Creating ideal cosmetic results for smile reconstruction: A tribute to Dr. Harvey F. Perlow
I was fortunate to have many great dentists mentor me early in my career as a dentist. I’m eternally grateful to all of them and will always have a special appreciation for everything they tried to teach me. Over his career, Dr. Harvey F. Perlow developed five key principles in creating ideal cosmetic results when reconstructing a person’s smile:
1. People come in all shapes and sizes. Often we neglect to look at a person’s face when deciding how to contour their teeth to make them look their best. According to Dr. Perlow, patients with wide faces require longer teeth, while patients with long faces need shorter teeth. This principle will compensate for facial asymmetry to create better facial harmony.
2. Teeth must be convex gingival to incisal (curve like a U).
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3. Teeth must be convex bucally, from mesial to distal curve as they come around the mouth.
4. Parallel mesio-distal inclination.
5. Pronounced incisal embrasures. We’ve all seen patients whose cosmetic work looks like a picket fence, because they lack the incisal embrasures. In fact a 2009 study found “the incisal embrasures of the prosthetically restored maxillary anterior teeth casts were smaller than the homological embrasures of the natural dentition casts (P<.01).” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19231573
Dr. Harvey F. Perlow practiced in Manhattan for the past 35 years. He proudly considered himself a cosmetic dentist. His practice mainly involved restoring teeth with dental veneers. In February of 2013, he passed away due to complications from multiple sclerosis. He courageously battled with affliction and did not stop working until he physically couldn’t work anymore.
