I was speaking to a patient recently and I asked if she wanted to do something about her “gummy smile.” “What gummy smile?” she responded, and then asked for a mirror. Oops. I'm constantly reminded that there is a wide variation in beauty and that every individual gets to decide what that is for them. By the way – the patient had not come in asking about esthetics and I had failed to engage her in a process to see what I saw. Had I done that (which IS what we teach here at Spear Education), her response would undoubtedly have been different. In fact, had I engaged her in the process, I might have discovered that her smile and her grandmother's were nearly identical (she REALLY loved her grandmother), and not even asked the question. It's about them, not about me.



Comments

Commenter's Profile Image Spud
April 18th, 2011
1HVKLX Walking in the presence of giants here. Cool tinhknig all around!