Mrs H wanted to improve the appearance of her smile without any invasive treatment and without orthodontic alignment (braces). She was missing one upper incisor and had a retained baby incisor on the other side of her mouth. Her front teeth were not the same size, and were not aligned in the centre of her lips.
She came to see Cathleen Perrin at Elmsleigh House for a new patient examination, and mentioned her concerns. Cathleen did a ‘mock-up’ of cosmetic bonding, so that Mrs H could determine if bonding could improve her appearance enough to warrant doing it.
Mrs H decided that she would like to whiten her teeth and then complete cosmetic bonding to try and improve the overall look and symmetry of her smile.
Cathleen took impressions of Mrs H’s teeth, and whitening trays were made to fit her teeth precisely. Mrs H was shown how to apply carbamide peroxide whitening gel to the trays and fit them securely in place. Mrs H took home her trays and sufficient whitening gel to wear the trays for two to fours hours each day (or overnight), until she achieved a brighter shade in around 3 weeks.
Once her teeth were whitened, Cathleen was able to improve the look of her smile by widening and lengthening some of her teeth with cosmetic bonding. She matched the tooth-coloured filling material to her whiter teeth, and contoured and shaped it to reduce the spacing and to obtain a better symmetry to her smile.
Mrs H was delighted with the result, and wishes she had completed the treatment years ago. She continues to see Cathleen for dental check-ups and Ellen for dental hygiene. She has her whitening trays and can purchase tubes of whitening gel to top up the whitening when she wants to brighten her shade.
“Cathleen has been fabulous. I love the end result!” Mrs H.
