Another one our patients, named Shawn, had a nice-looking smile, but his teeth still gave him problems. “After I chipped my upper front right tooth,” he remembers, “I consulted with Dr. Seifi about why this had happened to me, suddenly chipping a front tooth after 32 years and from no trauma at all.”

A consultation with StarBrite’s Dr. Maryam Seifi revealed some stress fractures that pointed to chronic nail-biting (a subtle but nonetheless effective form of trauma). It also pointed out something more important: a “malocclusion” (which is an alignment issue that causes the upper and lower teeth to meet at damaging angles).

Further examination found that there was something of a box shape at the front of Shawn’s lower teeth, where they flared out on the ends; this caused stressful contact when his upper teeth connected with the lower teeth. That friction resulted in chipping at the edges of both the upper and lower teeth, stress fractures and also receding gums caused by the rough impact that occurred whenever the upper and lower teeth met. 

Shawn was impressed by Dr. Seifi’s dental detective work. “It was quite a lot to learn in one consultation,” he says, “I felt like CSI Miami had just exposed the true cause of the crime in a total of 3 minutes!” After hearing his diagnosis, Shawn recalled that there had been times when he had been in situations—conversations, for instance—when, “Suddenly, out of nowhere my teeth came together funny and they felt like I had bitten on a spoon; that real weird hard nerve pain you get after biting into something metal.”

Memory also reminded Shawn about a chipped front tooth that had been repaired with bonding about a year and a half previously, only to be broken again. “The clues added up,” he recalls, “My bite was off and it was causing damage to the structure of my teeth and causing them to chip!”

Dr. Seifi recommended treatment with Invisalign Express—a 5-step version of Invisalign for patients who need only a small amount of movement in a particular area of the mouth. It would prevent future chipping, gum erosions, teeth breaking from stress, the need for crowns and veneers and other treatments. “I had never known there was so much science in dentistry—cause and effect type stuff,” Shawn told us, “I thought if something broke or something there wasn't much you could do about it. I'm glad I was wrong!"

One of the most rewarding experiences for us at StarBrite is when patients write to tell us how their treatments have helped them. Let us tell you about a patient named, Kathryn. She first started Invisalign because of teeth that were chipping due to being overcrowded by the positioning of other teeth. As Kathryn put it, “Every time I came for a cleaning, I was shown how my lower right tooth specifically was cracking more and more from the stress, and that meant I would end up needing a crown.”

In the course of her Invisalign treatment, Kathryn found that the process was doing more than just preventing teeth from chipping. “I was seeing the hygienist every 3 months for cleanings, as I had signs of gum disease developing,” Kathryn told us. “About a year into [Invisalign], our hygienist put me on regular 6 month cleanings and told me my gum pockets were now 1’s and 2’s (in regular terms – that means my gums are now perfect and healthy and I am NOT going to need any treatment for gum issues).”

Before Invisalign, Kathryn had also experienced regular migraine headaches, jaw aches from grinding her teeth and occasional tightness that made it severely painful to just open her mouth. During the course of Invisalign, those problems went away.

And what about her smile? Let’s go back to Kathryn, writing on her last day of treatment: “The results are just awesome. When the staff took my pictures today to show the before and after shots, I was amazed.”

Kathryn is just one of many patients who have told us what Invisalign has done for their appearance, their personal confidence and their overall oral and physical health.