Dental adventures in the land of the big white smile

BETWEEN them, Rebecca Hill and Justine Johnson must have the most expensive smiles in the North-East. Both women have just returned from America after state-of-the-art cosmetic dentistry.

And how much did it cost?

Brace yourself (no pun intended) - a whopping £25,000 in total.

But the very good news for Rebecca and Justine is that the hours of high-tech dentistry crammed into their mouths didn't cost them a penny, or should I say, a cent.

Both women work for a Middlesbrough-based health care marketing agency, Cynergy Medical and Dental Marketing, which provides a link between UK dentists interested in offering sophisticated cosmetic options to their patients and world leaders in the field in the United States.

Because of their connections on both sides of the Atlantic, Rebecca, 36, from Yarm and Justine, 41, from Marton in Middlesbrough, were given the chance to have dental makeovers which would normally be outside their reach.

Now back from their dental adventures in Florida and New York respectively, Rebecca and Justine are walking, talking advertisements for the work of people such as Larry Rosenthal, dentist to stars including Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Rebecca, managing director of Cynergy, had always been aware of her "gummy smile". Quite simply, Rebecca felt that when she smiled there was too much pink tissue on display and not enough enamel - she also felt she could do with a make-over on her teeth, possibly new porcelain veneers which instantly improve the appearance of your smile.

Most people with "gummy smiles" put up with it, particularly when the only way to deal with this problem is to pare back the soft tissue to expose more tooth. This would have to be done before veneers could be considered.

"The conventional way is to use a diode laser to burn away the gum tissue. It sounds horrendously painful, but apparently isn't," says Rebecca. "The gum is hiding part of the tooth. It is only a few millimetres but it is enough to make the tooth look longer and change the way you look when you smile."

She mulled this over for a while until one of her UK contacts suggested she consider having a new, gentler form of laser treatment, which uses water to diffuse the energy of the laser. "With this new kind of laser, it is the power of the water that does the job. It certainly sounded like a nicer alternative," she says.

Before Rebecca took the plunge, she talked to her contacts in America and was thrilled when she was invited to be a guinea pig on a training course for American and UK dentists to be held in Palm Beach, Florida.

She had no hesitation in accepting.

"The course in Florida was run by the Rosenthal Institute which trains dentists from all over the world. I knew I would be fine," she says.

Because few British dental practices currently offer water laser treatment, Rebecca travelled to Liverpool for the first part of her makeover, where she was treated by leading UK dentist Ian Buckle of Buckle & McGrath.

Then she flew, via Manchester airport, to Miama, Florida before travelling to the Rosenthal dental school in glamorous Palm Beach for the next stage.

As part of the process the dental team tidied up her gum line and then began work on ten teeth, preparing them for her new porcelain veneers.

Because the veneers are eventually bonded to the teeth, there can be no mistake at this stage of the process.

Once Rebecca was satisfied with the appearance of the veneers, made from moulds placed over her prepared teeth, she was fitted with a one-piece temporary veneer to protect her teeth until the real veneers could be fitted.

Because the next training course at Palm Beach was not for another month Rebecca had to fly home wearing the temporary veneer.

"It was strange at first. It felt as if you were wearing a kind of gum guard. The only thing I had to remember was to avoid eating things like curry, red wine and baked beans which could cause stains," she says.

A few weeks later, Rebecca flew back out to Florida to have her new veneers fitted. "The great thing about the veneers is that, unlike crowns, your own teeth are still intact underneath. They look great and you clean and floss them just the same."

Rebecca is thrilled with her new look smile. "I think I look completely different," she says. "They are amazing. People tell me I look younger. It is as if you have had a mini facelift."

With more and more UK dentists flying to the States to be taught how to prepare patients teeth for veneers, Rebecca believes the procedures will begin to catch on in Britain.

"The work I have had done would probably cost about £10,000, which I know sounds like a massive amount of money, but there are interest-free loans available and it is just like buying a car or a sofa," she says.

"More and more people are aware of what can be done. More people are watching programmes on TV about extreme makeovers. They realise that it is possible to change how you look."

Considering that people spend thousands on facial plastic surgery, Rebecca believes that cosmetic dentistry can be a good investment.

Rebecca's colleague, Justine, had even more work done to her mouth.

She reckons that the total bill for dentistry would probably have been closer to £15,000.

Justine's "problem" was a prominent gap between two of her upper front teeth. "I had such a large gap at the front. It was the bane of my life when I was younger," she says. "All the UK dentists I talked to said the gap was so big that nothing could be done."

That was before Justine started working for Cynergy as associate partner and new opportunities opened up. Like Rebecca, she was offered the chance to undergo treatment, free of charge, during a training course run by the Rosenthal Institute, this time in New York.

Rebecca combined the trip to America with business, mingling with British and American dentists interested in acquiring new skills. "It was amazing, I met the dentist who was going to do the work at 5.45am and I was there for seven hours," recalls Justine.

The work involved lasering her gum and then "re-apportioning" ten teeth, filing down some teeth and building up others, to make the gap disappear. Once again porcelain veneers were used as part of the reconstruction.

"I lost count of the number of injections but I can't say I felt any pain," says Justine, who borrowed the dentist's i-Pod to listen to music during the hours of dental work. "I really appreciated the music. He had great taste and it took my mind off what was going on," says Justine.

Despite having a swollen face, Justine actually attended a cocktail party and met clients that same evening. "I was back at the conference the next day," she laughs.

After being fitted with a one-piece temporary veneer to protect her teeth, Justine flew back to the North-East with temporary veneers, then back to New York a couple of weeks later to have the final veneers fitted. Justine is thrilled with the way she looks. "My smile is the way I always wanted it to be," she says.

According to Rebecca, more and more North-East dentists are expressing an interest in going out to America to learn about advanced cosmetic surgery.

"We know from our clients that there is increasing interest," she says. "Hopefully this kind of dentistry will come to the North-East sooner rather than later."