My ‘new’ nurse: Dr Nik

Do you have unusually shaped teeth?

Have you ever wonder whether something can be done to make it look more acceptable?

Sue is my nurse and she has two abnormal looking upper front teeth. These two teeth are actually her lateral incisors (tooth beside the central one) and it is pointed in shape instead of squarish . We call this peg shaped lateral incisors.

Since Sue had been working with us and had seen us doing a lot of makeovers, she knew that something can be done to make her teeth nicer. That ‘something’ is cosmetic fillings and she had been wanting me to do it for her.

Luckily for her, one of my  patients didn’t turn up for their appointment and I had time to do the makeover for her. She immediately put the protective bib on herself and prepared all the materials needed. She asked Munirah, my other nurse, to help me with the procedure.

I started off by closing the gaps in the middle and built up, shaping the right and left peg shaped lateral incisors. On top of having peg shaped laterals, Sue also had a missing upper right canine which meant that I needed to do cosmetic filling on her premolar too, disguising it into a canine. These were actually quite easy to do and I completed the makeover in 45 minutes.

Sue was so happy with her new smile that she couldn’t stop looking in the mirror. But guess what? She said that she felt uncomfortable with the new ‘teeth’.

I just smiled and said, “Don’t most patients feel the same? And they were fine after a day or two, right?”

“A’aa….maybe this is what they feel after the makeover” Sue said

“Yaa..so stop worrying….You’ll get used to the new ‘teeth’ after a day or two like all the other patients….and this  experience will make you understand patients more as you have experienced it yourself”.

Today I asked Sue whether she still felt uncomfortable, she said “No..it feels ok now…thank you Dr Nik”.

And so we start our day at the clinic with new ‘Sue’ assisting me….smiling.