This 40-something female patient lived all her adult life with a smile she did not like because she was never offered any viable alternatives. Her appearance was not overly unaesthetic but sufficiently displeasing to the patient to make her unhappy with her smile. It was not bad enough for her to choose to put herself through 18 months or more of orthodontic treatment (as had been advised in the past) nor did she see it as worth spending thousands of pounds on veneers or undergoing the subsequent tooth reduction required to do this.
However, with a Cfast fixed appliance a straightening procedure was able to be completed in just five months, with some post-alignment whitening and incisal edge bonding treatment carried out. The patient was delighted with the results and now smiles with confidence.
This case shows that we should never underestimate how much importance patients may bestow upon something that many of us might consider of little or no aesthetic concern.
Fig 1: The patient’s smile before
treatment.
Fig 2: Initial retracted view of the
teeth in occlusion.
Fig 3: Retracted view showing mild
to moderate crowding of the upper
and lower anterior teeth prior to
treatment.
Fig 4: The patient’s happy smile
after five months of treatment.
Fig 5: Frontal retracted view in
occlusion.
Fig 6: Retracted view showing the
results for the upper and lower teeth.