John Milchenko — Mouth Reconstruction – A smile rejuvenation.

John came to me because he had concerns about the physical breakdown of his teeth as well as the cosmetic implications of this breakdown. He was aware that an “easy or quick fix” was probably not realistic and was committed to establishing a plan to fix his entire mouth so that he could smile with confidence and be able to enjoy eating once again.

When treating someone like John, who had fairly complex dental problems, it’s important to start with the end in mind. As a doctor, I wanted to have a detailed, “mind’s eye” picture of what John’s mouth would look like at the end of treatment before I began.  It was also important that I be able to communicate this to John in a clear way so  he could be confident that we would be creating an end result he would be happy with.

To do this, I made molds of John’s broken-down teeth, and then used wax to make a “mock-up” of what we wanted the final result to look like. In order to minimize John’s time away from work, all of the dental work was completed in two long appointments. During the two-week time period when John’s permanent porcelain crowns were being made in the dental lab, he wore very attractive and comfortable temporary crowns made from a tooth-colored material. The temporary crowns were simply a duplicate of what I had already previewed with him on the wax mock-up.

John seemed more confident about his smile as soon as he received the temporary crowns; the temporary crowns felt and looked dramatically better than the broken-down teeth that he was so self-conscious about when he first came in.

When John’s permanent crowns were finally placed, it became obvious that we had done much more than fix John’s teeth; we had restored his self-image by improving his smile.