Six-Month Adult Braces + 2 CEREC Porcelain Veneers equals one happy patient!
Ever since we started doing six-month braces about five years ago, the number of smile makeovers that we’ve done with porcelain veneers has dropped dramatically. This is because we can create beautiful smiles much more conservatively with six-month braces than we can with veneers, simply because there is no drilling on the teeth. There are times however, when porcelain veneers are an excellent option. Caroline’s case is a perfect example of how the two can work together: we first used six-month braces to straighten her teeth, then whitened them. Finally, we used our CEREC CAD/CAM machine to make to 2 porcelain veneers right in our office, in a single appointment to complete the smile makeover by matching her peg lateral incisors to match the rest of her smile.
If you are interested in learning more about either porcelain veneers or 6MonthSmiles, please contact us at either 704-364-7069, or Request an Appointment Online.
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
Oh yeah…….almost forgot to mention, too….since Linda signed up with our Quality Dental Plan, she saved 20% on her work today!
Does dentistry last forever?
This is a question I’m frequently asked, especially when a patient is considering a significant investment of time and money into some form of cosmetic dentistry, such as:
- Porcelain veneers
- Bonding (tooth-colored fillings)
- Porcelain crowns and bridges
- Teeth whitening
- Even Six-Month Braces
It’s a very understandable question, and the simple answer to the question, “How long will my dental work last, Dr. Payet?” is “It depends.”
Just like a car, your teeth and gums require regular care to ensure that they are working properly. Sure, you can go 10-20,000 miles between oil changes given how improved cars are nowadays, but do you really want to take the risk? Same thing with teeth……….some people go for 5-10 years with no dental check-ups and are fortunate when they come in to find no problems, such as cavities or gum disease. But it’s not many people that are so lucky!
I always remember a quote from some lecturer at a dental conference years ago telling us his response whenever a patient asks the question, and it’s really the most honest, best answer that can be given, “Clearly the teeth that God gave you haven’t lasted your entire life, and since I can assure you that my work is not nearly as good as God’s, unless you die first, the work I do (no matter how excellent) will not last forever either.”
So what can cause your dental work to fail?
- Grinding your teeth — when the human jaw clenches, it can create an amazing amount of force, and over time, enough clenching will cause teeth to crack and break.
- Acidity — anything that increases the acidity in your mouth is good for the bacteria that cause cavities in particular, including Acid Reflux, Sodas, Power drinks (Monster, Red Bull, etc), Sports drinks (Gatorade, Powerade, etc).
- A very sugary diet — the bacteria that cause cavities love sugar. High sugar content means the bacteria feed like crazy, produce acid, and the acid is what eats away the teeth to cause cavities.
- A compromised immune system — your saliva contains important antibodies that help keep the cavity-causing bacteria under control. If your immune system is knocked back due to a disease or some medication, those antibodies will be decreased, allowing the bacteria to grow uncontrolled.
- Decreased saliva (dry-mouth syndrome) — again, due to medications or illness, the amount of saliva may be decreased. With less saliva, there is less “washing” action of the teeth.
- Trauma — obviously. LOL One of my patients a few years ago fainted and fell face-first into a brick wall, shattering a front tooth. Another ran into a pole, shattering another front tooth. Clearly, if you are injured in such a way that your natural teeth would break, any dental work will break, too.
- Bad habits like chewing hard candy or ice regularly — hard candy and ice are just that — HARD! Ice, in particular, is easily as hard as your enamel and as porcelain or bonding. So if you bite down on ice frequently enough and/or hard enough, you can break your teeth and dental work.
That covers most of the major causes of dental work failing. With regular care, use of appropriate mouthrinses and toothpastes, proper brushing and flossing, regularly scheduled check-ups and dental x-rays, using a nightguard, and being aware of diet, etc, your dental work can and should last a very long time.
But always remember — my dental work isn’t as good as the natural teeth God gave you, so my work probably won’t last forever either. 😉
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:
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Call 704-364-7069 and make an appointment with Liz for a Free Consultation, or
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Request an Appointment Online
Yes – single-visit crowns can be beautiful!
