Alafaya Family Dentistry
by Laura Breen Galante
Some people can maintain naturally beautiful and healthy teeth well into their old age, and others (brush and floss though they may) aren’t so lucky... but is it really luck that makes the difference? Or is there another force at work? The science of Bioesthetic Dentistry has the answers.
Dr. Robert L. Lee built the concept of Bioesthetic Dentistry by carefully studying the mouths of perpetually healthy patients to find a natural biologic form that is conducive to optimal dental health. He then taught other dentists how to replicate that form with all their patients so that they, too, could enjoy healthy smiles for a lifetime.
Our community is fortunate to have two of Dr. Lee’s top students – the husband-and-wife team of Dr. David Ross and Dr. Karen Schmitt at Alafaya Family Dentistry – practicing right here in Oviedo. Thanks to Bioesthetic Dentistry, Dr. Schmitt and Dr. Ross aren’t just making smiles more beautiful, they’re helping patients improve their overall health and stay pain-free.
“Dr. Lee realized there’s an ideal form that helps keep your joints stable and helps keep your teeth from wearing,” says Dr. Schmitt.
“It’s basically copying the beauty of nature,” adds Dr. Ross, and the result is fewer headaches; less pain in the neck, jaw, shoulders, and back; and an end to teeth clenching and grinding.
Dr. Ross and Dr. Schmitt are level 4 graduates from the OBI Foundation for Bioesthetic Dentistry – the only two such graduates in the entire state of Florida. Because of this, many patients travel to Alafaya Family Dentistry from outside the area to restore not just their dental health but their overall well-being, as well.
And when your entire chewing system is in harmony – including the teeth, jaw, head, and neck – you don’t just feel better, you look better, too.
The Roots of the Problem
For decades, dental care was based on disease correction and managing the symptoms of tooth wear. Put simply, if something was wrong with your teeth, a dentist could fix it. Bioesthetic Dentists like Dr. Schmitt and Dr. Ross work differently. They discover why a patient’s teeth are wearing out or why they are in constant discomfort and correct the problem at its source. It’s often because of disharmony in the chewing system and unstable jaw joints.
“We look at where a patient’s teeth actually want to be once the muscles are relaxed and the jaw joint is stabilized,” explains Dr. Schmitt. “That may be a different place than where a person physically puts their teeth together.”
That difference causes tooth wear. It’s a slow process over time that also causes wrinkles as a patient clenches down and unconsciously puts their teeth into misalignment. Often, the first step in Bioesthetic treatment is to install a simple orthotic device that essentially trains the joints in the mouth to chew more properly.
“Once the joints become stable, the muscle pain, earaches, and headaches go away,” says Dr. Schmitt. “Their face, their neck, everything relaxes. It loosens the facial muscles. The wrinkles from straining are gone, and they look a lot younger – it actually changes their appearance.”
The transformations can be life-changing, too. Dr. Ross and Dr. Schmitt have worked with patients who have ground down their teeth to the point where they can hardly chew or speak efficiently.
“We want to help people understand how powerful this new approach to dentistry can be,” says Dr. Ross.
Dr. Schmitt agrees: “It’s really been so rewarding.”