Dr Hall
\nThank you so much for your reply.\u00a0I really appreciate your advice.\u00a0I don’t think I will go for the whitening because I feel as though I will be locked into whitening to match the veneers.\u00a0My teeth are aleady pretty white so if the veneers match my teeth instead of “whitened teeth”\u00a0then they should look more natural.\u00a0Is this line of thinking sensible?\u00a0I was going to get six veneers, do you think eight is better?\u00a0My teeth are in very good shape.\u00a0I had an accident recently and vertically fracture the front one and horizontally broke the one beside it.\u00a0The nerve died after two weeks on the front one and a root canal was performed.\u00a0The one beside it was bonded in an emergency appointment but the color is all wrong.\u00a0I figured six veneers would make the repair look natural but if you recommend eight to look more natural I will follow your advice.\u00a0Dr —- —- DMD will be doing the work.\u00a0Do you know anything about him?\u00a0My regular dentist, who is a periodontist, recommended him.\u00a0Her name is —- —-.\u00a0Again, I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to correspond with me as this is a significant investment and I really miss my smile.
\n–\u00a0Deb from Massachusetts<\/p>\n
Deb,
\nI would go to a real cosmetic dentist for a second opinion before you start investing thousands of dollars in a new smile. I’m sure Dr.\u00a0—- is a nice person and probably an excellent dentist. But he doesn’t show up on any of my lists. He isn’t even a MEMBER of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry.<\/p>\n
Here’s the deal. Dentists are technicians. At least over 95% of them are.\u00a0They fix things that break. They heal you when your teeth have problems. But you want a beautiful smile. Your periodontist believes that Dr.\u00a0—- is a great dentist who fixes things really well. I don’t know if you’ve been to him yet or not, but you need to get some exposure to what a dentist-artist could do. And then discuss this issue of the tooth whitening<\/a> and the porcelain veneers<\/a> with him or her. You need some perspective from someone who has an eye for beauty. Read my article on the difference between general dentists and cosmetic dentists<\/a>. That should help you understand this issue a little better.<\/p>\n Then you won’t end up among all the hundreds of people who write to me after they thought they were getting a new, beautiful smile<\/a> and wondering what went wrong–why it didn’t happen.<\/p>\n As far as how white you want them to be, I will tell you that in twenty years of doing smile makeovers<\/a>, I never had a single patient come back and wish that I had made their teeth darker. I did have a number of them, however, that wished they had made them a whiter color. They can be quite white and still look completely natural. That’s one of the big differences between a general dentist and a cosmetic dentist. A general dentist will tell you that you don’t want them too white or they won’t look natural. A cosmetic dentist will ask you what color YOU want, and will listen. So cosmetic dentists make new smiles that are considerably whiter than general dentists do, because that’s what people are asking for.<\/p>\n And as far as saying you want six veneers and not eight, you sound like you’re being influenced by a technician-dentist. Dental schools teach that there are six front teeth, and that a new smile involves six teeth. But almost everyone shows eight upper\u00a0teeth when they smile. Some show ten. I said eight veneers, because that is the usual case. But maybe you only need four. It depends on the color and shape issue. Don’t try to figure it out for yourself. Go to a dentist-artist and discuss it.<\/p>\n Check our list of\u00a0Massachusetts cosmetic dentists<\/a>. Everyone we list is an artist, not just a dentist. There’s a big difference between the two. Visit one of them, and see what a completely different approach they have to you when you are looking for a new smile. Click here to find a cosmetic dentist<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n– Dr. Hall<\/p>\n\n
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