Do you need a smile lift?

Last week I accompanied my energetic mother to her ballroom dancing session. I sat there admiring her contemporaries dancing the night away with a lot of verve, vigor and vitality. I am talking about ladies in their 70s and 80s, whose main source of exercise is ballroom dancing. We all know that exercise keeps us healthy and feeling young. I am so happy that these ladies have discovered ballroom dancing as their fountain of youth. Their dance sessions give them reason to get dressed and look good, as they treat it like a dance party. I hope to follow in my mom’s footsteps and get into ballroom dancing when I reach my twilight years. When twilight dims on me, I hope to meet St. Peter at the pearly gates dressed to the nines and in my dancing shoes.

What kept me intrigued during the evening was studying the faces of my mother’s friends, whom I have known for years. Some of them have aged better than others because they have retained their facial contours and, except for the added years, still look the same from the first day I met them. Others have changed a whole lot and I wondered why.

As the evening wore on, I found my answer.

 It had something to do with their mouths. The women who looked good have retained their facial contours, especially around the mouth area. The mouths of those that have changed and now look older have receded and gotten smaller.

 The first chance I got, I hurried to my cosmetic dentist friend, Cecile Infantado  (whose clinic is on the third floor of Dusit Hotel), and consulted with her. She was truly amazed at my observation and said I hit the jackpot because I will avoid the same thing happening to me. Here is her explanation, which I share with you in the hopes that all of us will get to our parents’ age with youthful and dazzling smiles.

 The human face is divided into three equal parts. The upper third is from the tip of the forehead to the pupil of the eyes. The middle third is from the pupil of the eyes to the ala (base tip) of the nose. And the lower third is from the ala of the nose to the tip of the chin. The upper and the middle third are constant. Their height does not change nor diminish in time, as they are fixed within the cranial base. The lower third, however, where the height is affected by the presence of the upper and lower teeth, may suffer from what we call “vertical loss.”

How does the process occur?

 There are three major reasons for loss of vertical height.

One is an early extraction of the first molar or molars. Being the first of the permanent molars to erupt in the mouth at age 6 or 7, they are prone to developing cavities and failure to get treatment results in the first molar’s premature extraction. As a consequence of this, the second molar drifts to the space created by the extraction of the first molar. The normal, upright, inclination of the second molar changes as the molar lies more horizontally to fill the available space, causing a decrease in the vertical height of the lower third of the face.

 The second factor is the wear-and-tear phenomenon. Due to wear and tear, our teeth suffer some degree of erosion and attrition (wearing away of the tooth surface). Depending on how a person uses his/her teeth, how much force one uses when eating and talking dictates the degree of loss. There is a condition called bruxism, or the pathological grinding of teeth even while asleep. This causes severe attrition of the front teeth and molars. In this case, a neuromuscular drug intervention is also recommended to relax the muscles before any treatment can be made, as restorations may fracture if the habit is not arrested.

 The third factor is the congenital absence of molars and premolars. The lower height of the face decreases as the posterior support is lost. Primarily the main objective in restoring lost posterior teeth is to restore function, which is to grind food, aiding the digestive system. But more importantly for our vanity, with the treatment available to restore vertical height loss, we do not just eat better but we also look more youthful because it reduces the naso-labial folds (the lines from the sides of the nose down to our mouths).

The treatment to restore vertical height loss is called, in dental parlance, “occlusal equilibration” or, in layman’s terms, a “smile lift.”  The process done depends on the condition of the teeth. It could be through caps, on-lays, or veneers. Consult a good cosmetic dentist who can do this for you. In my case, Dr. Cecile is taking care that I get to the pearly gates with nice, pearly teeth. She can be reached at 840-4284.