transformations
Every smile has a story, and no two treatment plans are the same. These cases offer an insight into how I approach restorative dentistry, from understanding each patient's concerns and assessing their individual needs to planning treatment that balances appearance, function and long-term health. I'll explain not only what we did, but why I chose that approach and what we aimed to preserve along the way. My goal is always to achieve a natural-looking, functional result that feels right for the individual.
Managing Multiple Spaces in a Smile
The Challenge
Managing spaces in a smile well requires a keen attention to detail and meticulous planning to make sure that teeth look well proportioned and natural. In this case, not only did we have spaces between teeth at the top, but we also had an anterior open bite (space between the teeth on the top and bottom jaw), coupled with tooth wear and proclination (a tilting forward position) of the upper teeth.
The Treatment
We considered a few different things in isolation and combination here, including; orthodontics, porcelain veneers and composite bonding, ensuring we balanced the value conservative care with long term maintenance and stability concerns. We finally used a combination of tooth whitening and guided composite veneers to camouflage the true position of the anterior teeth.
More cases involving space management.
 Camouflaging Canines |  6 Composite Veneers |
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 2 Porcelain Veneers |
Restoring a worn and heavily restored smile
The Challenge
After years of single tooth dentistry, resulting in a patchwork quilt of colours, shapes and sizes left a lot to be desired in this smile. Aside from the visual challenges this case presented, there were some functional fundamentals that needed some serious attention, including cracked and decayed teeth, old worn restorations and periodontal disease (gum disease.
The Treatment
We used a wide variety of treatments to first stabilise and subsequently rehabilitate this smile. This included, non-surgical periodontal treatment, gingival margin repositioning, root canal treatment, internal tooth whitening alongside conventional whitening, porcelain veneers and porcelain crowns.
More cases of involving tooth whitening.
 Internal Whitening |  |
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 Internal Tooth Whitening |
More cases of involving porcelain restorations.
 Full Mouth Rehabilitation |  |
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replacing a missing tooth and managing years of toothwear
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The Challenge
An unexpected broken tooth is most patient's worst nightmare and certainly poses clinical challenges. This combined with the discoloured teeth, with crowding and rotations put this patient immediately at a cross roads: do you choose a definitive fix for your gap right away. or choose something less definitive to keep the options open for a comprehensive plan.
The Treatment
This treatment occurred in two phases - an initial stabilisation to ensure that the exposed root canal treatment in the broken tooth was not infected, and then this tooth's subsequent reconstruction with a post and core. Following this, we designed a new smile and trialled this out directly on the patient's teeth. We whitened this patient's teeth and finally we used a combination of Porcelain Veneers & Crowns.
More Cases invoving missing teeth.
 Porcelain Bridge ReplacementBefore and After Image of an 8 unit porcelain bridge which was replaced by Dr Sefa Ahiaku |  Partial Denture & Porcelain VeneersBefore and After of a fixed bridge involving the front teeth which failed, resulting in its removal. This was subsequently restored by Dr Sefa Ahiaku with a removable partial denture |
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 Resin-Bonded BridgeBefore and After of a patient with a missing tooth which was replaced by a resin bonded bridge by Dr Sefa Ahiaku to eliminate the gap. |
Restoring symmetry and harmony to an uneven smile
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The Challenge
Approaching a smile like this is challenging, because on the surface it looks simple. There were two ways to approach this case - the rapid way and the comprehensive way. Thinking about the patients goals and current position were important to get this right. Given a future consideration about dental implants, the comprehensive route of treatment was a better fit.
The Treatment
Following a course of stabilisation including fillings and non-surgical periodontal therapy, a short course of tooth alignment was completed to optimise the position and angulation of the teeth. The teeth were then whitened using Enlighten Whitening. 10 free-hand composite veneers were subsequently placed to optimise the shape of the teeth, including improving the appearance of the buccal corridors.
More cases of involving tooth alignment.
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More cases of involving composite restorations.
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managing short teeth as a result of toothwear
The Challenge
Understanding the cause of the toothwear is important to getting management just right. This patient had years of attrition affecting the length of his teeth, and also changing the occlusion in the anterior area of his smile. Planning fixed restorations safely required understanding the static and dynamic occlusion in order to plan the ideal position of the anterior teeth without risking short and medium term fractures.
The Treatment
A wax up of the anterior teeth was done to design some new teeth, and 6 porcelain veneers were placed restoring the worn upper teeth. Subsequently composite edge bonding was placed on the lower anterior teeth to adjust the relationship between the upper and the lower teeth.
More Cases involving toothwear.
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full mouth rehabilitation
A full mouth rehabilitation is the opposite of what we commonly see in NHS dentistry, where problems are fixed on a single tooth basis. This type of care takes the whole mouth into consideration, with the aim of improving aesthetics and function in a cohesive way. This often involves the use of multiple treatment like composite bonding, porcelain restorations, implants and dentures.
dentures replacing very back teeth |  dentures replacing very back teeth | |
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