To give you an idea of what it is like as a patient of Los Angeles cosmetic dentist Dr. Thein, it may be best to tell the story of one of his patients.
Susan’s teeth had been deteriorating and she had lost confidence in her old dentist. She was suffering from a crumbling teeth, she had TMJ pain, her jaw would sometimes lock open, and she was very self-conscious about her appearance. She didn’t want to smile. “I hate my short yellow teeth, my gold caps and patched-up porcelain crowns,” she told Dr. Thein.
Her examination showed that she had a collapsed bite. That condition, coupled with her desire to replace her existing unattractive porcelain crowns, led Dr. Thein to recommend a full-mouth reconstruction for Susan. She knew that she had been grinding her teeth down for years, and wanted the very best care available, so she decided to go ahead with that treatment.
Dentists don’t graduate from dental school knowing how to do a full-mouth reconstruction, nor do they know how to do a smile makeover. But Dr. Thein has extensive training in occlusion and complex reconstruction at the respected Dawson Center for Advanced Dental Education in Florida. He also has a cosmetic dentistry residency with Dr. Bruce Crispin, Professor Emeritus at the UCLA School of Dentistry, and advanced cosmetic dentistry training at Loma Linda University with Dr. James Dunn. Read more about his credentials on the About Dr. Thein page.
Here are the gorgeous results:
As mentioned above, Susan’s smile is done with all-porcelain crowns. When advanced bonding technology is used, the porcelain can be bonded directly to the teeth without having to rely on a metal foundation. When metal is used, an opaquer also has to be used to block out the color of the metal. The opaquer spoils the natural translucency of the porcelain. It will also create a dark line at the gumline. If you look closely at the “before” photograph of her smile, you can see this dark line on her back teeth. Because of Dr. Thein’s training with this bonding technology, he was able to create this beautiful, naturally translucent result with all-porcelain crowns.To make sure that Susan would be pleased with the result, Dr. Thein started by discussing various smile designs with her, using a special smile design book. Then, once he began the smile makeover, he created a prototype of the smile design in acrylic that she was able to wear as temporaries. Wearing the temporaries helped her know that she would love the new smile.
She was amazed with the outcome. “I am so delighted,” she says. “I had no idea that what he could do would make so much of a difference, not just in how I feel but in how I look. People tell me, ‘You look really good for your age,’ but they can’t quite figure out what it is. What Dr. Thein has done knocked years off my appearance. And I had to re-learn how to smile. I didn’t realize how self-conscious I was about my crooked smile. It wasn’t until it was fixed that I could see, ‘Wow, this is a whole new world here!’”