If you’ve ever longed to have an extraordinary smile — one that gives you personal confidence and connectedness — let this be the year you make it a reality. With masks starting to come off, what better time to invest in your smile? One of the most rewarding aspects of our work is giving someone the personal, social, and psychological boost of an ear-to-ear smile he or she can be proud of. Our experience is that many adults want that, but few really know what’s possible and how easy (or sometimes challenging) it might be to create the smile of their dreams. During a consultation, we take a series of photos to help patients see themselves from several different perspectives and dialogue about the options. Often patients are instantly relieved and excited upon learning that the solution they seek is well within their reach.

Over the years we have expanded the scope of our practice to focus on the oral systemic connection. This is the link between our mouths and our bodies. Now we can see signs of common systemic illnesses such as Type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, acid reflux, hypertension, heart disease, and oral cancer. Historically, a true oral cancer diagnosis comes with an invasive procedure — a tissue biopsy cut from the mouth and analyzed using a microscope. If you are diagnosed with oral cancer, you have about a 50/50 chance of survival. To date, science has made little progress with that ratio. But what if we could detect oral cancer and other systemic cancers much earlier, simply by spitting in a cup?