I’ve paid a fortune for a smile makeover. I don’t know what went wrong. All the before and after pictures he showed me were gorgeous, but my makeover turned out quite differently. It looks absolutely hideous. Can this be fixed? He used Lumineers. I don’t know if there’s a way to fix those or not. What do I do? They look completely fake.
Danya F.
Dear Danya,
A Gorgeous Smile Created by Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Bonnie Rothwell
I’m curious about the pictures your dentist showed you. Do you know if they’re photos of cases he’s actually done himself or did he show you stock photos? That would be something worth looking into. If he represented them as his work and they weren’t, that’s fraud. You could easily get a refund that way and go to a different cosmetic dentist to get this done the right way.
Cosmetic dentistry isn’t a recognized specialty by the American Dental Association. Every cosmetic dentist is a general dentist. Some give more time and study to cosmetic procedures than others. Just like with anything else, you’ll get different results from different practitioners depending on their skill level.
Lumineers, the brand he used on you, is often marketed to inexperienced cosmetic dentists as being easy to place. As you can tell by the results you received, there’s nothing easy about cosmetic dentistry.
Choosing Your Cosmetic Dentist
To get this fixed, it will have to be completely re-done. You certainly don’t want to have it redone by another unskilled dentist, so how do you find a skilled cosmetic dentist. Here are my recommendations:
- Go to a dentist who’s accredited by the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. These are the top cosmetic dentists in the country. They have to pass stringent oral and written exams along with demonstrating their artistry.
- If there isn’t an AACD accredited dentist available at a reasonable distance to you then you can try the mynewsmile.com website. They recommend highly skilled cosmetic dentists by zip code. Some are AACD accredited and some are on their way toward accreditation but are equally good.
- If you can’t find either of those, you may consider traveling to one of them. It would be worth it to get a gorgeous smile. Most of them will even have a beautiful smile guarantee.
You’ll likely find that none of them will recommend Lumineers. Instead, they’ll recommend the brand of porcelain veneers that will work best with the type of smile makeover you want.
This blog is brought to you by Dr. Bonne Rothwell.
