On seeing this patient, we found she was chipping her veneers and fillings. We found this was due to stress from starting work since finishing university. This change gave rise to a lot of stress in her life. Consequently, she was clenching and grinding her teeth while she was asleep and this led to the damage to her teeth.
As you can see in the photo, 3 of her veneers were severely chipped as a result of the excessive pressure. This left her feeling anxious about her smile, and affected her appearance and her interactions at work and socially.
Once we had concluded our investigations, we bonded the affected areas and built the teeth back up.
What next?
We then discussed short and longer-term solutions to help her avoid this happening again. Prevention is the cornerstone of our holistic approach so it is important for us to be able to help our patients maintain good oral health.
The patient was given a temporary nightguard to use in the short term while a made-to-measure guard was suggested. We were also able to recommend her to a specialist in-house to help her make changes to her bite so that she minimised further damage to her teeth.
