Leslie was born in South Africa. She came to the U.S. when she was 20 years old. She always had her hand in front of her mouth while she spoke or smiled because she was embarrassed about how her teeth looked. Despite being a very beautiful woman, she had very low self-confidence and a poor self-image.

I quickly figured out the problem: Leslie had an extra (supernumerary) tooth. Its root was fused with the root of her front tooth, so we couldn’t remove it entirely. Her whole smile was a bit off to one side compared to the rest of her face. This is what we call a “midline shift.” Leslie also had a number of cavities and decay because she had avoided the dentist for so long.

Treatment: Instead of extracting the entire tooth, I did a root canal on the shared root and shaved both of them down into one tooth. Then we shaped each tooth and placed porcelain crowns on them. We removed all the decay and cavities. Instead of making her go through braces, we used prosthodontics (the branch of dentistry concerned with the design, manufacture and fitting of artificial replacements for teeth) to fix the alignment of her front teeth. We had to crown the six front teeth to totally straighten her smile. We completely corrected the midline shift, fixed all of her cavities, and best of all, gave her the confidence to speak and smile whenever she wanted.

End Result: She was delighted and very happy with her appearance. She said we gave her a whole new outlook on life.

Dr. Solomon is certified to treat TMJ issues such as headaches and migraines and jaw problems with therapeutic Botox injections. Botox serves to relax the muscles it is injected into and effectively relieve the pain associated with the area of injection. Dr. Solomon often uses Botox in conjunction with his Neuromuscular treatments of TMJ.