Obviously, the single biggest advantage for patients with our CEREC machine is the ability to have beautiful, all-porcelain restorations completed in a single visit. Here’s an example of how nice that can be. This patient had 10 porcelain veneers done about 2 years ago; due to her grinding habit, she had knocked off and broken one of the veneers. Rather than make a yucky impression and send it to the lab, while she had to wait several weeks with a temporary veneer, we made it right in the office. One visit porcelain veneer, no temporary, no second visit, and her smile was back to beautiful! See if you can guess which one was done by us on CEREC and which were done by the lab?
A Beautiful 1-Visit Porcelain Veneer by Dr. Payet in Charlotte, NC
If need your any tooth fixed, not just if it’s a porcelain veneer, CEREC CAD/CAM can do it for you. Call our office 704-364-7069 or Request an Appointment Online.
A Smile Makeover with Porcelain Veneers and Short-Term Braces
This will be the last cosmetic dentistry/Smile Makeover video that I will post for a little while, as I next want to devote some time to showing how destructive “Grinding” of the teeth can be and why it is NOT something that you should take lightly. Bruxism/Parafunction (the general term for both grinding and clenching, which are 2 separate things) can cause major problems for patients, and often in ways not easily visible because it takes time to develop or they’re under the surface. I believe this is an area of dentistry that is often neglected, and it only makes things worse for patients.
With that said, I do hope you enjoy the way we combined different kinds of treatments to achieve a dramatic Smile Makeover for Daniel, as visible in this video.
Don’t forget – if you want to see all of the videos for our practice, check out our YouTube channel: SmilesbyPayet.
Combination Porcelain Veneers and Short-Term Braces
Porcelain Veneers to Dramatically Makeover Smiles
Smiles by Payet Cosmetic Dentistry: Porcelain Veneers
Here’s another video to enjoy of patients for whom we’ve done Porcelain Veneers to achieve some remarkable smile transformations.
Smiles by Payet Cosmetic Dentistry Video on YouTube
As a professional photographer on the side (I don’t plan on quitting my day job any time soon), I have a passion for both the taking of pictures and the digital developing/use of those pictures, and software today is so remarkable in how it can be used. With increasing levels of integration among Photoshop programs and others, it is becoming increasingly easy to take the pictures, edit them as desired, and then quickly convert them into a usable format. I will be adding more videos to both our Blog and to SmilesbyPayet.com in coming weeks, so stay tuned for more!
Smiles by Payet Cosmetic Dentistry
New Patient Education videos now in the office!
Oh, it feels so good to finally be able to announce this, as I’ve been working on it so hard for so many nights after my family has gone to bed, but FINALLY I have begun producing some new Patient Education videos to help explain a number of options that we offer by using pictures of many similar cases.
Over the last 4 years, I have amassed a catalog of about 38,000 digital photographs of the work that we do. You can see my Photography Blog post on the subject of Patient Communication with Digital Photography for more info on how/why we take pictures of our work, but now I’m finally able to turn a lot of those photos into various video formats to highlight problems that many patients have, often without even realizing it, and to let our patients actually see what they can expect once the treatment is completed. It’s really quite exciting! We’re not talking about “stock” photography here, of work that someone else did. EVERY SINGLE ONE of the pictures that you’ll see were taken by Dr. Payet (me), and every completed procedure was performed by Dr. Payet (me) and my Team. (Hope you don’t mind me talking about myself in the 3rd person for a moment there; I was having a Bob Dole flashback after reading some political articles. 🙂
We’ll look forward to showing you these new videos when you come in!
Don’t have any of those videos in Web format quite yet, but keep an eye on our website, Smiles by Payet Dentistry, for them to begin appearing there within the next few weeks. You’ll be able to see and understand so much more easily, I promise!
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Smiles by Payet Dentistry - Beautiful Smiles. Lifetime Care 