Dr. Huefner’s smile makeover with porcelain veneers was recently showcased on the cover of the prestigious Journal of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. It is a quarterly publication dedicated to advancing excellence in the art and science of cosmetic dentistry and is read by over 8,000 member cosmetic dentists in over 60 countries worldwide.

Tracy Kemble was the featured patient, having 20 porcelain veneers placed by Dr. Huefner and ceramics done by MAC (Microdental Advanced Ceramics) Lab in Dublin, CA.

Dr. Norman Huefner, General and Cosmetic Dentistry, Laguna Niguel, CA

Introducing Ms. California-Globe 2006, Jennifer Belle, who recently competed in the Ms. U.S.-Globe Pageant. Dr. Huefner did a smile makeover for her with MAC porcelain veneers a few weeks before the competition.

Dr. Norman Huefner, General and Cosmetic Dentistry, Laguna Niguel, CA

Someone showing too much of their upper gums oftentimes leads to an unattractive smile. A gummy smile is considered a “distraction” to otherwise what might be good looking teeth.

In general, ideal is to see 90-100% of the upper front teeth when the patient smiles, but no more than 1-2mm of gums above the teeth.

There are several reasons why someone might show too much gums:
a short upper lip
a “long face” and/or too much bone between the nose and teeth
a “hyperactive” upper lip, that raises more than normal
inflamed, fibrous gums that have overgrown the teeth
a younger person’s gums that have not receded to the normal adult position

Plastic surgeons can sometimes correct a short upper lip with a procedure that drops the upper lip down more over the gums. A “long face” and/or too much bone between the nose and teeth many times can be corrected with a combination of orthodontics and oral surgery. Hyperactive upper lips, on the other hand, usually aren’t treated, as surgery to reduce the muscles of the mouth and lip or botox injections are unpredictable and may render less than normal facial appearance.

However, the two situations where cosmetic dentists are having much success are when there are too much gums over the existing teeth (making the teeth appear too short). This is oftentimes very easily corrected by removing that little bit of excess gum tissue with laser. Healing usually occurs within a few days. Since this procedure is very conservative and non-invasive, there is generally very little post-correction discomfort or pain. Also, most patients can return to work or normal activities almost immediately. For a great majority of cosmetic dental patients, if the correction can be done with laser, most often it is the preferred treatment of choice!

Actually, most cosmetic dental patients requesting porcelain veneers have some unevenness or irregularity of their gums. Laser technology has been available to dentistry over the past decade and we’ve been regularly been utilizing it in most of these “gummy” situations. Actually, I’ve found the need to correct the gums unevenness in over 50% of my patients before doing their smile makeover with porcelain veneers. It just sets the stage to make all the dentistry look much more balanced and attractive.

BEFORE

AFTER

The photo on the top shows a patient with uneven gums who really wanted a new smile with porcelain veneers. The photo below that shows how we corrected the uneven gums with laser gum reshaping and then created ten beautiful porcelain veneers for her.
Most experienced cosmetic dentists look very importantly at the three elements of the smile. The lips, gums and teeth, as the balance of these three important components dramatically affect the ultimate esthetic result.

If you’re contemplating having porcelain veneers your cosmetic dentist should discuss with you the appearance of your gums and any “gummy” correction needed before doing the porcelain veneers. Evaluating the gums and correcting them if necessary is a very important role of the cosmetic dentist and should always be done prior to porcelain veneering.

Dr. Norman Huefner, General and Cosmetic Dentistry, Laguna Niguel, CA

Coming to Dr. Huefner’s cosmetic practice in Orange County, CA, for “a new smile” is the beautiful Dolores Couceiro, Mrs. Globe 2002 from Madrid, Spain. Dr. Huefner created her sensational smile with porcelain veneers in just two visit, right before the Mrs. Globe beauty pageant finals. Dolores’s teeth were crooked and discolored and she wanted her new smile to have whiter, more perfect teeth, which was achieved by Dr. Huefner using MAC Veneers.

Dr. Norman Huefner, General and Cosmetic Dentistry, Laguna Niguel, CA

Another Amazing Smile Transformation with Cosmetic Dentistry by Dr. Huefner

When appearing your best in public is important, sometimes old dentistry just doesn’t cut it. Rhonda was just such a person and she was ready for a change.

Her old dentistry was done in the era when dentists believed “natural” (usually meaning yellow) was the best way to go and Rhonda wanted whiter teeth this time around. Also, the bridge on her upper right teeth was breaking and she felt really “looked ugly”.

