Monday, April 23, 2012

Before and After: Abby


We would like you to meet Abby.  Abby is a former patient of ours, and we think she has an incredible smile.  We'd like to take a second to tell you about it.
When Abby first came to our office to get braces, she was a beautiful red-headed girl with a great, bright smile.  However, her smile had a few issues with alignment, spacing, and teeth shape.
If you take a look at a close-up picture of her smile before she began her treatment, you can see some of these issues.  Problems with spacing are visible, and you can see that her teeth are overcrowded, so much so that they actually point in towards her mouth, rather that staying mostly straight up and down.  
Besides these problems, Abby admits that her teeth also bothered her on an emotional level.  "I've always had issues and worries with my teeth."  Her smile is the last thing we want a beautiful girl like Abby worrying about.
But, check out the difference her treatment made:
Not only are her teeth more aligned, they are also now spaced out evenly.  There are no more issues with over-crowding, and they are all shaped uniformly.  And how does Abby feel about her new teeth?
"My new smile makes me feel really happy when I look in a mirror," she says.  
One thing to note.  As you can see from Abby's pictures, she began her treatment when she was still fairly young, right after most of her baby teeth had been lost.  She's a great example of the benefits of starting your braces treatment early on, so that new teeth can be trained to grow in correctly, aligned with the others.  

Thank you, Abby, for letting us be a part of helping you have such a bright smile!  If you're interested in finding out how we can be a part of your smile story, contact us today at 806.799.6780!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Meet Gwen!


You've probably seen Gwen Martin many times when you come into the office. She is one of our treatment coordinators here at St. Clair Orthodontics, and we are proud to say that she has been with us for 20 years. Gwen's job is to explain to a patient and their family how braces work, what their treatment will look like, and cover financial information. Whenever you first came into our office, you probably met with Gwen or someone like her, and she walked you through what things would be like for you.
Gwen loves the work she gets to do with all of our patients. Her favorite aspect of her work is meeting new patients and getting to build a relationship with them throughout their treatment time. She also loves getting to help each one of them achieve the perfect smile they've always wanted.
Besides developing relationships with all of you, family is incredibly important to Gwen. If you talk to her for very long, she'll definitely share with you about her beautiful granddaughter, 20 month old Tenley June, who loves to call Gwen "Mimzie." In just a few months, Gwen will have even more to share: granddaughter Suri Gray is due at the beginning of the summer.
Gwen's close family ties are also seen in her strong relationships with her husband, Dale (they have been married for 29 years, which we think is really cool!), her son, Matt, and her daughter, Natalie, as well as her mom and her sister. Since everyone lives pretty close to the Lubbock area, Gwen gets to spend a lot of her time with family (and she wouldn't have it any other way!)
Here are a few other things you might not know about Gwen: if she could go anywhere in the world, she would definitely pick the beach. She loves to be active, and her favorite food is Mexican (delicioso, right?!). Of all the people she could meet, at the very top of her list is Charles Stanley, a man who has dedicated his life to teaching God's truth boldly, and in a way that has really touched Gwen's heart.
Now that you know more about Gwen, be sure and tell her hi the next time you see her in the office. She really loves our patients, and your smiles make her day!