It had turned into a running gag with Colleen. You see, Colleen is one of our good friends and she enjoyed asking us, teasingly, when she would finally get her smile makeover.  We never thought Colleen was actually serious, but with friends it is sometimes difficult to tell. After two years of joking about, we decided it was time to take a serious look.  A former ballet dancer and now an instructor for young kids, Colleen always felt that dancing had placed a strain on her teeth and aged them prematurely. She felt that she was continually grinding her teeth and gritting them together. When we looked inside her mouth, we realized her teeth had begun to appear uneven and discolored the result of many years of being worn away by Colleen’s stress-related grinding. Our plan for Colleen was to laser recontour her gum line to gain proper symmetry and then prepare the upper ten teeth for porcelain veneers. Colleen’s dental makeover took about a month to completer but it also took another two months to discuss and tease each other about it. Colleen was extremely happy about the results, especially because she knew we had taken her teasing seriously. One of Colleen’s students remarked that she really has a beautiful smile. Colleen almost teared up when she heard that and gave the student a big hug. Needless to say, while we enjoy joking as much as anyone, we know when it’s time to stop teasing and do everything we can to improve the appearance of our patients, as well as our friends.