Kristine Aadland This is just one of those cases that meant a lot to me. This women walked in my practice looking for a third or fourth consult for her front teeth. She was celebrating 1 year of being cancer free after undergoing pretty severe chemo and radiation with low survival rates. She beat the odds but her teeth suffered. She had something to smile about now and wanted her teeth to reflect that. She hated her smile and I was so grateful that she chose me because I wanted to be a part of her story.
Major damage from erosion was done to teeth #7-10. The canines also show buccal erosion and pitting on the cusp tips. She has obvious tetracycline staining as well and in her smile we decided to work from #5-12 knowing that she could always add in #4 and #13 at a later date if she wanted.
When I am looking at the shape of her teeth, I see that the laterals are a bit wide, I want to lengthen #8 and 9 due to the amount of wear and erosion (meaning I have to pay attention to occlusion here) but I really like the overall shape of her teeth.
I set this up in the computer as Biogeneric Individual, but then manually add a BioCopy Upper folder so that I know where her midline, incisal length papillae are.
This is a case I delivered in one appointment and a tip that I have definitely learned over the years is to trust biology. I have a huge fear of black triangles and I know I am not alone. Patients hate the look of having pepper stuck in their teeth and are always asking if we can fix it. It's not an easy task with a tiny bit of composite for natural teeth, and then with crowns, I just used to make these long, broad contacts to avoid it at all costs. The problem with those long, broad contacts is that they just don't look quite right. Now it's this constant struggle in my mind of making sure there is no black triangle and trusting biology to fill in the triangle.
Here is an example of that-
Immediate seat
1 week post op and praying to the papillae gods
3 week post op
This was such a fun case for my entire team getting to know this woman who has more courage and strength than I could fathom. She affected every one of my team members in a positive manner and now can't stop smiling. She scheduled to do her lower anteriors in a month and I can't wait. She was an amazing reminder of why I love what I do.
