Afterglow - Looking Back (With a Smile)

My particular dental situation was more involved and more expensive to reverse than the average person’s would be. If you’re reading this, chances are that you can have a smile just as beautiful as mine is now for less money and trouble. On the other hand, I experienced such a gamut of procedures - dental implants, a bridge, crowns and veneers, I am something of a walking testimonial that all things are possible with today’s cosmetic dentistry. I had a full mouth reconstruction in the truest sense of those words.

At the same time, I realize that needing so much, it could have been as big of a disaster or disappointment as it was a success, so I am not advocating anybody leap in with both feet with the first dentist they find. Really know what you’re doing, and carefully gauge the atmosphere and your instinctive reaction to your dentist and his staff. You are a unique person, and you do deserve the very best. First, you have to recognize that, and then, you have to find a dental team that recognizes that too.

The last thing you want is a cookie-cutter smile that fits somebody else’s idea of who you should be. That was not a feeling I ever experienced with Dr. Golpa and his staff. Although they offered me their expert opinions when asked, they listened carefully to my feedback. Rachel, Dr. Golpa’s treatment director, is simply phenomenal, as corny as that sounds. She doesn’t impose or push, she supports and leads when asked to. You are always considered a valuable contributor in the consultation process. If you don’t feel like you are getting that from your dental office or spa, look for another one.

So, now that it’s all said and done, and even considering that I had the absolute best treatment available from a dentist I consider an artist as well as a doctor, was it really worth it?

The answer for me is yes. Most everything you do or buy for yourself is only exciting for a short period of time. We all acclimate so quickly to whatever we have, no matter how astonishing it is. And in a way, with cosmetic dentistry, particularly a full mouth reconstruction, that is a good thing. Because these are now your teeth, this is your smile, and it isn’t and should be something that is simply done to you, but something you’ve become.

That said, my smile is gorgeous if I do say so myself, but I am certainly not the only one that says so! It’s something that I can depend on every day, every single time I smile - and of course I do smile a lot.

I think it’s pretty well documented when happens when you smile more. It’s a lot more than just a flash of white teeth - smiles are proven to raise your mood and change the atmosphere around you. It’s good for my mental health, and the mental health of those who spend time around me.

One of the things I have found particularly gratifying is the way people notice my smile. Nobody ever says, “Oh my God, your teeth! Who did them? ” Each one of these babies is an individual, just like my natural teeth were, and while I do catch people staring at my teeth (one of my co-workers said he was glad they weren’t on my chest, it would be too embarrassing not to be able to stop staring) people who don’t know what I did react more favorably to all of me, not just to my teeth. They know something is different, and I cannot tell you how many times people have said to others who relayed it to me, “I never realized what a beautiful smile she has.” My teeth are so natural looking, that they don’t think I had extensive dental work done, just that they somehow never noticed how great my smile is.

But they notice now. It is an extraordinary confidence-booster. I’ve had plenty of time for the excitement of change to wear off - but the benefits of my smile makeover simply have not.

I am at an age where there are a number of cosmetic procedures available that I could have done instead. But I am so glad that this is what I chose, for several reasons:
1. In the world of cosmetic improvement and aesthetics, there just isn’t anything else you can do that looks as good immediately with so little downtime.
2. There is certainly nothing that will, with proper care, last you as long as a complete smile makeover, or be as central to the image you project as your own beautiful, confident smile.
3. And finally, there is no nip or tuck that improves your overall health - but a strong jaw, aligned bite and teeth free from decay most definitely do.
4. If you do decide to later undergo other cosmetic procedures to improve or restore your appearance, you will have a firm foundation in place for everything else.

Of course, even with all the positives, life is still life, and there are bad days. But I don’t add worrying myself sick about my teeth to my list of worries. I have conveniently stopped thinking about what that was like, but when I take the time to remember, I realize how fortunate I am to not have to worry about that any more. And when I think I am not getting enough in life to be happy, or that I am not accomplishing enough, I only have to think about my full mouth reconstruction to realize how lucky I am.

While many people might find high-caliber cosmetic dentistry expensive, they probably wouldn’t hesitate to invest as much money in a car or home or some other external that won’t last nearly as long or give as much true pleasure. It’s something to think about.

It is my sincere hope that anyone who is seriously considering a smile makeover will at least do themselves the favor of checking it out - and I do mean check it out thoroughly - and have the kind of completely positive experience I have had and am still having. I promise you , you are worth it.

