It is a sobering thought that the iPhone is no more than six years old. Seven or eight years ago, it seemed impossible to receive emails, watch movies, take quality photos, record videos and connect to social networking sites through a mobile phone, but in today’s day and age this is the norm. In fact, if you don’t have a smartphone that can carry out all these tasks, you’re in the minority. The tech-savvy always expect the latest technology and software to be more advanced than its predecessor, and why wouldn’t they? Thanks to evolving technology and readily available updates, public expectations have risen.
However, is it true that our patients’ expectations are rising in a similar way? Innovations in dentistry may not come quite as thick and fast as they do in the technology sector but they do come nonetheless. Britons who were once famous for crooked and ‘ugly’ smiles can now access a wealth of enhanced cosmetic dental treatments with short-term orthodontics, whitening and fillers available in every town. Times have changed.
White teeth
In regards to patient attitudes towards tooth shade, I have seen a marked change during my own practising life. In the late ‘90s, I completed a fair number of smile design cases in which I would recommend shade A3 for the veneers so that they wouldn’t look too white. However, today it’s a case of ‘the whiter, the better’. B1 now seems to be the minimum shade for these cases, and many patients even ask to go whiter. Where in years gone by we would classify this as high expectations, it is now almost the norm.
At Enlighten we are noticing that patients, particularly younger patients, are looking for homogenous shade change from the neck to the tip of the tooth, and between the canine and the lateral, which is only really possible by getting patients to a saturation level of whitening two or three shades beyond B1. We are also seeing a fast growing number of patients re-whitening after disappointing results with alternative whitening techniques carried out both in a professional setting and at a beautician’s salon. In some cases, the teeth are already pretty white to start with, leaving only the difficult final few shades to accomplish in order to meet expectations.
With the right training any dental practice can offer whitening but of course, dental professionals have a role to play in the management of patient expectations. This can be done through discussions and ensuring quality photographs are taken pre- and post-treatment – but in the final analysis, an improvement in technique is both the cause of, and the remedy to, higher expectations.