Smile Gallery

Sometimes you're born with them, sometimes they're made. But oftentimes we can help make them go away! With our special non-invasive (no drilling) technique we can help give your teeth a more uniform and natural appearance.

We helped this patient by replacing old discolored fillings. Sometimes teeth are congenitally small. When this happens it is most often the maxillary lateral incisors - the ones on the top next to the middle teeth. Often times I work with an orthodontist who typically uses braces to place these smaller teeth in the right spot so that composite can be added to them, restoring them to the desired shape and size. However, braces aren't always necessary, it just depends on each patient. On this particular patient, I used advanced multi-layering techniques to add depth, strength, luster, and high polish to ...

Sometimes old fillings become stained and worn over time. One of the most conservative treatment options available is replacing those old fillings with new composite materials used in advanced layering techniques. This example shows one of the other benefits of composite, the middle tooth on the left had composite added to it so that it would be the same width as the middle tooth on the right. This was done so there wouldn't be the natural space in between the two middle teeth. Aside from removing the old filling, no drilling was needed on these teeth. This conservative nature is ...

There are two basic types of veneers, composite and porcelain. Traditionally, porcelain is the first choice due to its predictability in creating great aesthetic results. However, there are two major downsides to using porcelain over composite. The first is that in almost all cases, natural sound tooth structure must be removed in order for the porcelain to replace it and look natural. The second is cost--they're typically about twice as much. In contrast, composite can almost always be a purely additive procedure. The reason that not more dentists offer composite veneers is that they are one of the most difficult ...

Occasionally people are born without some of their permanent teeth (also known as congenially missing teeth). This patient has a removable partial denture (flipper) which is why two of the teeth are just slightly more gray than the others. Often, a great option for creating that great-looking confident smile is tooth replacement with dental implants. In this specific case, dental implants for the top two lateral (teeth next to the middle teeth) were combined with composite veneers on the two front middle teeth. Dental implants are currently the best technology to recreate a missing tooth. The implant itself is replaces ...

A relatively new "player" to the game is tooth colored, also known as Composite, fillings. And by new, we're talking about 20-30 years. Composite fillings vary in microscopic composition, but all try to mimic the natural appearance of a tooth. I'll always make sure you're getting the best type of composite for each specific tooth. I love composite fillings since they allow me to really embrace my artistic side. There are basically two other types of filling materials available, so also look for my info on gold and amalgam fillings.

Sealants are a great way to help prevent cavities from forming in the first place. The best time to have a sealant placed is shortly after the new adult molar tooth erupts and only when it has naturally deep grooves - ones that are hard for a toothbrush to sweep down and clean out. Even if the grooves are only moderately deep, it still might be a good idea particularly if several other teeth have already become decayed. My office places sealants a little differently than most other offices. In most cases, I will use a special soft isolation device to ...

I like to think of gold onlays as conservative crowns. That's because i don't have to remove nearly as much natural tooth structure to do them. And no restorative material is as good as natural tooth. An onlay, as opposed to an inlay, covers at least one cusp. You can think of a cusp as each little "mountain" or bump on your tooth. Some people say that gold is not aesthetic (despite loving Jack Sparrow and his golden front tooth), but I just love the way the yellow compliments the white surrounding the glassy smooth margin. Then again, often you can have ...

Gold inlays often replace failing amalgam or composite fillings. Although they can also be the first restorative material used to repair a cavity as well. Make sure to read all about the benefits of gold by clicking the link to the right under "Related Services." This gold inlay I did was completed on another dentist. Notice how much tighter the margins are (where the restoration meets the tooth) and how much smoother the inlay is. When gold is finished like this it feels remarkably smooth to your tongue! Also see my Before & After on Gold Onlays.

Often I will recommend a dental implant to replace a single missing tooth. But in some cases (like this one) it makes more sense to restore the area with a bridge. You can see that the molar has a large filling in it that was previously held together with a band, and the premolar already has a crown on it (don't have to worry about removing natural tooth structure since it's already been done). You might also wonder about why the bridge isn't all tooth colored (the second molar has a metal "island" on it). This is so that we ...

Here are some more dramatic before and after looks of dental cleanings. What makes it dramatic is the removal of calculus (also known as tarter) restoring clean, smooth enamel. What makes calculus? Well, everyone has bacteria in their mouth, a gross, but inevitable fact of life. That bacteria will eat the same sugar that you eat and produce plaque and acid. The acid demineralizes your teeth leading to tooth decay. The plaque (which is the white stuff you can scrape off your teeth, or that fuzzy feeling you get after drinking a Mountain Dew and eating a box of Cheese-its) will ...

This was a rewarding case to do.  This patient had years of cumulative chipping on the bottom chewing edges of the top front teeth.  Bonding chips with a single shade of composite resin is something that a lot of dentists do regularly.  But what makes this different is that these teeth had a lot of what's called "characterizations."  You'll notice that these front teeth have a sort of white halo outlining the bottom edge of the teeth - that's the character.  If a single shade was used here, then the bonding would stand out.  But by adding some opaque white ...

When this patient's previous composite bonding had discolored, we agreed to have them replaced.  The previous bonding was only on two of the front teeth.  This made it more challenging to replace the previous bonding while not also bonding the other teeth that were healthy and didn't need work done otherwise.  

Through the use of different resin composite types, and also resin tints, we were able to achieve a seamless match to the other teeth.  While we might normally remove white spots with a technique called "resin infiltration," in this instance I felt it fit the patient more aesthetically to recreate ...

Some folks love their gap between their two front teeth, others REALLY don't..  If you find yourself in the camp of not liking that gap there's a good chance that conservative and additive bonding is a great solution for you!  Often times this procedure doesn't even require you to be numb to complete since no natural tooth structure is removed.  Another option to close the gap would be orthodontics.  But if your have a "tooth width to arch length discrepancy,"  which is to say that your teeth are too small for your mouth, then orthodontics may not provide the desired ...

If you are ever so "lucky" as to have a traumatic accident to your front teeth, you'll know it feels terrible.  Not only does the tooth hurt, but it hurts to look at the missing parts too!  Fortunately, there can be a relatively quick fix to this problem with conservative composite bonding.  Using this technique minimal, and often none, tooth structure needs to be removed.  The tooth colored composite can often be identically matched and added to replace what was missing.  

In this case one of the rewarding challenges for me is to recreate the subtle characteristics of missing parts of ...