My cosmetic dentistry case

In many ways, the term “cosmetic dentistry” is a misnomer. Yes, a cosmetic dentist well trained in aesthetics is able to give you a gorgeous smile. But the term “cosmetic” is usually taken to mean something that is a surface cover-up, not extending beyond appearance to function.

Cosmetic dentistry, done properly, is much more - it's about the health and functioning of the entire mouth, including a properly aligned bite. Take dental implants, for instance. Dental implants are often performed as part of a whole mouth reconstruction plan. They are seemingly not “cosmetic” per se, other than replacing a tooth, which is something that can be accomplished with a bridge, but they can be an important adjunct to cosmetic dentistry.

Long before I met Dr. Golpa or starting learning about cosmetic dentistry, I did a little preliminary research on my own case. I had four pre-molars where my permanent teeth never formed. While I was fortunate to hold on to those teeth designed to last for only a few years, much longer than expected, I did lose one in my 20’s, another in my 30’s, and a third in my 40’s. What I learned about the loss of teeth is the importance of the root in the jaw. Without the root, the jaw begins to lose bone, which can help contribute to early facial aging and movement of the remaining teeth. So while a dental implant may culminate in a pretty white tooth where one was missing, what’s going on beneath the gum is even more important. The titanium posts hold the place of the missing root, supporting the jaw’s structure and preventing further bone loss. If you’ve ever seen somebody with dentures, especially with the dentures removed, you have an idea of how the facial structure can “collapse” without a properly aligned bite and healthy jaw to support it. So in many ways, the health of the mouth and jaw are the foundation for the entire face, something the vain among us should seriously contemplate. Back when I lost my second tooth, I read about this bone loss and asked for a dental implant. I was told then that it could not be done - that being an upper tooth, it was too close to the sinus and there could be problems. I took the recommended bridge instead.

When I finally found myself in Dr. Golpa’s chair, looking at my X-rays, the effect of having a bridge on that upper tooth rather than an implant was right before my very eyes. My heart sank. It was clearly noticeable that my left sinus above the missing tooth had dropped considerably lower than the one on the right. My bone structure had literally shifted. Amazingly, Dr. Golpa felt he could remove the bridge and place an implant in that position, despite the fact the sinus was now much closer than it was for that dentist years ago - and so he did, with complete success. I had no complications and I can’t tell you how heartening it is to know that a lovely titanium post is now valiantly warding off further deterioration. Even if you don’t need or can’t have dental implants, but could use a smile makeover with porcelain veneers and/or crowns and bridges, there is another way that “cosmetic” dentistry moves beyond the surface to something more basic.

What I learned during the many interviews of Dr. Golpa’s patients, is that it creates quite a perceptible shift in attitude - both your own and that of others. What patient after patient told me was that they continued to be amazed at how their beautiful new smiles, which they quite often forget they have unless they're looking in the mirror, “brightened up” the world around them. For many, especially those who had serious problems or unattractive smiles, it was quite literally life-transforming. Of course they found themselves smiling a lot more and a lot less carefully. But most, while they thought that it would improve their confidence and their aura of success and friendliness, still found it hard to comprehend just how much it really did. Their healthy bright smiles were something people responded to positively in an unconscious way. I think it was the experience of these patients that did more to change the way I viewed cosmetic dentistry than anything else. Sure, it’s always great to have a dazzling smile, but it seemed the whole experience went a lot further than that and had a lot of unforeseen benefits. And Dr. Golpa’s patients consistently claimed that even the most fearful of them found, with skilled use of sedation dentistry, that the process was much less traumatic and painful than they thought possible.

I was a believer. Dr. Golpa was, in fact, a dentist I would be quite proud to write about professionally. And, he was the cosmetic dentist that I wanted to handle my own case.

The Real Deal

A few weeks after your temporaries, your porcelain beauties will be ready. You may have crowns, dental veneers, dental implants, bridges or a combination, but they will be all porcelain, built to go together, and quite unlike any piecemeal dental work you’ve had done in the past. You are about to undergo a true smile makeover.

You will need a day to have the work done, and you will be tired that night (or should be, more on that later) and Dr. Golpa will want to see you back the next day to adjust your bite. This time I took the week off and brought my teenaged daughter, staying with a friend and her children at the beautiful Mandalay Bay.

