were done many years ago at another office, let’s just say he wasn’t very happy.
Mark lived like this for nearly fifteen years. Because of his teeth, he never smiled. He came to us frustrated and hoping we could help. Here are pre-op photos:
Pre-op photos of our patient Mark. The top photo is with him smiling, and the other one is him retracted. Ouch! No wonder he wasn’t happy! And he lived this way for nearly fifteen years.
We came back with a long list of what was wrong. This included:
- Uneven and chipped edges of the upper front teeth.
- His upper left lateral incisor was not long enough nor did it have the proper shape – leading to a “black hole” when he smiled.
- Chipped bonding.
- Poor shade match for the bottom implant crowns (can you guess the two?)
- In general, an asymmetric smile.
We had our work cut out for us. But we love challenges! We immediately came up with a plan to address his concerns. Our plan involved:
- Three new implant crowns – with a particular focus on shade and shape.
- New bonding on select teeth.
- Esthetic recontouring of all his front teeth.
After more than one visit, these are some of the results we achieved:
Before and after photos. His smile is now basically symmetrical; you don’t even notice his upper left implant crown. Needless to say, Mark was very happy. Photos and dentistry Dr. Nicholas Calcaterra.
And here is another before and after set showing Mark’s smile:
Before and after showing Mark’s smile. In the before photo, you immediately notice the black hole on his upper left. That is now gone! In the after photo, we had him open a bit so you could see how natural his upper teeth looked. Photos and dentistry by Dr. Nicholas Calcaterra.
As usual, we think the photos speak for themselves. But even more powerful is this: Mark smiles all the time now!
