by alexandra hall

“Have you ever thought of going a little whiter? And straighter?”

A fair enough question—albeit one that normally would’ve set homophobia and racism alarms ringing. As it happened, the person asking was my dentist. And unless he’s a closet Rick Perry supporter, I’m pretty sure he was talking about my teeth.

“What would I have to do?” I asked, envisioning epic suffering and public discomfort. His answer: three months of wearing Invisalign (clear braces) on my bottom teeth, followed by veneers (porcelain facings) also on the bottom, finished off with an overall laser whitening. The result, he assured me, would be impeccable teeth.

Like a lot of dentists these days, mine overlaps his conventional work with a cosmetic practice. But quite unlike many, he surrounds himself with toys worthy of 007: lasers that reshape gums and teeth with minimal pain, inflammation and healing time;  in-house DNA testing; microscopes for doing finely detailed tooth work. But what ultimately convinced me to take his proposed plunge was that he has the most perfect dentist name of all time: Dr. Spitz.

So I agreed, and for three months in my mid-30s I wore clear, removable braces with all the grace and dignity of an eighth grader. When it came time to fit the veneers, I got to know those lasers up-close and personal. I also got a glimpse of just how a dental expert overlaps with a beauty expert. “I need to know everything a patient likes and doesn’t like about their teeth, so I can plan the best combination of fixes for them,” says Dr. Spitz. “If they don’t like the way their gums frame their teeth, we can reshape. If they have a chip or crack, we can look at veneers or crowns. If the color is slightly off, we can change it.”

When the time came to whiten my choppers, I was introduced to one of Dr. Spitz’s handiest gadgets yet: video goggles that he hands over just before the lasers fire. “Watching a movie helps patients relax,” he explains. “It takes their mind off the work that’s going on.” For my own part, I rejoiced in watching Good Will Hunting while I waited for the process to finish, knowing everything had, indeed, been straightened out.         

Dr. Steven Spitz
Smile Boston
1180 Beacon St., Suite 2B, Brookline | 617-277-4100 | smileboston.com