The Eye of the Beholder
How Helpful are Those Before-and-After Photos Anyway?
By J. S. Ronette
Stephen P. has long been planning to replace his painfully dark, crooked teeth. Why shouldn’t he be the next happy recipient of a younger, sportier, brighter-looking smile like those people on TV? So when it came time to make his move, he turned to the only logical place—the internet. Surely, he thought, the world wide web would offer endless choices of wonderful dentists ready to provide the beautiful new smile of his dreams.
“At first I thought it would be easy, with all the dentists to be found on line, but it was surprisingly hard to feel I was seeing actual good work by a dentist,” Stephen P. said. “There were many sites with photos of pretty smiles, on pretty people. But, I kept asking myself how I could know if these are actual patients?”
Stephen is not alone. Many patients turn to cyberspace when it comes to finding the right place to get high-level dental services. But, many soon learn that like anything else, websites of dentists do not always provide results showing actual patients getting treatment in their office.
“We have lots of patients telling us they choose our office on the web because we provide photos of our very own patients and their smiles, before and after,” says Dr. Daniel J. Deutsch, of the Washington Center for Dentistry. “It’s important also to ask the doctor you see to show you samples of his work right there on the spot.”
Cosmetic dentist Dr. Deutsch explains that patients need to see photos of real people who are just like them, patients with gummy smiles who need their gum lines reshaped, patients with brown, misaligned teeth who need pearlescent, crowns and veneers to reshape and brighten their teeth. “How else can a patient tell whether they feel comfortable making changes in their smile, and whether you are the doctor to be doing it?” asks Dr. Deutsch. “A doctor’s own photos are important proof that he possesses the experience to handle all kinds of patients, with many different needs.”
That’s exactly what Stephen P. finally discovered. He quickly noticed websites with photos that appeared generic and commercially produced. But visits to a few doctors who were happy to show him photos of their own patients made the big step easier.
“I saw people with smiles like mine, that were now terrific, and I signed right up,” said Stephen P. “Whitening, veneers and crowns made everything better. Now I could be one of those smiling faces on the internet!”
Please click here for more information regarding cosmetic dentistry in the Washington, DC area.
Washington Center for Dentistry
1430 K Street NW, Eighth Floor
Washington D.C., 20005
(202) 223-6630
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