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Typo in my original post
Just to be clear, I only had my front four teeth done.
When I was 15 my front two teeth were chipped...
When I was 15 my front two teeth were chipped badly playing baseball. My dentist at the time built up what was left using bonding. The results were very functional, allowing me to eat anything I wanted and lasting over 30 years.
However, they never looked good, and I was often embarrassed about my smile. I had spoken to my dentist off and on over the years about restorative work. I initially wanted braces, but he said the big problem was that my lateral teeth (those adjacent to the middle teeth) were just too small for the space they needed to fill.
He suggested veneers, but we were just never able to really get on the same page in terms of how to go about it. I can't remember the details of the discussions, but I just never felt comfortable. Recently I changed dentists and started having discussions about veneers, crowns, etc. I got excited about the prospects of having this work done, and together with my new dentist we set a plan in motion.
The first part of the plan was some orthodontia that would align my four front teeth, then I would get veneers on the four front teeth once the orthodontia was finished. I had great dental insurance, including coverage for orthodontia. So I went for the Orthodontia consult, which was great, and then sat down with my dentist to talk about next steps. My big thing was that I wanted to know how I could get a good idea of what the teeth would look like with veneers.
My dentist didn't seem to have a good answer. They said 'well, we could do a waxup but it will cost $400'. I told them I didn't want anything unusual, I just wanted what they normally show to patients before doing the veneers. They said they usually didn't show anything. I said 'what?'.
I simply could not believe that someone would have restorative dentistry without having some sort of idea what the teeth would look like. Anyhow my dentist was VERY put off by this. And later that day I received a phone call saying they didn't want to do the restorative work, and referred me to someone else.
Well, I was pretty unhappy with the attitude of my new dentist, but I had already researched alternatives and it so happened that the dentist they referred me to was very highly regarded in my region, and was close to where I lived, so I made an appointment for a consultation.
At the consultation, the Dentist, who specialized in Cosmetic Dentistry, told me that he wanted to modify my front 6 teeth. He wanted to do partial veneers on my canines, and full veneers on my laterals and central incisors. I told him I didn't want to touch teeth that were perfectly good, healthy and aligned. He told me that in order to get the proper proportions for the teeth, my canines needed to be enlarged, that they were too small.
So basically, the jist was that my mouth had too much space, and my teeth were just proportionately too small. He explained to me about the golden ratio of teeth. You can google it, but basically there is a proportion related to the fibonacci sequence that occurs in nature, including the human face and human teeth width (as seen from straight on). And in order to achieve that ratio, this dentist said, required intervention on all six of my front teeth.
And it would cost $12,000! Not including the orthodontia!
Well, I was pretty depressed about the prospect of having all six front teeth intervened upon, as well as paying that much money. I didn't think I should have to spend more than $1,000 per tooth, based on research that I had done.
Undeterred, I called around to a bunch of other dentists in the area and went for many consults. Almost every dentist said the same thing: All six teeth would need to be intervened upon because my teeth were too small and the space was too large.
I got very depressed about this and was even more frustrated because when I broke down the proportions of my canines with the proportions of teeth that could be put into the space of my four front teeth, I thought it could work.
Not necessarily to the golden proportion, but to a different theory called Recurring Esthetic Dental Proportion (RED). This theory says that teeth proportions are aesthetically pleasing if they follow a common ration of .7 or .8, not just the golden ratio.
The cosmetic dentists I spoke to were adamant, and frankly did not want to see my photoshop work, calculations and ratios. All six teeth needed to be done, they said. Even though I found many cosmetic dentists that would do the work for ~$1,000 per tooth, I just did not want to modify my canines, which were healthy and, I thought, of a reasonable proportion.
I also did a lot of work looking for pictures of attractive people with nice smiles who did not necessarily have perfectly proportioned teeth. There are many! But I was running out of dentists in my area, and was growing more and more frustrated.
I decided to get a consultation from a chain dentist office that had just opened around the corner from me. The prices they quoted me were excellent, at around $800 per tooth for veneers. I went into the consult and the dentist said the same thing the other dentists said: 'looks like you need all six teeth done'.
I explained to him my thoughts, and showed him my photoshop mockups with teeth from other people superimposed over a picture of myself. He looked at the photos and said 'hmmm... these don't look bad at all'. I told him I didn't want all six teeth done and that I thought that, based on my mockups, the proportions could work with just the front six teeth.
He said 'well, lets do a waxup to see what it will look like'. They did the waxup, which ended up costing ~$150. I just felt so relieved that finally someone was at least willing to listen to me and consider what I was saying.
The waxup came back and it looked great! Then he mocked up the teeth for me using filler bonding so I could go home and see what it looked like and show my family to get their feedback. It was great! I was just blown away.
I ended up specifying some slight changes for the final versions, and he also suggested doing crowns on the Central Incisors instead of veneers. It was about $200 more per tooth for the Centrals. The laterals would still get veneers. I thought it made sense, since the Centrals are used for biting into things like apples and such.
The pics show the before and after. I am very happy with the results and feel that the resulting proportions of the teeth look great, despite not necessarily conforming to the golden proportion. And ultimately the cost was very reasonable compared with other dentists in the area, who wanted to do my front 6 teeth at $1,000+ per tooth for veneers.
Ultimately, I hope that anyone reading this will realize that you may have to do some research, and you may need to do a lot of searching to find the right dentist to work with. I found mine after a long and frustrating search. And I recommend him wholeheartedly. But make sure you are comfortable with whomever your going to work with.
Make sure they respect your opinions, and make sure you understand some of the fundamentals of cosmetic dentistry. Ultimately, I think it was an advantage that I understood cosmetic dental proportions, even though I did not let that be an overriding consideration.
