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A Patient's Story

Written by JOAN BARBER
A Story About Her 1-Day Smile Design Experience

I have always had a “million dollar smile”. I was born with big, beautiful teeth and spent a lot of time and money maintaining them, for my profession as a singer/actor as well as for personal aesthetic and health reasons. So, when I fell down a flight of stairs backstage, right onto my mouth, I was pretty traumatized. It turned out that I needed a root canal and two crowns were created for my formerly beautiful front teeth. I went to the dentist I had used for years when I was living in another state. The process was painful, tedious, and the results were less than I desired but all I expected.

Before	After

This was two years ago. I lived with what I had come to accept as my new “phony smile” until I was in a show with a famous beauty who still turns heads at 71. She told me that if I wanted to move ahead in my career I’d have to get my teeth fixed. Frankly, I’d been toying with the idea for a while, because I had grown increasingly self-conscious in photos and auditions due to these huge artificial-looking teeth that seemed to precede me when I came through the door. In addition, I felt that my singing diction was being compromised by the extra bulk in my mouth. I decided to go for it, and because I already had one veneer done by New York Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Iott and my boyfriend had his entire smile re-designed with great success, I knew where I was going to have my work done.

Dr. Iott let me know it was going to be a big job and we scheduled my appointment for a Friday at 9 a.m. with the thought that things would take all day and perhaps move into a second day. I was his only patient scheduled for the day. I had two crowns and three veneers to be created and I had an agenda; I wanted back the smile I had before I ever had any cosmetic dentistry done. I wanted a natural-looking smile that no one could tell was the result of dental work, even in an 8X10 photo. I brought along an old resume photo that featured my original “million dollar smile” and Dr. Iott and his team set about re-creating it. They were incredible.

One of the nicest things about the experience was knowing that Dr. Iott was flexible. He originally thought that the veneer he had done for me was not going to need replacing, but as the new teeth were being created it became obvious that the old veneer didn’t fit in with my new smile. No problem. And no extra charge. At the beginning of the day, we thought that a certain color was going to be the right one for my new smile and then it turned out that in the sunlight it was too white compared to my natural teeth. Again, no problem. A new crown was ready in about an hour and the color was perfect. The CEREC machine is absolutely amazing. No waiting for the lab to make crowns or veneers (which in my experience sometime took weeks), no living with hideous temporaries, or having to settle for less than perfection because you just got worn out by the process. I know this sounds like some kind of commercial, but it’s the honest truth. One crown had to be re-made a couple of times because of tiny adjustments of color and other details. I can’t imagine putting up with that kind of process with the old style of dentistry.

Once again, I stress that I wanted a natural-looking smile, with all the imperfections that natural teeth have. Some dentists wouldn’t be able or willing to create something imperfect and beautiful at the same time. Not so with Dr. Iott. And he had a great time doing it! We laughed a lot. Speaking of laughing, there was next to no pain in this procedure. Just the normal twinge when you get an injection of local anesthetic. I must admit that at one point I decided to put up with some extra pain from drilling rather than have another shot, but as Angel told me, “We’ve got plenty more if you need it.” Oh yes, the other painful thing was my butt, even though I took every opportunity I could to get up and stretch or take little walks during the down times. Man, was I sore after eleven hours in and out of the dentist’s chair!

By the end of the evening, everyone was kind of punch –drunk and I was sent home to live with my new teeth over the weekend and told to come back Monday morning for the final bite adjustment, polishing and finishing work that needed to be done. I was a little nervous to show my boyfriend the results, as he had a flawless artistic eye and was one of the people who had been encouraging me to get this work done. Well, he was very impressed and noticed how my entire mouth looked different, my profile was back to normal, instead of my upper lip protruding from the old phony teeth and my new teeth were definitely smaller and much more right for my face. He did notice one thing, that the spaces between the teeth didn’t seem big enough. He said I looked like I had one big tooth in the front (an exaggeration, I assure you). So on Monday morning I told Dr. Iott about this issue, and once again, his flexibility, humor and talent amazed me. He agreed with my boyfriend’s assessment and within forty minutes managed to fix everything, which included doing some laser surgery on my gums (again some very minor pain). I could not be happier with my new smile. For the first time in several years I am looking forward to having new pictures taken. I am not self-conscious anymore about my great big protruding phony teeth. I feel like I look like ME again. Plus, my bite feels more normal, which is very important for a singer. I have absolutely no residual pain or discomfort in my mouth and have not one single regret about taking one little day out of my life to create a smile that makes me want to smile!

Please contact our New York Cosmetic Dentistry Office for a Porcelain Veneers consultation with New York City Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Iott. You can meet with our cosmetic dentistry staff who can answer your Porcelain Veneers questions as well as any other questions you may have regarding cosmetic dentistry.