In this issue:
Smile Innovation: Advancing a Nearly 50-Year Mission in Esthetics
Author
To the layperson, a winning smile often would be summarized as “white, bright and perfect” — phrasing that can just as easily describe the dreaded picket-fence smile, with its jarring, unnatural appearance. Successful dental esthetics, of course, are much more nuanced and captivating. The attractive smiles of Hollywood and other glamorous arenas draw us in with their harmony of shading, contours, tooth display, and more. Are these celebrities’ smiles natural, or have they been enhanced through dentistry? That hardly even matters to the patient who comes to you with one of these famous smiles in mind, wanting to mimic its charisma and esthetics.
When I first began my career as a ceramist, I learned firsthand that smile makeover cases are as rewarding as they are personal. This is a guiding ethos at Glidewell Dental today. Patients who have put their trust in you have, by extension, put their trust in our technicians, CAD/CAM specialists and technical advisors who work on your cases. And for these employees and the rest of the Glidewell family, this confidence is sacred. It has been that way ever since I founded this company in 1970. Exceeding patients’ and doctors’ expectations has been my mission as a ceramist at the lab bench, and as president and CEO. Early on, one of my keys to success was recruiting highly talented technicians — proven smile artists. And to best support their talents, I invested in cutting-edge equipment, facilities and, starting in the 1980s, a Research & Development department. Out of this R&D have come esthetic materials that have surpassed my wildest dreams, including Obsidian® lithium silicate ceramic and our new BruxZir® Esthetic Solid Zirconia, which represents a new category of dental zirconia. With pioneering materials such as these, doctors can offer truly beautiful, strong restorative products for their patients’ smile makeovers.
President and CEO Jim Glidewell, CDT, is personally overseeing the development of an innovative new service for anterior cases at Glidewell Dental: the Jim Glidewell Signature Anterior Series. With six distinct smile designs for teeth #6–11, this CAD-enabled service can further enhance the esthetics of restorations in the smile zone.
Improved materials are one essential area for advancing esthetic dentistry, but I believe progress cannot stop there. Innovation is needed in all corners of the lab, and the resulting refinements can serve to make smile makeovers — and general dentistry — more accurate, more efficient and more accessible for patients. This is the driving goal that has propelled the Glidewell Dental R&D team toward one astounding innovation after another. And this is why state-of-the-art solutions like artificial intelligence, digital impressions and mill-loading robots are not empty buzzwords at Glidewell Dental; these are technological breakthroughs that we have embraced to deliver new levels of consistency and affordability for our services. Investing in technology is one powerful way that we’re able to help you and clinicians around the world obtain natural-looking smile makeovers, with equally attractive price tags.
During verification on the lab floor, the CAD-enabled series of smile designs has shown numerous benefits, including more consistency.
To further enhance the esthetic results you receive from Glidewell Dental, I have been personally overseeing an innovative new service currently in development on the lab floor. This endeavor unites technology with core tenets of the stylized dentition that I have taught for decades, and the project has been so personal to me, I’m proud to introduce it to you as the Jim Glidewell Signature Anterior Series. Composed of six distinct smile designs for teeth #6–11, this CAD-enabled series improves the consistency of anterior cases, and streamlines communication between clinician and technician. Continue reading, and you’re going to see how I have planned these designs to accomplish a dynamic range in “smile personalities” and perceived ages, due to detailed variations in the morphology, embrasures and characterization. Simply choose the most suitable option for your patient, and the design can instantly be finalized to get your patient’s case underway. Or if you desire to discuss treatment goals, having a series of smile designs to refer to immediately puts you and your lab technician on the same footing to collaborate on the case and any desired design tweaks.
If you desire to discuss treatment goals, the Jim Glidewell Signature Anterior Series can be a helpful tool for you to collaborate with a Glidewell Dental technician on your upcoming case and any desired design tweaks.
REASONS TO SMILE
The Jim Glidewell Signature Anterior Series supports:
- Case consistency
- Simplified treatment planning
- Easier case collaboration with the lab
- Natural-looking results
In the fabrication phase, the Jim Glidewell Signature Anterior Series renders more consistency and speed, thanks to the precision of CAD tools. Restorations prescribed from the series start with more natural and attractive anatomy, allowing your technician to focus on the art of staining and glazing for patients’ smile makeovers. My restorative team and I have been verifying the series on the lab floor, and we’ve already seen the value of these smile designs in achieving esthetic upper centrals. The designs also assist with easily matching adjacent teeth in the smile.
In the initial launch of the Jim Glidewell Signature Anterior Series, this service is set to be available for all fixed products, including crowns, bridges and veneers. As you take a look at the smile designs, I’m confident you’re going to see how they offer natural-looking contours, esthetic morphology and artistic characterization to satisfy a spectrum of patients.
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CONCLUSION
I hope you’ve enjoyed this first glimpse of the Jim Glidewell Signature Anterior Series. Even in the development phase, this new service has exemplified how expertise and technology can merge to create spectacular outcomes. From streamlined treatment planning to more consistent restorations, the signature series is tailor-made to help you deliver more transformative results, more efficiently. Stay tuned for the official launch of this new service this year, and let me know your thoughts and opinions of these smile designs. Together, we can ensure patients have ample reasons to smile.