However, they never looked good, and I was often embarrassed about my smile. I had spoken to my dentist off and on over the years about restorative work. I initially wanted braces, but he said the big problem was that my lateral teeth (those adjacent to the middle teeth) were just too small for the space they needed to fill.
He suggested veneers, but we were just never able to really get on the same page in terms of how to go about it. I can't remember the details of the discussions, but I just never felt comfortable. Recently I changed dentists and started having discussions about veneers, crowns, etc. I got excited about the prospects of having this work done, and together with my new dentist we set a plan in motion.
The first part of the plan was some orthodontia that would align my four front teeth, then I would get veneers on the four front teeth once the orthodontia was finished. I had great dental insurance, including coverage for orthodontia. So I went for the Orthodontia consult, which was great, and then sat down with my dentist to talk about next steps. My big thing was that I wanted to know how I could get a good idea of what the teeth would look like with veneers.
My dentist didn't seem to have a good answer. They said 'well, we could do a waxup but it will cost $400'. I told them I didn't want anything unusual, I just wanted what they normally show to patients before doing the veneers. They said they usually didn't show anything. I said 'what?'.
I simply could not believe that someone would have restorative dentistry without having some sort of idea what the teeth would look like. Anyhow my dentist was VERY put off by this. And later that day I received a phone call saying they didn't want to do the restorative work, and referred me to someone else.
Well, I was pretty unhappy with the attitude of my new dentist, but I had already researched alternatives and it so happened that the dentist they referred me to was very highly regarded in my region, and was close to where I lived, so I made an appointment for a consultation.
At the consultation, the Dentist, who specialized in Cosmetic Dentistry, told me that he wanted to modify my front 6 teeth. He wanted to do partial veneers on my canines, and full veneers on my laterals and central incisors. I told him I didn't want to touch teeth that were perfectly good, healthy and aligned. He told me that in order to get the proper proportions for the teeth, my canines needed to be enlarged, that they were too small.
So basically, the jist was that my mouth had too much space, and my teeth were just proportionately too small. He explained to me about the golden ratio of teeth. You can google it, but basically there is a proportion related to the fibonacci sequence that occurs in nature, including the human face and human teeth width (as seen from straight on). And in order to achieve that ratio, this dentist said, required intervention on all six of my front teeth.
And it would cost $12,000! Not including the orthodontia!
Well, I was pretty depressed about the prospect of having all six front teeth intervened upon, as well as paying that much money. I didn't think I should have to spend more than $1,000 per tooth, based on research that I had done.
Undeterred, I called around to a bunch of other dentists in the area and went for many consults. Almost every dentist said the same thing: All six teeth would need to be intervened upon because my teeth were too small and the space was too large.
I got very depressed about this and was even more frustrated because when I broke down the proportions of my canines with the proportions of teeth that could be put into the space of my four front teeth, I thought it could work.
Not necessarily to the golden proportion, but to a different theory called Recurring Esthetic Dental Proportion (RED). This theory says that teeth proportions are aesthetically pleasing if they follow a common ration of .7 or .8, not just the golden ratio.
The cosmetic dentists I spoke to were adamant, and frankly did not want to see my photoshop work, calculations and ratios. All six teeth needed to be done, they said. Even though I found many cosmetic dentists that would do the work for ~$1,000 per tooth, I just did not want to modify my canines, which were healthy and, I thought, of a reasonable proportion.
I also did a lot of work looking for pictures of attractive people with nice smiles who did not necessarily have perfectly proportioned teeth. There are many! But I was running out of dentists in my area, and was growing more and more frustrated.
I decided to get a consultation from a chain dentist office that had just opened around the corner from me. The prices they quoted me were excellent, at around $800 per tooth for veneers. I went into the consult and the dentist said the same thing the other dentists said: 'looks like you need all six teeth done'.
I explained to him my thoughts, and showed him my photoshop mockups with teeth from other people superimposed over a picture of myself. He looked at the photos and said 'hmmm... these don't look bad at all'. I told him I didn't want all six teeth done and that I thought that, based on my mockups, the proportions could work with just the front six teeth.
He said 'well, lets do a waxup to see what it will look like'. They did the waxup, which ended up costing ~$150. I just felt so relieved that finally someone was at least willing to listen to me and consider what I was saying.
The waxup came back and it looked great! Then he mocked up the teeth for me using filler bonding so I could go home and see what it looked like and show my family to get their feedback. It was great! I was just blown away.
I ended up specifying some slight changes for the final versions, and he also suggested doing crowns on the Central Incisors instead of veneers. It was about $200 more per tooth for the Centrals. The laterals would still get veneers. I thought it made sense, since the Centrals are used for biting into things like apples and such.
The pics show the before and after. I am very happy with the results and feel that the resulting proportions of the teeth look great, despite not necessarily conforming to the golden proportion. And ultimately the cost was very reasonable compared with other dentists in the area, who wanted to do my front 6 teeth at $1,000+ per tooth for veneers.
Ultimately, I hope that anyone reading this will realize that you may have to do some research, and you may need to do a lot of searching to find the right dentist to work with. I found mine after a long and frustrating search. And I recommend him wholeheartedly. But make sure you are comfortable with whomever your going to work with.
Make sure they respect your opinions, and make sure you understand some of the fundamentals of cosmetic dentistry. Ultimately, I think it was an advantage that I understood cosmetic dental proportions, even though I did not let that be an overriding consideration.
Provider Review
Dr Ian Bell
Very happy with my interactions. He's knowledgeable and skilled, but also willing to listen, which was incredibly important in my case.