This young man approached us with the hopes of improving his smile. He had very healthy teeth and good oral hygiene but had a few permanent teeth in his smile that either did not develop at all or were not fully developed. This situation resulted in several problems. His remaining teeth had shifted into the space of the missing permanent tooth, and the smaller teeth had spaces on either side that showed when he smiled. Both of these problems detracted from the appearance of his smile. This type of situation is very common and our approach would be a conservative one. We recommended a team approach between our office, the orthodontist, and an oral surgeon. The orthodontist would help us move the teeth back into their proper position, and the oral surgeon would take on the responsibility of placing an implant in the space of the missing tooth. Our goal was to replace the missing tooth with a crown and correct the size of the smaller front tooth with a veneer.
After completion of the orthodontics ( braces ), and healing of the implant we were ready to begin the restorative phase of the plan. Before beginning the cosmetic changes we recommended he whiten his teeth using our teeth whitening protocol. After the teeth were whitened we placed a crown over the implant tooth, and a veneer on the smaller tooth, being sure to match the new white shade. The after photo shows a very nice result after treatment was completed.
