Show #324 Airing Sunday, 1/1/06
Do you still have your console TV from 1955? How about your first microwave which was probably as big as a TV? Odds are you’ve updated and benefitted from all the technological advances. Well guess what, if you take a peak in your mouth, you’ll probably find antique dental work that is very last century. Here to update us on outdated dental work is Dr. Steven Marsh and his patient, Bob Remley.
Question: Dentistry keeps evolving and changing, doesn’t it?
Answer: New and more natural-looking materials have been developed, along with new procedures and techniques.
Question: Bob, you’ve just had some work done recently, but the story really st arts years ago, correct?
Answer: When I was a teenager, I lost a front tooth due to a sports accident. That had been fixed with a crown. About 18 years ago, when I was first married, my wife convinced me to go to her dentist, Dr. Marsh, to see if my smile could be fixed more naturally.
Question: Dr. Marsh, what was done 18 or so years ago?
Answer: We replaced the gold crown with a bridge. Back then, the bridge was metal with an acrylic outside.
Question: Bob, you decided that you wanted to make some changes now. Why?
Answer: The bridge lasted over 15 years, which I thought was very surprising. But I knew that there were new technologies that made for a more natural smile. The first thing people notice when they meet you is your smile and your teeth, so I felt it was time. We had just moved back to Cleveland, and had liked what Dr. Marsh did before, so I made an appointment.
Question: Dr. Marsh, what did you do now for Bob’s smile?
Answer: First we took a lot of digital pictures to decide what we wanted to do. A big change from 18 years ago when we used Polaroids!
The bridge had lasted a long time, but now we can do better. In the past, the porcelain was thicker, or over metal, for strength. Now, we can have thinner, translucent porcelain that is as strong but also looks more natural.
Bob had dark, grayish teeth due to tetracycline stains (those who took this medication while their teeth were forming, or their mother did while she was pregnant, have dark teeth that won’t bleach white). Also, if the bridge only has the front 5 or 6 teeth as part of it, it tends to stick out and look artificial. To correct both those problems, we extended the bridge by putting veneers on the two teeth on either side.
You can also see that the teeth are arched inward originally. We brought the arch out for a better fit.
Question: Bob, how do you feel?
Answer: I love it. It looks great and felt comfortable immediately.
I was very surprised that it was able to be done in two appointments. In between the appointments, I was given temporaries, which was nice as well.
The adage “out with the old, in with the new” typically signals progress. And there’s been lots of progress in dentistry. For more information, call the number up next. My thanks to Dr. Steven Marsh and Bob Remley.
