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Services
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Story
Porcelain Veneers
New York City
 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.
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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 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.
I had three dentists
and one assistant working on me all day and never once did
I feel that anyone was going to compromise one iota. It also
felt like I was part of the creative process all the way;
my thoughts, feelings and opinions were respected and honored.
I am used to being examined and looked at, but never have
I had such attention paid to every detail of my mouth as with
Dr. Iott’s team. I was in and out the chair, checking
each step of the process in different light, examining from
different angles from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. and even though
everyone got pretty tired, the good spirits and humor kept
us all going. I loved the idea that Dr. Iott’s and my
eyes were not the only ones observing and making comments.
I felt a little bit like a laboratory subject at times, but
I didn’t mind at all. Everyone was learning from this
experience. Dr. Iott is a natural-born teacher and his young
team were soaking up the information, as well as working hard
the entire day.
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!
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