Improving Your Smile With a Cosmetic Surgeon
This is the story of a young boy who was born with a disability that prevented him from smiling. His parents, loving and understanding, took him to see an orthodontist, who did some dental work. They both knew that if this little guy could smile, he would see the world in a new way, an able-to-smile smile that would light up his parents’ faces with pride.
The orthodontist told them what his problem was: he had crossed fingers and could not seem to close his mouth around the bone that held his front teeth. His muscles were weak and his immune system was compromised. His jaw would not close and his lips were constantly hanging open. They were told that he would need an operation to rebuild the muscles in his face and that would help open his lips and give him a smile like other kids his age.
“All right,” said the parents, “whatever it is, we’ll do whatever it takes.” The orthodontist then put this little guy under general anesthesia, cut his lip off, and smoothed out his wrinkles with a piece of metal titanium that the family picked up in an old science shop in New Jersey. The surgery went well, but there was a catch.
“The doctors found that he could not smile normally because of his crossed arms,” recalls his mother. “So they put him on a machine that makes the zygomatic major muscle work to make his cheeks and upper lips look normal. His facial expressions were all right for a few weeks, but then his zygomatic major muscle started going stiff. It wasn’t long before he was unable to smile normally again.”
The parents tried everything else. “They put him on contact lenses that caused his facial expressions to come into contact with the lenses and made them much less attractive,” says his father. Even surgery didn’t help. The couple also tried different hair brushes, mousse, and even plastic surgery, but still, duchenne smiles were just not coming back.
There is definitely no scientific reason why smiling helps your face. What it does do, though, is make other people around you more friendly. If you are having a bad day, you will probably feel much better when you smile. That is one important benefit that comes from the act of smiling.
If you don’t have any zygomatic incisions and you only have some minor scars from a previous surgery, your dentist can probably smooth your smile. The only drawback to this is that you won’t know how well your smile is progressing until after the surgery. The most effective way, though, is to ask the help of a professional cosmetic surgeon. He or she will be able to evaluate your skin tone, wrinkles, jawline, and other areas and recommend the best way to fill in the gaps that make your smile less than perfect. A good surgeon will also be familiar with the latest technology, such as lasers and filler injections, which can help improve the appearance of smile lines and dimples.
If your smile isn’t perfect, that doesn’t mean you have to walk around with a frown. Many people live with a smile that is just a little bit less than perfect. Perhaps that’s part of what makes their smile so attractive! Whether your smile is marred because of genetics or an underlying medical condition, or whether it’s from using improper facial expressions, a skilled cosmetic surgeon can help.