I was just so excited. It was hard to believe that this was finally going to happen.

When I went to Dr. Golpa’s office, they immediately got me comfortable and relaxed. Before beginning any serious sedation, Dr. Golpa showed me my new teeth. Even he was excited by how pretty they turned out - and folks, this is something that gets to me about Smile Designs by Golpa. They really are into what they’re doing there - as often as they’ve done it, you get the sense that they still find what they do amazing. Dr. Golpa told me once he’s seen grown men sit in the chair and cry when they see their new smiles. He said it is the best feeling in the world, to be able to do something that means that much to somebody, to witness and be a part of somebody’s transformation.

A few more words about Dr. Golpa - the man is, in my opinion, a genius. He’s a quiet man, and tends to get bashful when you try to talk to him about the high opinion his patients and peers have of his work. He acts like it’s nothing - but it’s not nothing, believe me. A lot of the cost of a smile makeover is for the lab work and the building of the teeth themselves - but he alone is worth his weight in gold, for all of that is wasted without the skills and the vision he has. He has a photographic memory for anything he reads, and he is a perfectionist.

When he was learning new techniques and procedures, he didn’t just go to classes or seminars and then come home and start up on patients. He hires experts to stand beside him, even, I’m told, after he no longer really needs them there, just to be absolutely certain that he is doing everything perfectly. There are very few doctors of any kind that are that careful to make sure their patients never suffer while they master new skills.

Finally, there is his specialization in aesthetics. There is no “degree” in cosmetic dentistry, no school you go to learn to be a cosmetic dentist specifically. Any dentist can practice cosmetic dentistry, but Dr. Golpa is far from somebody who went to a few seminars and trainings and picked up some new techniques. He studied every aspect of aesthetic dentistry available for over 10 years, and as I mentioned before, he is one of the most skilled dental implant specialists in the country, if not the world. He does all of the implant, so there is no need to see one doctor for the surgery and another to build the reconstructed tooth, which is the way it’s usually done.

He’s very intense while working on his patients, but also amazingly gentle. He constantly asks if you are having pain and will take steps immediately to alleviate any discomfort you do have.

Thanks to sedation dentistry, the hours spent carefully building my full mouth reconstruction are again a blur, although I do remember Dr. Golpa talking to me and the staff making sure I was warm and comfortable. And I do remember them standing above me, smiling and telling me how gorgeous my teeth were.

My friend took me back to the hotel, where I slept for a little bit, and then jumped out of bed and headed for the mirror. Wow. Oh wow. Beautiful, white teeth, no matter how close you looked. By the way, I was counseled not to get the whitest shade available, as it could look unnatural with my coloring. That was good advice, as they were still as pearly white as could be.

I felt so refreshed within a few hours, my friend and I went out for dinner. We met a couple of attractive young men and one of them kept saying, “You have the whitest teeth I have ever seen. They’re perfect!” The other one, almost half my age, had to have a kiss before I left, or rather was dragged away, by my friend, who was worried that my new teeth had really gone to my head!

I returned home to more of the same, although interestingly, not everybody noticed immediately, which I think is testimony to the natural look of Dr. Golpa’s smile makeovers. Often people would ask what I was doing, was it my hair, what was it?

And guess what? Porcelain doesn’t stain like natural tooth enamel. Day after day, even looking into the dreaded rear-view mirror in broad daylight, you never have to see anything but dazzling, perfectly shaped teeth. There is no such thing as a bad smile day. It’s an enormous confidence booster, something you can always depend on, in a world where you can depend on so little, and for me, at an age where changes for the better can be difficult to pull off.

I did experience a few aches and pains as my teeth, nerves and jaw adjusted to their new positions, but again, Ibuprofen handled most everything. None of it was of any consequence compared to the way I felt every time I looked in the mirror.

Temporaries - Getting closer to perfection

Dr. Golpa’s dental implants tend to heal quite quickly, however my own schedule prevented me from returning to Vegas for three months. You could easily move on the next step much sooner, and this time, it took about four days, including travel time. I again returned on the weekend so I only missed a couple days of work.

Getting your temporaries is actually a pretty big procedure, as the whole mouth is prepped for what is coming, and in my case, the work was extensive, involving almost every tooth in my mouth except a few on both sides in the very back of my mouth.

