Jo Ann used to be a happy lady, but she doesn’t look like it here. She was uncomfortable smiling because of her teeth. Some were broken. Some were discolored. And she had some old porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns that didn’t match her teeth.

You can see her problems in this photograph. Her natural teeth are a brownish color. The lateral incisors are porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns. Besides being opaque and unnatural in color, they are showing the dark line at the gumline that these crowns typically show. She said “I want you to fix my broken teeth, but don’t make it look like a set of white piano keys—I want them to look natural.” Dr. Thein assured her that he could do that.

Here are Jo Ann’s lower teeth. She had a bridge on her lower left (on our right), but it had come off. The span was simply too long for a bridge to hold up here. She would need either a removable partial, or if she was willing to spend more money, Dr. Thein could put in dental implants that would feel like her own natural teeth. The bridge on her lower right (our left) had broken. Some teeth were infected.

Here is how her upper arch looked before we started. Dr. Thein treated her dental infections and removed her broken teeth and cracked bridges.

This post-operative x-ray shows her new dental work. Dr. Thein placed dental implants on the lower to replace the her missing teeth. Porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns and bridgework were used on her upper back teeth for strength.