I got veneers & next thing I know, I’m hanging with Cindy Crawford!

Having a great smile is so important. A great smile can lighten the mood, make people feel open and welcomed by you, it eases tension, I’d even argue that it can help you not only in your personal life, but also in your business dealings. Almost everyone does something during their lifetime to improve their smile. Actually, I’d bet that people do lots of things during their life to improve their smile: braces, whitening trays, whitening strips, Invisalign and even veneers!

For me, I’ve done almost all of them. Including the good old home remedy of brushing with baking soda & peroxide. The braces made them straighter, but as soon as I stopped wearing the retainer they became misaligned again. And I could change the color, but I never could change the actual shape of my teeth. In pictures, they looked okay as long as it wasn’t a close up. The video that broke the camels back was our Punta del Este video. I have a very close up scene and when we were previewing the video on our 50″ plasma, all I could see what how awful my teeth looked. I wanted to crawl into a hole, and die. Here are the problems I had with my teeth.

#1: The Snaggle ~ I hated this tooth! It was always glaringly obvious to me in pictures. It haunted me.

#2: The Yellow Bonded Tooth ~ This is the Snaggle’s sister tooth. Apparently some dentist decided to bond it and it turn a lovely shade of summer yellow. Great for dandelions, bad for teeth.

Okay, so my teeth weren’t the worse case in history. But they made me feel uncomfortable. Especially when we’re traveling around the world and doing our travel show. My husband has veneers, and smiling next to his pearly white chompers was always intimidating! So, we decided to get me matching veneers. Here’s my story.

First, let me say that the choosing the cosmetic dentist is the most important choice you will ever make. It’s right up there with deciding who you’ll marry and whether or not you want to have children. The dentist can give you a beautiful smile or you could end up with a mouth full of Chicklet-looking teeth. The way you choose a dentist is easy, look at his/her work. Not pictures, but find actual real live people who have had work done by the dentist and check out their teeth, ask questions, get all your answers. If you don’t know anyone who’s had them done, ask the dentist for references. Or you can just go to my guy, he’s awesome!

Dr. Robert Joiner did my husband’s veneers as well as my veneers. He’s definitely one of the best dentists in the South East. He will give you his honest opinion on what will look best for your teeth. What you want is a perfectionist, and he is one. He won’t let you walk out of that office until your teeth are perfect! I know I’m really talking him up here, but it’s the truth. I’d send anyone to him without any worries. Here’s the process of how he made my teeth go from problem to perfect in less than one month!

Day 1: Consultation, X-rays, Preliminary Impression

Dr. Joiner looked at my original God given chompers. He checked out my x-rays and decided how many teeth showed in my smile (the top 8). He made a model of my teeth and sent it to the lab to see what the they thought could work. His estimation, 6 Lumineers and 2 crowns (Yellow & Snaggle of course, the problem children). Lumineers are super thin layers of porcelain that just slip right over the natural teeth and are cemented in place.

Day 2: Teeth Shaping, Veneer Impressions, Temporary Crowns/Veneers

Dr. Joiner was correct. I needed 6 Lumineers and 2 crowns. So, this visit was to do the work for the crowns and shape the teeth so the Lumineers could be placed over the teeth. It was a long visit, and I’m a baby with a needle. But, Dr. Joiner has a magic thing he does to make the needle not hurt. We also chose the color on this visit. Once the Snaggle and Yellow were gone, my teeth were pretty white. We decided to go with 1M1 for color. Which apparently is very white. Here’s what my teeth looked like after the shaping and with the temporary crowns. When I left the office, I felt like my teeth looked 100% better, even without the Lumineers. I couldn’t even imagine what the finished product would be like!

Day 3: Final Veneers

V-Day as I like to call it. This day changed my smile and pretty much my life forever! This is the final appointment. I saw the veneers in the tray. They were so tiny, literally like a contact lens! He numbed me up with his magic needle and got to work perfecting my smile! Once the veneers are cemented on, Dr. Joiner shaped them, adjusted the length of the teeth and basically became a dental artist. I think he had a vision of what he wanted them to look like, and he wasn’t stopping until they looked just right. I can’t even explain how happy I am with the finished product. Here it is:

Here are some after photos:

Here’s two great examples of Dr. Joiner’s work!

Now for the Cindy Crawford part of the story. The day after I got the veneers, I was in Randy Gerber’s lounge, Whiskey Park at the W-Hotel in Atlanta. In walks Cindy Crawford, she’s so damn tall, so damn beautiful and so sweet! Here’s a photo from the night. The beautiful blond in the photo is my friend Lori. (Ya, know you think you’re pretty right up until you’re in a photo with Cindy Crawford.)

Well, that’s it. If you have any questions about veneers, Lumineers, Dr. Joiner or Cindy Crawford, feel free to email me. But, for real, if you’re thinking about veneers, you need to check out Dr. Joiner and let him work his magic on your mouth.

See you all next Friday!

Kimberly

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