We replaced her old dentistry with new, whiter porcelain restorations and Rhonda was absolutely thrilled with the results.

Dr. Norman Huefner, General and Cosmetic Dentistry, Laguna Niguel, CA

Every once in a while a cosmetic dentist has to reach deep into his “bag of tricks” to solve challenging esthetic problems, and I’m going to share with you just such a case that I treated not too long ago. This patient, a lovely lady in her 40s, was born without one of her front teeth, the upper right second tooth, which is her right lateral incisor (”her” right lateral incisor in the photo is on the left). Congenitally missing a permanent tooth occurs in about 5% of the population, but fortunately only about 20% of those are missing one or more front teeth (most often wisdom teeth or lower bicuspids are the teeth that are missing). In this lady’s situation, since she only had 5 of the normal 6 front teeth, it resulted in a generalized spacing of her teeth. She had a smile that showed a lot of her teeth, this quite embarrassed her.

I corrected her problem with 8 porcelain veneers, but with a special trick of “dental illusions”. I made all the porcelain veneers a bit wider to fill the spaces, but shaped each tooth in a way that made it look like she wasn’t missing any tooth at all.

How did I do that?
I used special techniques called “cuspid lateralization” and “bicuspid cuspidization”. Since her right lateral incisor (or second tooth on her right) was missing, I made the shape of her right cuspid the shape of a right lateral incisor. Then I made her first bicuspid the shape of a right cuspid. So, even though she didn’t have the normal compliment of six upper front teeth, with porcelain veneers and a little creativity and ingenuity, we gave the illusion of having the normal compliment of teeth. Also, you’ll note that we did a little gum recontouring with laser to take away a little of the over gummy look that she had, and also reduced the length of the front teeth to reduce her overbite.
As you might imagine, she was absolutely thrilled with the result and we were extremely happy that we could provide “life changing cosmetic dentistry” for such a wonderful lady.
Dr. Norman Huefner, General and Cosmetic Dentistry, Laguna Niguel, CA

Many people think that crooked or spaced teeth must be treated with orthodontics, however in certain circumstances not only is treatment with porcelain veneers and cosmetic dentistry the fastest way to get a new smile, but in many cases it will give the best looking results. After all, orthodontics straightens the alignment of teeth, but does nothing to correct the shape, color or length of the teeth.

Above are two photos of a perfect example of a situation that, in my opinion, is better treated with cosmetic dentistry. Note that the teeth are crooked, but also there is spacing. A couple significant advantages of cosmetic dentistry over orthodontics is no two years of braces, several years more of retainer wear and the constant worry of the spacing opening back up when the braces are removed.

In the photos above, note the incredibly natural result we achieved with four porcelain veneers and just a couple dental visits. We even created even gums with laser, something not achievable with orthodontics. These veneers were designed with masculine shaped teeth, different in shape and length than we would have done for a female.
Dr. Norman Huefner, General and Cosmetic Dentistry, Laguna Niguel, CA

Another Extreme Makeover with Cosmetic Dentistry by Dr. Huefner

Cosmetic dentistry can certainly be “life changing” for many patients with unslghtly teeth, embarrassed to smile. A great example of this would be this patient who had a combination of numerous dental problems. Rather than describe all the issues we had to deal with, please examine the photo below and some of the problems she had should be obvious.

The end result is after I completed her cosmetic dentistry this wonderful lady looked younger, more attractive, had a healthier mouth and beamed a beautiful new smile from ear to ear!

This was an excellent example of cosmetic dentistry at its finest, but fortunately most of our cosmetic dental patients don’t have problems this “extreme”.

Dr. Norman Huefner, General and Cosmetic Dentistry, Laguna Niguel, CA

A Cosmetic Dentistry Smile Makeover with Porcelain Veneers for a More Professional Appearance by Dr. Huefner

Porcelain veneers are certainly the answer for many patients who have discolored, chipped and otherwise unattractive teeth and are seeking a more professional appearance. This gentleman was a perfect example of that situation. He also wanted a more youthful appearance, and chose a whiter porcelain color (“Hollywood white”) and loved it.

It is extremely important that the patients become very involved in the color selection to be very satisfied with the ultimate results. In our cosmetic practice we will make suggestions as to what color veneers will look best in our opinion, but it is the patients who have the final decision.

Dr. Norman Huefner, General and Cosmetic Dentistry, Laguna Niguel, CA