Cosmetics Before Oral Health: Modern Dentist's Dilemma

Dental
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In your dental practice, have you ever come across patients asking for veneers while refusing scaling? Day-to-day dental practice intoduces us to a very heterogenous patient population with varied perceptions of oral health and esthetics.They could be simply categorised as:

  1. The Esthetic Idealists: those patients who are drawn by the “veneer culture”, the concept of “Hollywood smile” and “Turkey smile”.Although highly demanding they will consider your opinion.
  2. The minimalists:who visit you only when in pain and are reluctant to even get dental cleaning/scaling done.
  3. The cosmetic but cautious:This is a rather interesting category of patients, who have doubts about simple procedures like Oral prophylaxis as they think it chips off enamel, but want esthetic procedures meeting their social media expectations.

As Dental health practitioners we understand the importance of having good oral hygiene and the utmost need to achieve excellant gingival/periodontal health prior to any rehabilative and esthetic treatments.

How do we handle patients in category 3?

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I think for these patients making pro and cons table and making them undera the treatment might help

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Patient education and motivation probably play the biggest role in category 3 patients. Before focusing on esthetic or rehabilitative treatments, helping them understand the importance of periodontal health, regular oral hygiene practices, and long-term maintenance is essential for better treatment outcomes.

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Proper guidance and explanation about importance of gum health

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This reminds me of one patient who had a band of calculus in the lower anterior teeth region, up to the middle third of the lingual surfaces of all lower anterior teeth. After scaling, he started complaining that the treatment was responsible for the gaps between his teeth. Which category does this patient come under? I’m confused here!

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