His resume probably doesn’t list “artist” as a profession, but that’s exactly what Dr. Williams is, and it’s exactly what I was looking for the day I walked into his office last summer. I needed a new smile, and making that happen was going to require not just excellent dentistry, but also good doses of creativity and imagination. 

Considering the situation with my mouth, giving me what I needed was already going to be a challenge, but I tossed in a couple of other complications for Dr. Williams – a deadline (I was getting married in two months) and the fact that I am the worst dental patient ever. I prefer childbirth without anesthetic to having my teeth cleaned!

Here’s my story. 

Over the course of my life, I’d had so many cavities that there was more filling material than actual tooth material in my mouth. This was becoming a problem because the fillings kept wearing out and needing to be replaced. My previous dentist persuaded me I needed porcelain veneers on the six front teeth on top, so in 2005, I let him do it.

I was miserable. The veneers were uncomfortable because they didn’t fit properly, and, worse than that, they were unattractive. I thought they looked completely unnatural, which ruined the goal of improving my appearance. I had been self-conscious about my smile most of my life, and, ironically, doing something I thought would help just made things worse.

After struggling with the veneers and my feelings about them for more than a year, I finally took the advice of my extraordinarily patient fiancé, Greg, and went to see Dr. Williams. Greg and I were getting married on Labor Day weekend, and I couldn’t bear the thought of wedding photos with what I referred to as my new “horse teeth.” Without some resolution to the problem, I knew I would have to do what I’d done my whole life – smile with my mouth closed for the pictures.

This is where Dr. Williams’ creativity and imagination came in. I told him all I wanted was my old mouth back. But how was he going to replicate my original teeth when they were gone? And, as I mentioned, there existed very few pictures of me with my teeth showing. How could he figure out what I wanted to look like?

Only an artist could have done what he did. I brought him the few snapshots I had that showed my teeth. Understanding that aesthetics were as important to me as healthy teeth, he took measurements and photos of my mouth and face and developed crowns (not just the six I wanted fixed, but enough to make my “smile zone” uniform) that were the right proportion for me – no more horse teeth.

And he did it in record time. My first appointment with Dr. Williams to discuss fixing my veneers – which ended up not being an option – was June 29, and my wedding was September 2. Amazingly, we were done in plenty of time. He and his staff made my smile project a priority, and they made the whole experience as pleasant as possible for a dental chicken like me.