17 Jun
Beautiful Smile, Composite Veneer, Dental Bridge, Root Canal Treatment, Smile Makeover, Whitening

Smile Makeover For Lily – Part 2

THE BEFINNING OF SMILE MAKEOVER

Step 1- Composite Veneers

The first thing I did for Lily is four composite veneers for her upper front teeth.

Why did I choose to do so?

Lily was going to join a new workplace in two weeks time. I needed to do something that had the most impact of her smile.

Base on the smile analysis, people could hardly notice that she had two missing teeth.

The teeth that would affects her smile and image were the four front teeth and hence must be treated first.

Due to the time constraint, her discolored upper right central incisor that needed root canal treatment and internal bleaching (whitening of single tooth from inside the tooth) would be carried out later on.

 

Step 2 – Root Canal Treatment and Internal Bleaching

Base on the investigation results, two teeth required root canal treatment.

It took us about 3 weeks to finish the root canal treatment. Lily was very determined and she came in consistently for her treatment.

From there, we sterted internal bleaching for the discolored upper right central incisor.

Step 3 – Dental bridge

Once the necessary treatments to manage infection were carried out, we moved on to restorative phase.

Lily had two missing premolar, one on the left and one on the right.

After discussion about the treatment options available, Lily prefered to restore the missing teeth with dental bridge.

 

 

We made two fix-fix porcelain bridge for her, just in time for her engagement ceremony.

That was what I promised her, to have the best smile on her engagement ceremony. =)

My heartiest congratulation to Lily!

 

With Love,

Gwen Gan

 

 

 

 

 

17 Jun
Beautiful Smile, Composite Veneer, Dental Bridge, Root Canal Treatment, Smile Makeover, Whitening

Smile Makeover For Lily – Part 1

INTRODUCTION

This blog post is specially dedicated for Lily – a girl who is happy, determined and never give up.

How we met was nothing special, she is a patient and I am a dentist.

She came for dental check up and I was her dentist.

She probably did not expect that our meet up would change her smile and life; and I definitely would not expect that her story would remind me once again how my job could impact someone life.

I want to write this down to remind myself never to forget to be a kind dentist.

THE FIRST MEET UP

Lily had been to many different dentists before seeing me. Her appointment with me was an appointment for scaling.

She is a regular patient in the clinic that I work for but we have never met, she was seeing other dentist all the while.

Looking at her appointment, I did not have a second thought and thought that this is just another patient coming for a regular dental check up and scaling.

However, when I looked into her mouth, I started to frown.

She is a pretty and young lady, and it was very obvious that she had some dental problem but why nothing had been treated despite being a regular patient to the dental clinic. I felt sorry for her.

After the scaling, I sat her down and explain her about her oral condition.

I prepared a long list of what were the problems, what were the treatments required, what are the prices and how long she would need to complete all these.

I reassure her that she would be fine as what she was lacking is someone to guide her and do a good treatment plan for her.

I was running out of time that day, in fact I was overtime as I was only given half an hour with her, but I felt the duty to make sure she understood what is her oral condition and what types of treatment she needed. Hence, I kept her longer to feed her with as much information as I could.

Before she left, I told her that she must make an appointment to come for a discussion again and I did not really have faith that she would return as she was quiet and did not show much interest.

At least I did my part. That was what I thought.

 

THE STRUGGLE IN LILY

Little did I know that, that time she was actually frustrated looking for a dentist.

She had been to many dentists hoping someone could help her, but all she got was blaming her for such bad teeth and never told her what to do.

After we completed everything only she told me that she was taking me as her last chance to fix her teeth.

If I failed her as everyone else, she was ready to give up already.

I am really glad that I took the initiative to explain her oral condition and the treatments that she needed even though she did not ask actively.

I am really grateful that I could be there to help her in making a decision that would impact her life.

I am glad that I still keep my pure heart being a dentist to help people in need. =)

 

to be continued…..

 

19 May
Beautiful Smile, Dental Bridge

Dental Bridge: Dump The Denture, Pick Up Confidence

WHY MISSING TOOTH?

People lost tooth for various reasons.

It could be because of a decayed tooth; it could be an accident; or it could be there wasn’t any to begin with (congenitally missing tooth or born without it).

 

IMPACT OF MISSING TOOTH

Some may think, we have 32 teeth, so what is the big deal of losing one?

Yes, we have 32 teeth, but every single one is unique and important in its way, just like our finger. You could hold a pen like before if you lost your thumb.

Missing a tooth means altering the function of your chewing and speaking.

On top of that, what comes along with a missing tooth is missing confidence.

You could never imagine a beauty queen in pageant with a missing tooth when she smiles, neither could you imagine if she smiles, a denture falls out from her mouth.

 

CASE STUDY

Here I have a very pretty lady, who unfortunately lost one of her front teeth due to accident when she was at her young age.

She is a dancer, she is gorgeous, she has everything that you wish you have as a lady.

However, she has this hidden pain of not confident to laugh out loud as she is using a denture.

She longer for a change; but she was also worried that something other than denture will be worse than what she had now.

After being in dilemma for a very long time, she finally decided to find a solution to it.

We discussed about different options and finally decided that a fixed fixed dental bridge (tooth bridge) would be the best solution in her case.

The missing tooth is a right upper central incisor. She is currently using an acrylic denture.

 

Her upper right central incisor is a denture. Though not very visible, you could tell there are something pinkish at the side of the tooth.

 

As the tooth had not been there for very long, the bone above the missing tooth is very thin and look very empty.

 

We decided to go for a fixed fixed bridge.

It is fixed!

 

Now she will never have to worry that people will notice her denture , nor will she have to worry that the denture will fall out when she smiles.

She is now a truly gorgeous lady as she is born to it!

Congratulation!

With Love,

Gwen Gan