James came into the practice having been referred to Crystal Dental Care by his regular dentist for cosmetic dentistry.
He had been unhappy with his old porcelain crown on his front tooth and a couple of old porcelain veneers were getting a bit tired.
The generally yellow colour of his teeth and the old porcelain was also an issue.
His final and slightly more tricky concern was the shape and size of a couple of teeth.
The gum level on his upper right lateral incisor was low as can be seen by the before photos.
Addressing Gum Disease Issues
An incidental finding was that James also had some gingivitis (gum inflammation) which had to be treated first.
This involved improvements to daily dental hygiene and a few 20 minute visits to see Laura, our hygienist.
As always, we presented all the options and costs, including the ‘do nothing for nothing’ but that wasn’t why he came to the practice.
Once the gums were sufficiently healthy James was ready for the cosmetic dentistry.
Replacement Veneers and Dental Crowns
He chose to have three porcelain veneers and two crowns replaced. He also opted to have an additional porcelain veneer and ceramic crown, bringing the total number of teeth restored with porcelain to seven.
The final element of cosmetic improvement was the reduction in a small space behind the upper left premolar.
The distribution of sizes was one of the main focuses, with particular regard to the upper right lateral incisor with which we managed to achieve a more considerable size by raising the gum margin slightly.
The alignment generally was improved to establish a smoothed and more rounded profile, as can be seen by the mirror ‘plan’ view.
Three ceramic crowns and four porcelain veneers cost £2570.
James has been back for a review without symptoms to report and will now return to his regular dentist for checkups and hygiene visits.
Dr Brendan Murphy (BDS Glasgow) 1992 GDC 67679 is clinical director at Crystal Dental Glasgow. He has been a dentist in Glasgow for more than 20 years. He is passionate about patient care and highly experienced in cosmetic dentistry. He shares the case studies on this website as examples of what is possible when faced with often tricky dental issues. It is never too late to seek help even for long term dental problems.