The question arises spontaneously when an expert eye observes photographs or advertisements featuring stars from the entertainment, fashion, or high society worlds in general. The “shadow” I’m referring to is represented by the high number of reconstructed smiles that appear ugly, artificial, or simply inappropriate to the celebrity’s personality. These aren’t sporadic cases, but rather situations that recur with a certain consistency. Yet they paid a lot of money! To whom? Of course, there are excellent smiles out there reconstructed by top-notch dentists and dental technicians, but they’re few and far between, and the photos prove it. Of course, even with seemingly excellent smiles, one might wonder whether they were studied objectively, with an underlying logic, or whether they are the product of the creators’ imaginations.
Viewing images online or firsthand experience with celebrities shows how sometimes not only aesthetics are compromised by a poor job, but also health. Gum recession and inflammation cannot escape the expert eye. Those “sink-white” teeth instead of “pearl-white” certainly don’t hide the underlying
illnesses and the outright scam that has been perpetrated on those who certainly didn’t ask for a cost-effective procedure, if anything, the opposite. To think that a VIP who has spent tens of thousands of euros could have the breath of a “can of anchovies” because of an inadequate bridge, impossible to clean, which causes food buildup and inflammation, is highly disgraceful, as well as unscrupulous, both professionally and humanly speaking. But why do these things happen? Why do VIPs often fail to notice this blatant reality? Simply because no one has trained them. It’s no longer enough to be informed; if you spend such sums, you need to receive proper “training”—not just “informed consent”—about what is beautiful and good, with objective explanations that anyone can understand. This is why AFG, the system I developed, includes not only the mathematical reconstruction of natural human teeth, but also a simple teaching method that uses
symbols, aimed at educating the patient even if they only attended elementary school.
A simple language supported by simplified geometric shapes and numbers with commas. Often dazzled by the star’s light, we allow them to overlook flaws we wouldn’t allow in anyone else.
Yet there would be enough to spark gossip about the wrong smile!
We need to think about who designs and builds these new smiles and how they do it! Not always, but all too often, celebrities are fooled by luxurious locations in the city center, or by going to a friend of a friend, met at a party, who doesn’t really know anything about teeth, but perhaps knows a thing or two about Ferraris, champagne, and charm.
Secretaries, fashion models, furniture, and paintings don’t end up in the mouths of the VIP patient, but remain where they are. What should be paid for as a luxury is objective and real quality, not perceived quality, which often hides a lack of professional ethics. The “in” environment and other furnishings can—but not always—become a decoy and the revelation of a practice’s mere marketing gimmick. If we’re in the “business class” of dentistry, real quality and perceived quality must necessarily coincide, even in light of costs. Obviously, this would be desirable in all latitudes, but the reality is different. Suffice it to say
the practical example I gave in my previous article in this magazine, where I state without fear of contradiction that more than 90% of dental professionals are unable to distinguish (test conducted for 24 years at all levels) an upper right premolar from a left, or a first from a second. Let’s get back to our point and look at a concrete example: the cost of a crown in the luxury sector can range from €4,000 to €5,000, but simply listing the so-called European certifications by who and how this crown is made isn’t enough. Those who are inside the system
know that often no distinction is made between a supply chain that costs €4,000 to €5,000 per tooth and one that costs the aforementioned figures, at least 10 times higher. In fact, there’s no real supply chain that can be defined as “business class” dentistry; often, everything ends up in the anxious and frenetic prosthetic production wagon that pervades most practices and laboratories, and here the “shadow” thickens! Everything rushed, everything as quickly as possible, isn’t fair to the patient who pays little, let alone a VIP who expects completely customized work, handled with a more artistic approach than industrialized, finely and manually chiseled. A patient who pays this much must demand to know and understand everything: the people, techniques, and materials involved in their new smile. To this, the AFG system adds innovative explanations, centered on
simple numbers that make everything easier to understand. sensitive, as already stated in the previous lines. The VIP should always keep in mind that if the location of the studio is good, good, but if it isn’t, it matters little. It’s the “who” and the “how” that count, otherwise the ugly mouths of stars will only proliferate.
We must understand how the desire to appear, not only among celebrities, in modern society, must take on the deepest meaning of this word: to “reveal,” to bring out, which can be summed up in a few tenths of a millimeter more or less in the “outfit”—smile eyes, or why not, smile earrings—like a kind of
geometry of the soul!
Source: INFOMEDIX ITALIAN DENTISTRY 6 2024