Again, Dr. Golpa and his staff breezed me through the procedure, using conscious sedation. Now the funny thing about conscious sedation is that you think you are awake and know what’s going on, but you are really pretty spaced out. On the other hand, it is relaxing and allows you to be pain and anxiety-free, and your sense of time is affected. What actually takes hours seems like minutes. And because you are not completely “out”, you return to normalcy fairly quickly. You will not be able to leave or drive away by yourself - Dr. Golpa’s staff will not allow it - and it is good to have a friend with you to shepherd you back to your hotel, which I did. You are going to want to sleep -and I did. I kept trying to look at my teeth, but I can’t tell you what I thought of them then - it’s all kind of a blur.

The next day I did see them. Temporaries are actually quite amazing - they do not begin to have the beauty your permanent, porcelain clad teeth will have - but you do have a full set of white teeth, no gaps, and a good sense of how they will look. They are nothing you would be ashamed to go out in or that anybody will notice as unusual. They certainly look better than the teeth that you had.

They do feel funny. They are basically all one piece, like a denture, and although they look like individual teeth, they aren’t, so it’s pretty much impossible to floss. After a few days, I felt a lot of irritation on my gums. I called Dr. Golpa’s office and they told me to use a Water Pik loaded with warm salt water. That did the trick, and if you don’t have a Water Pik, I highly recommend buying one before embarking on a full mouth reconstruction or smile makeover. I was also advised to use an antiseptic mouthwash.

Any other discomfort I had was pretty easily handled with Ibuprofen, although I was sent home with a pain prescription for a few Vicodin. I had a lot of work done and did have some throbbing from time to time, although it was never bad enough to miss work.

Getting your temporaries gives you a chance to adjust to how your new teeth will look too, and a word of warning - don’t put too much stock in your first impression of that. They are whiter than you are probably used to, they feel bigger and I found myself one night worrying that they just didn’t look right. This was a perception that was unanimously not shared by everyone else who saw me. I got many compliments on just my smile with temporaries, and was even told, “it changes your whole face”, meant in a good way.

Dental Implants

It was time for me to have my own mouth done. But as my own experience showed, not every doctor is confident or well trained in every procedure. And with the investment required, particularly for a full mouth reconstruction, you want to have the best dentist for your procedure you can possibly find.

In my case, that was Dr. Golpa, and I was prepared to engage in a little medical tourism and fly to Las Vegas several times to have it done. As it turns out, that was not as unusual as I thought. Dr. Golpa has treated patients literally from all over the world, including contestants in the Mrs./Ms. Globe pageant, working out an efficient protocol that allows him to finish many smile makeovers in as little as a few office visits. And because he is a specialist in all aspects of cosmetic dentistry, as well as implants, there is no running to this doctor for this part and that doctor for that part, so even more complicated cases like my own can be handled long-distance. It doesn’t hurt that his office is in Las Vegas, either! With some planning and support, the whole experience can be turned into a series of mini medical vacations, and the final bonus is that flights to Las Vegas from just about anywhere are plentiful and cheap.

I am not saying there may not be a dentist capable of delivering what you need near your home - but do make sure you are really making the right choice, and get a second opinion if you have any doubts. Ask to speak to other patients and research your doctor and your procedures carefully. In my case, I figured it was cheaper to fly to Las Vegas to see Dr. Golpa, who I had researched so thoroughly, and make sure it all got done right the first time.

The first step was dealing with those missing baby teeth. I flew to Vegas and had three titanium posts implanted where the missing teeth were. Dr. Golpa constructed temporary bridges to hide the cut-down teeth from my previous bridges, so I didn’t have to walk around with big holes in my mouth.

I flew home two days later with a prescription for painkillers that I never filled. The only real discomfort I had was while flying, in the pressurized cabin. As soon as I stepped off the plane, I was fine.

A word about Dr. Golpa’s staff - fantastic! This was quite a different experience for me, as I had come to dread visiting dental offices. I often felt like I was treated with disgust for having dental problems in the first place, and lectured like a two-year-old. Every member of Dr. Golpa’s office seems to be as excited about your coming transformation as you are, and it makes a big difference in the overall experience.

I looked through dozens of “before” and “after” photos of Dr. Golpa’s patients. I was relieved to see that even in the most extreme cases, there was always something reminiscent, although greatly improved, of the person’s original teeth. This was not a cookie-cutter process and I was not going to have to worry about having a set of big white teeth that looked like anybody else’s.

