Complete Smile Makeover with Porcelain Crowns

A Full-Mouth Smile Reconstruction

Quite some time ago, I showed this case as an example of how badly teeth can be damaged by grinding them, whether at night, in the daytime, or both, and why something as simple and inexpensive as a nightguard (my recommendation is a NTI-tss).  It is especially inexpensive in comparison to the cost of rebuilding a smile that is so broken down.  This gentleman came to us in 2008, looking for options to feel good about his smile again for various reasons.  After plenty of discussion, we agreed that the only option that would truly give him the smile that he wanted was a Total Smile Makeover/Reconstruction with porcelain crowns. After showing the Before-After pictures of his smile, I’ll discuss some of the issues you need to consider if you are thinking about significant cosmetic dentistry for yourself.

Frequently Asked Questions about Smile Reconstruction

When rebuilding a smile such as this, it is crucial to establish a proper bite relationship of the top and bottom teeth.  Sometimes this can take a little while to figure out, because – when the teeth are so worn, the patient has long since adapted to a very bad bite relationship.  The muscles have to be relaxed, accurate records taken, and excellent communication is necessary among the patient, the doctor, and the lab, to ensure that the crowns are made to look good, feel good, and last a long time. However, in severe wear cases, we always remind the patient that s/he already did a pretty good job destroying their natural set of teeth, so a nightguard is an absolute requirement as “insurance” to protect their investment, and even then they are more likely to break or chip the porcelain than others who don’t have that history.  Simply put, these cases are far more complicated and require a great deal of time to get right, so you need to be absolutely committed to proceeding and working closely with your dentist to get a good result.

• How Much Does a Smile Reconstruction Cost?

It’s not unusual for a patient to ask why it costs so much to do a Smile Reconstruction like this; it often seems like there should be a “volume discount,” so-to-speak, when doing a lot of crowns instead of just 1 or 2.  The difference between such scenarios is the amount of time involved, the skill, training and experience required to successfully diagnose, complete, and treat, and that your dentist will have to work with a highly knowledgeable lab to make the crowns to not just look good, but fit properly and work smoothly in eating motions.  Your dentist will likely spend at least a couple hours just in the planning stages!  It’s usually a case of “You get what you pay for.”  IOW – if you want a cheap smile makeover, you should reasonably expect a cheap outcome.  To get excellence……it won’t come cheap.  Depending on various factors, a case such as this will be the equivalent of buying a fairly nice car.  The main difference, of course, is that you should expect to be “driving” your smile for a lot longer than most people keep a car!

• How Long Will This Take to Finish?

When doing so many teeth, you need to plan on a minimum of several appointments that could take 1/2-day to a full day each, as well as several other appointments to refine, modify if needed, polish, etc.  From beginning to end, if everything goes perfectly, you might be done in as little as 1 month.  That would be somewhat rare; more likely, you should plan on the entire process taking at least 2 months, and maybe many more.  Extremely complex cases that involve implants, different specialists, and very complicated lab work may take a year or more due to the time needed for healing, verifying each stage is correct, and even just the time needed for lab technicians to do the custom work.

• What kind of Crowns will/should you get?

Due to improving materials and with the right techniques, in most cases nowadays you can have all-porcelain crowns made to rebuild a smile.  The crowns used in this case are made of E.max porcelain, which is extremely strong and resistant to breakage.  Numerous studies now show that this type of porcelain will likely last for 15-20 years, and quite possibly longer.  For certain cases, though, and for patients who are even worse grinders than this gentleman was, gold crowns might still be necessary for the back teeth, simply because they are the strongest, longest-lasting crowns available.  They can also take more abuse than any other material.  Porcelain-to-metal crowns are also an option and have a long track record, but it is very important for the lab to be highly skilled so that you don’t see dark grey lines at the gum from the metal showing through.

• How Do I Choose the Right Dentist?

This is one of the trickiest questions, because the public doesn’t usually know enough about the training necessary beyond dental school that trains dentists to handle complex full-mouth reconstructions with skill and confidence.  But here’s my recommendation: ask to see pictures of their other cases that might be similar to yours.  That’s one of the reasons digital photography is such an instrumental and daily part of our dental practice – you will be able to see similar cases and know how the outcome will be before ever committing.  The large majority of dentists who are well-trained in these cases also use digital photography, both for communicating with you as well as for documenting and tracking their own work over time.  If you meet a dentist who can show you pictures of cases that were completed 5-10 (or longer) years ago AND s/he has recent follow-up pictures to show how well it has held up, THEN you should feel very confident that your dentist can take good care of you.

And then start imagining how much better you’ll feel when you can smile like Wayne does now!

Please feel free to ask questions or post a comment below, or to share with your friends!  If you’re interested in a Complimentary Consultation in our office, please call 704-364-7069 or Request an Appointment Online.

