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When That Smile Is Too Perfect
By CATHERINE SAINT LOUIS
IN this age of advanced aesthetic enhancement, subtlety is prized. The discerning get just enough Botox to unfurrow their brows, lest they become expressionless clones. Women dissatisfied with their breast size may get a surgical boost, but few aim to be as conspicuously colossal as Heidi Montag. And now dental patients are pursuing perfectly imperfect teeth.
It used to be the only sought-after veneers — fingernail-thin cosmetic moldings that cover the fronts of teeth — were big, gleaming, flawlessly lined-up white squares. Nicknamed Chiclets, they have become near-ubiquitous in Hollywood.
But these days, there’s a growing demand for painstakingly customized, natural-looking veneers created by professional dental ceramists, offering a balance of lifelike translucency and opaque whiteness. The lifelike “flaws” requested by patients include rotating the teeth next to the center pair so they overlap a little; subtly discoloring veneers toward the gumline so it looks between-cleaning realistic; and adding grooves so the porcelain isn’t oddly smooth.
“There’s a desire for imperfection in veneers,” said Dr. Marc Lowenberg, a cosmetic dentist in Manhattan. Last week, Dr. Lowenberg said, a Texan woman told him: “I don’t want my teeth to look like somebody else’s teeth in my mouth. I want them to look like I’ve had them all my life.”
Of course, patients aren’t paying $1,600 to $2,500 per customized veneer (standard-issue ones start at $700) for an actual replica of their time-worn chompers. Rather, they want a subtle forgery that looks inconspicuously better than the real thing.
Alexa Vega, a 22-year-old actress who has starred in the “Spy Kids” movies, visited Vincent Devaud, a ceramist in Pasadena, Calif., whose Web site touts a “couture designer smile,” after hearing of his expertise in natural-looking veneers. Using 18 shades of porcelain, he texturized her top-row veneers to resemble her real bottom row. Near the gum is “slightly darker, and at the end of the tooth, less dark,” Ms. Vega said approvingly of the results, but with “such a good flow to it.”
By CATHERINE SAINT LOUIS
IN this age of advanced aesthetic enhancement, subtlety is prized. The discerning get just enough Botox to unfurrow their brows, lest they become expressionless clones. Women dissatisfied with their breast size may get a surgical boost, but few aim to be as conspicuously colossal as Heidi Montag. And now dental patients are pursuing perfectly imperfect teeth.
It used to be the only sought-after veneers — fingernail-thin cosmetic moldings that cover the fronts of teeth — were big, gleaming, flawlessly lined-up white squares. Nicknamed Chiclets, they have become near-ubiquitous in Hollywood.
But these days, there’s a growing demand for painstakingly customized, natural-looking veneers created by professional dental ceramists, offering a balance of lifelike translucency and opaque whiteness. The lifelike “flaws” requested by patients include rotating the teeth next to the center pair so they overlap a little; subtly discoloring veneers toward the gumline so it looks between-cleaning realistic; and adding grooves so the porcelain isn’t oddly smooth.
“There’s a desire for imperfection in veneers,” said Dr. Marc Lowenberg, a cosmetic dentist in Manhattan. Last week, Dr. Lowenberg said, a Texan woman told him: “I don’t want my teeth to look like somebody else’s teeth in my mouth. I want them to look like I’ve had them all my life.”
Of course, patients aren’t paying $1,600 to $2,500 per customized veneer (standard-issue ones start at $700) for an actual replica of their time-worn chompers. Rather, they want a subtle forgery that looks inconspicuously better than the real thing.
Alexa Vega, a 22-year-old actress who has starred in the “Spy Kids” movies, visited Vincent Devaud, a ceramist in Pasadena, Calif., whose Web site touts a “couture designer smile,” after hearing of his expertise in natural-looking veneers. Using 18 shades of porcelain, he texturized her top-row veneers to resemble her real bottom row. Near the gum is “slightly darker, and at the end of the tooth, less dark,” Ms. Vega said approvingly of the results, but with “such a good flow to it.”