I had already had had impressions done and I was shown a model of what my teeth looked like. I almost burst into tears. It looked, to me, like my teeth when I was a teenager. I had forgotten - but I recognized them immediately. It’s hard to describe how that felt.

My healing was uneventful, although I had a co-worker who suffered quite a bit with his dental implants and I wondered how it would be. Basically, it was nothing. I never really needed the pain medication. I only had to take two days off from work, flying home on the weekend. I was tired, mostly from the time changes, but otherwise it was if nothing had happened.

I had told my coworkers about my adventure and everybody wanted to look in my mouth. You might consider not doing that - I found it appalling and told them there would be no peeking until I was finished! Everyone was amazed that I was back to work and feeling fine so quickly. I, however, was not surprised. I had talked to other dental implant patients of Dr. Golpa’s and they had told me whatever he does, it works, and pain and healing were really not an issue.

I had the opportunity to talk to Dr. Golpa about his success rate with implants - almost 100 percent, and the one that didn’t go well was with a patient who chomped down on a steak bone during the healing period, something he was told to avoid. You can eat pretty normally, or at least I did, but you want to avoid jawbreakers and other hard to chew foods.

Dr. Golpa seemed surprised, but I told him I had read forums of other dentists where they had discussed the many problems they sometimes had with implants. He said he has just evolved a protocol that eliminates the risk of infection, but I think he has something special going on, skill-wise, a natural knack for the surgery itself. And since he does the reconstructions too, he has a “big-picture” take on the whole process.

As I said before, I felt safer, protected, “shored-up” with my new implants in place, knowing that they were anchoring my jaw and preventing further bone loss and facial shifting.

Adventures in Cosmetic Dentistry, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Drill

By Kathleen Warren

Of all the things I ever thought I’d find myself researching, writing about and ultimately experiencing, cosmetic dentistry would have to be dead last. But life takes us funny places sometimes, and what I learned about the new wave in dentistry - full mouth reconstruction, dental implants and veneers, the kind of stunning transformations we now have the art and science to accomplish - took me on a journey that seems worth sharing.

Let me explain how I came to be here. I am a reporter for an Ohio newspaper and also do some limited freelance writing. The journalist part makes the freelance part sticky sometimes. I don’t mind writing articles promoting something but it has to be interesting to me and it has to be true or I feel conflicted. It’s simply not worth it to me to write what I don’t feel good about for a few extra bucks.

About 18 months ago, I was assigned a series of articles and perspectives on cosmetic dentistry, including some about Dr. Mike Golpa, a cosmetic dentist in Las Vegas. His marketing person (marketing, shudder) was actually wonderful to work with and seemed genuine in her insistence that he really was one of the most gifted cosmetic dentists in the United States. She said he was one of the very few dentists nationally, if not the only one, who did both the surgical and reconstructive aspects of dental implants, making him quite the expert in that area. He had placed over 25,000 restorations with porcelain veneers and crowns.

She was equally insistent that the work he did, particularly smile makeovers and full mouth reconstructions, was transformative for his patients.

I certainly hoped so, because dentistry isn’t cheap and cosmetic dentistry surely isn’t - a full mouth reconstruction can easily run upwards of $50,000. That isn’t spare change and I would hate to think of people spending it for anything that doesn’t fully live up to expectations.

I told her I would want to interview actual patients about their experience and use their quotes because I don’t make up testimonials, and that if I felt at all uncomfortable with their sincerity, I wouldn’t be able to proceed. I knew they would likely give me the names and numbers of happy patients but I also knew I would get the truth my own way if I talked to enough people and did extensive independent research. Not only did she not balk at this, she seemed happy to take this approach, which I found heartening. Apparently she wasn’t too worried about anything I might find.

It probably would have been more work than it was even worth for my fee, but I had a personal reason for wanting to know more about what cosmetic dentistry could really deliver. Fresh off a difficult period in my life that included divorce, financial problems, and a time without dental or medical insurance, my own mouth was a mess. People still found my smile appealing but I knew what was going on in there and it worried me to death. It seemed important to correct but with so many things to deal with as I put my life back on track, I wasn’t sure how important. I had already done research that indicated to me I needed dental implants and possibly a full mouth reconstruction to set things right. I knew people who had had similar work done and weren’t happy or who experienced pain and time off work, all things I could not afford. Was a dazzling smile really worth it?

