title: Makeovers are ageless.
abstract: "Older patients" are often treated with indifference when it comes to how they look. The result may often be a patient not receiving the care that his or her goals would dictate. In the featured case, the patient had received dental hygiene care in a dental office for years. The fact that the patient's daughter had to take the initiative to seek care for a very motivated patient indicates a lack of understanding and communication in the patient's original dental office. The treatment plan that met the patient's goals was presented and accepted. It involved a full-mouth reconstruction, eliminating partial dentures, opening a deep bite, treating a diastema with orthodontics, and constructing a new smile. This makeover lent itself to the current trend of improving a smile, but it accomplished much more. The patient now has a firm foundation for better chewing, but perhaps more importantly, the patient, through CAMBRA, has the knowledge to control the disease process that caused the breakdown of her original dentition.
authors.affiliation: World Congress of Minimally Invasive Dentistry. cvdental@aol.com
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Whitehouse
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003442:Crowns; D017267:Dental Prosthesis Design; D003829:Denture, Partial; D003970:Diastema / Q000628:therapy; D004955:Esthetics, Dental; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007576:Jaw, Edentulous, Partially / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008334:Mandible; D008437:Maxilla; D024343:Open Bite / Q000628:therapy*; D009971:Orthodontics, Corrective / Q000379:methods; D010347:Patient Care Planning