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1-Visit Porcelain Veneer

Linda came in to our office today with 1 serious issue: a broken porcelain dental veneer on her upper right lateral incisor (second from the middle).  Naturally, since she’d been through the process of getting veneers done previously, she was expecting that she would leave with a temporary (aka provisional) veneer after we’d taken a mold of the tooth, and she’d have to come back in a few weeks to have the real one bonded in.  However, she was pleasantly surprised by the end of her appointment today, because thanks to the CEREC AC Bluecam, we were able to make a brand-new porcelain veneer in just ONE visit!  No second appointment to bond the veneer in, no temporary veneer, no tooth molds, no second time getting numb……..NONE of that!  So judge for yourself…..how did we do?

If you are looking to transform or fix your smile, and convenience is important to you, then give us a call at 704-364-7069 or

Request an Appointment Online

Oh yeah…….almost forgot to mention, too….since Linda signed up with our Quality Dental Plan, she saved 20% on her work today!

A Complete Smile Makeover with Porcelain Crowns for Teeth Damaged by Bulimia

There are many reasons patients come to see me for cosmetic dentistry.  One of the most common reasons is because their teeth are badly worn down from grinding, often in combination with acid erosion that has eaten away at the enamel.  Treating these cases can be complex, because if we don’t properly diagnose and solve the problem that caused the worn, eroded teeth in the first place, then any cosmetic dentistry is sure to fail very fast.

When Jenni (not her real name, as she prefers to stay anonymous) first came to see me through a referral back in 2005 for a Smile Makeover consultation, she admitted that she had suffered from bulimia as a teen, about 20 years prior.  She had recovered from this debilitating disease and had been leading a healthy, normal life for many years, but her teeth had been so eroded that she was extremely self-conscious and embarrassed by her smile.

Since Jenni’s original issue had been addressed medically, we were safe moving forward with a greatly decreased risk of acid erosion causing problems again, although bulimics are at a much higher risk of GERD/acid reflux, so she is monitored regularly by her physician, and she uses a prescription strength fluoride rinse daily to help protect the teeth under the porcelain.

Due to complicating factors, Jenni’s case was just completed this year; however, I think you’ll see why Jenni is now happy with her smile again, although she doesn’t want everyone to know what she had done,  so she has asked me to not use her portrait.

Cosmetic dentist Dr. Charles Payet, of Charlotte NC, performed a Smile Makeover with Porcelain Crowns to Restore these Teeth Damaged by Acid Erosion/Bulimia

Dental Discount Plan for Cosmetic Dentistry? You bet!

I’ve talked about our Smiles by Payet Dental Discount Plan several times, but something that may be overlooked is that this even covers Cosmetic Dentistry!

Imagine you’re looking for a Smile Makeover and want to get Porcelain Veneers, like Craig’s  in the below picture, and you’re concerned about the total fees:

A Smile Makeover by Dr. Charles Payet - 8 Porcelain Veneers

Depending on the complexity of the case and your cosmetic desires, a Smile Makeover can run from $1200-2000/tooth in Charlotte, so 10 Porcelain Veneers will cost you $12,000 – $20,000.  But imagine that now……simply by enrolling in our Smiles by Payet Dental Discount Plan with the $295 enrollment fee, you would automatically receive a TWENTY PERCENT (20%) DISCOUNT!!!!! That would save you $2400-4,000 on your Smile Reconstruction by me – a highly skilled and experienced cosmetic dentist, right here in Charlotte, NC in the South Park area.

All you have to do is either:

1. Call 704-364-7069 and make an appointment with Liz for a Free Consultation, or

2. Request an Appointment Online

Lead in Crowns from China? Not in our office!

It’s been reported by the media recently that some dental crowns, made in China, have been found to have excessively high lead content.  Generally, these crowns come from very low-priced laboratories, but the full extent of the problem is not yet known.

However, I want ALL of my patients (and potential patients) to know that we do not use any labs in China, and in fact, we rarely use crowns that have metal in them.  That’s not to say that we are a “metal-free” dental office; by no means!  There are a number of very good reasons to use gold, silver, and mixed metals for different situations, but none of those require that we use cheap crowns from cheap labs that might put you at risk.

In fact, my patients can be reassured that they aren’t getting any metal the huge majority of the time because of our CEREC 3D CAD/CAM system that allows us to make incredibly strong, very natural-looking, beautiful crowns in just 1 appointment.  You can literally watch your crown being made!

In those instances that we do have to use a dental laboratory, we can still avoid metal most of the time, but even then……all the labs that we use are proud to say, “Our dental lab work is made in the USA!”

Just so you know it’s perfectly safe to make an appointment for a crown with us, knowing there’s no chance of lead in your crowns or bridges.