What I found out, after countless hours of research and talking to over a dozen different patients of Dr. Golpa’s, his staff, and the man himself, almost upset me. I think I secretly hoped I would find out extensive cosmetic dentistry wasn’t worth the time, money or trouble and I could forget about even wanting to do it myself. I certainly didn’t want to find out that not all cosmetic dentists are equal and the only one I would want to do my own work was 2,000 miles away. But I did. What happened next is the story of how a freelance writing assignment unfolded into an adventure in cosmetic dentistry.

Beauty is Only Skin Deep, But Cosmetic Dentistry Goes Below the Surface

In many ways, the term “cosmetic dentistry” is a misnomer. Yes, a cosmetic dentist with a real flair for aesthetics is able to give you a gorgeous smile. But the term “cosmetic” is usually taken to mean something that is a surface cover-up, not extending beyond appearance to function. Cosmetic dentistry, done properly, always has to be about the health and functioning of the entire mouth, including a properly aligned bite.

Take dental implants, for instance. Dental implants are often performed as part of a whole mouth reconstruction plan, and while they are not “cosmetic” per se, other than replacing a tooth, which is something that can be accomplished with a bridge, they can be an important adjunct to cosmetic dentistry where appropriate.

Long before I met Dr. Golpa or starting learning about cosmetic dentistry, I did a little preliminary research on my case. I had four pre-molars where my permanent teeth never formed. While I was fortunate to hold on to those teeth, which are only designed to last for a few years, much longer than expected, I did lose one in my 20’s, another in my 30’s, and a third in my 40’s.

What I learned about the loss of teeth is the importance of the root in the jaw. Without the root, the jaw begins to lose bone, which can help contribute to early facial aging and movement of the remaining teeth. So while a dental implant may culminate in a pretty white tooth where one was missing, what’s going on beneath the gum is even more important. The titanium posts hold the place of the missing root, supporting the jaw’s structure and preventing further bone loss.

If you’ve ever seen a picture of somebody with dentures, especially with those dentures removed, you have an idea of how the facial structure can “collapse” without a properly aligned bite and a healthy jaw to support them. So in many ways, the health of the mouth and jaw are the foundation for the entire face, something for even the vain to seriously contemplate.

Back when I lost my second tooth, I read about bone loss and asked for a dental implant. I was told then that it could not be done - that being an upper tooth, it was too close to the sinus and there could be problems. I took the recommended bridge instead, and when I lost the third tooth, I was without the resources to do anything about it.

When I finally found myself in Dr. Golpa’s chair, looking at x-rays, the effect of having a bridge on that upper tooth rather than an implant was right before my very eyes, and my heart sank. It was clearly noticeable that my left sinus above the missing tooth had dropped considerably lower than the one on the right. My bone structure had literally shifted, and not in a good way.

Amazingly, Dr. Golpa felt he could remove the bridge and place an implant in that position, despite the fact the sinus was now much closer than it was for that dentist years ago - and so he did, with complete success. I had no complications and I can’t tell you how heartening it is to know that a lovely titanium post is now valiantly warding off further shifting.

Even if you don’t need or can’t have dental implants, but could use a smile makeover with porcelain veneers and/or crowns and bridges, there is another way that “cosmetic” dentistry moves beyond the tangible surface to something that’s a little more basic. What I learned during the many interviews of Dr. Golpa’s patients, is that it creates quite a perceptible shift in attitude - both your own and that of others. What patient after patient told me was that they continued to be amazed at how their beautiful new smiles, which they quite often forget they have unless looking in the mirror, “brightened up” the world around them.

For many, especially those who had serious problems or unattractive smiles, it was quite literally life-transforming - and of course, they found themselves smiling a lot more and a lot less carefully. For most, while they thought that it would improve their confidence and their aura of success and friendliness, it was still hard to comprehend just how much it really did.

I think it was the experience of these patients that did more to change the way I viewed cosmetic dentistry than anything else. Sure, it’s always great to have a dazzling smile, but it seemed the whole experience went a lot further than that and had a lot of unforeseen benefits. And Dr. Golpa’s patients consistently claimed that even the most fearful of them found that with skilled use of sedation, the process was much less traumatic and far less painful than they would have imagined.

I was a believer. Dr. Golpa was, in fact, a dentist I would be proud to write about professionally. And, he was the cosmetic dentist that I wanted to handle my own case.