Dr. Lê Featured in the Latest Issue of Aesthetic Dentistry

In this year’s winter issue of Aesthetic Dentistry, Dr. Lê was given the opportunity to share her own experience as a patient for a major dental procedure.

This was a great opportunity, and we were thrilled to work with the magazine to tell this story.

For those of you who aren’t subscribers to this particular periodical, this is the story of how Dr. Lê herself experienced a full arch reconstruction, and how that affected her interactions with patients over the years.

This, she says in the article, is something that many dentists forget – especially when it comes to the bigger dental procedures: Things are a little different on the other side of the drill.

A lot of patients, too, never realize that their dentist may have also experienced the exact same things they’re going through. After all, these are dental care specialists. They obviously know how to take care of their own teeth and never have any problems.

Right?

In fact, Dr. Lê explains throughout the article that it was never quite that simple.

Dr. Lê went through two years of braces and had her premolars extracted, but still didn’t get the results she wanted. So, she opted for another round of braces, hoping to finally close the gaps in her teeth.

After nine months into this second round, they finally came off and the doctor told her that this was “as good as it gets” and that she’d just have to live with the remaining gaps.

This experience really affected her, and shaped her philosophy on helping patients understand their needs and providing true comprehensive dentistry.

Years went by and Dr. Lê’s career and personal life continued to advance. She was still looking for an opportunity to correct the gaps in her teeth.

The right time finally came when, in 2013, Dr. Downs was scheduled to teach a full arch reconstruction course at a dental laboratory out in Utah.

As part of this course, Dr. Downs preps and places a full arch or full mouth reconstruction on a volunteer patient.

So, Dr. Lê decided to volunteer.

The results were exactly what she had wanted for years.

More than that, though, she learned a lot of things about herself and how patients experience things from the other side of the drill.

Now, she works hard to prepare her patients for what they expect, and she even encourages other doctors to get restorative treatments if they need it.

One of the largest benefits (aside from developing a little more empathy for the patient) is that she gets to be a living example of what they, themselves, can have.

Every dental website has testimonials and before-and-after pictures.

Not every dentist can show their patients in person exactly what a restored smile looks like.

LêDowns Dentistry was thrilled to have this chance to be featured in Aesthetic Dentistry, and hopes you get a chance to check out the entire article.