DR. V- Podcast Interview

Well, you know, I always liken the smile and the teeth to the rings of a tree. You know, we can tell so much about a patient's overall health just by their mouth and their teeth. Things that are going on systemically in the body a lot of times will show up first in the mouth. And to that point, you know, the mouth is also one of the first places that aging shows up. You know, our mouths are the most used part of the body as well. We're constantly eating and chewing and talking. So the mouth, you know, does take a brunt of the force. It is something that, when isn't healthy, can really affect someone's function as well. Eating, speaking, all those things. I think it's always a combination of genetics and lifestyle. I think we can, in some ways control our genetics in a way, yes, we're predisposed to things, but genes can be turned on and off based on external factors. So it's the whole field of epigenetics. Right. Which is so cool. And just because you have a genetic predisposition to something, you can actually reduce your chance of turning that gene on by taking better care of yourself by your external surroundings. So, you know, when it comes to oral health, I think, yeah, some people are just genetically predisposed to a certain condition or to, say, periodontal disease or, you know, cavities. But I do believe that, you know, you can in most instances curtail that, the effects of that, maybe not eliminate it completely, but certainly control the degree or the magnitude to which that gene is expressed. So I do believe we have a bit of control over what happens in our bodies, our mouths, even with genetic predispositions. That's a good question. What are porcelain veneers? Porcelain veneers are thin shells of porcelain that are bonded onto your teeth. Porcelain is a glass, like, material that on its own is actually quite fragile. But when you bond it to a tooth, it gains so much strength, it almost becomes as strong as your own natural tooth. And the things we could do with porcelain veneers are, you know, we can brighten the smile. We can make your teeth brighter than they would naturally get with white. We can change the shape of the teeth. So if you're not happy with the shape of the teeth, we can change that. Make them larger, smaller, more feminine, more masculine with straighter edges, or feminine with rounder edges. We can broaden the smile, widen it for more cheek support, and fill in any, like, dark negative spaces on the sides of your smile. And in answer to your question, you know, how many Porcelain veneers. Veneers. Does someone need. It depends. Every patient is different. We really need to evaluate their smile, their face, what it is exactly that their goals are with their smile. Typically, I'd say for a smile makeover, the least I would do is four veneers. And that's like a very conservative, simple case. You know, if somebody really loves their smile and maybe has some old bonding, old filling material in the front four teeth, and we just kind of do, you know, a mini makeover. And, you know, the most I've done is all the teeth. So it can run the gamut of anywhere between the least and the most. What we do to evaluate that is really look at the patient's face. We take models, we make molds, we get stone models of the patient's smile. And then from there we can actually do a smile design. So we do what we call a mock up or a wax up on those models to kind of show what the smile would look like. So if we say, for instance, we want a broader, more feminine smile, we can create that on a model and then transfer it to the patient's mouth in temporaries, and then the patient can live with that and we make adjustments. So it's a very predictable process to get to where we want to get. And, you know, the patient feels more comfortable seeing every step of the way. Yeah. And you know, that's an interesting question because everyone's case is super unique. Depending on what the needs are, timelines can vary from anywhere three weeks to three months to sometimes even six months if we're healing from implant surgery. The takeaway though, is at all points throughout that process, the patient should be and is aesthetically stable, meaning they're never walking around with a clearly missing tooth. You always wanna make sure that you have some sort of temporary in place, making sure that the patient's comfortable enough, step out into the real world, you know, comfortable enough to eat. So, you know, while some of these cases can take some time, especially with, you know, other procedures, periodontal and endodontic procedures that are involved, you know, it's a very carefully planned out process with specialists, with our specialists, and through every step of the process, we do make sure that, you know, the patient is stable. That's our goal. Like, so we can't always know how long it'll take for a patient to heal. We can guesstimate, but, you know, they're always comfortable throughout the process. I think that Instagram and social media definitely has its place. I think it can be used as a tool. I look at Instagram and social media from the lens of a business owner. How can I educate my patients? How can I just show what our business does or our, you know, brand identity? How can we use Instagram as a tool to sort of, you know, get patients to. To see what we do and all that? But you're right, there is, like, a bigger purpose that we need to sort of educate a certain generation on in terms of, you know, there's more to it than posting, like, what you ate for lunch that day.