Smile Reimagined: Melody’s Dental Transformation with Dr. Huda Aljonaidy

Melody Beers has always felt an earnest desire to help others. That feeling motivated her to pursue a career as a licensed practical nurse directly out of high school. For 29 years, she cared for patients in various capacities, including postoperative and home health. But five years ago, while Melody was living and working in rural South Central Pennsylvania, a tragedy cut her career short. “In 2018, I was in a house fire and was severely burned,” Melody shares. “After being airlifted to a burn unit in Allentown, I learned that I had third-degree burns over 39 percent of my body and needed to have skin grafting. “I was eventually placed in a medically induced coma for a month because of the pain, and for other medical reasons. I was very critical. Once they brought me out of the coma, I stayed in the hospital another two weeks for intensive physical, occupational and speech therapy. I had to learn how to walk again and everything. “For two years after that I received laser treatments to help with the scarring. Between the laser procedures and skin grafts, I’m amazed at how far I’ve come.” Melody, 54, says she is “truly blessed to be alive.” But one of the emergency procedures left her with serious dental issues that made life more challenging following her recovery. That procedure is called intubation. It calls for the insertion of a tube into the mouth or nose that is then directed into the trachea, or windpipe. The tube keeps the trachea open and is attached to a machine that delivers oxygen to the body. Melody was intubated three times before she was placed in the medically induced coma and again after doctors discovered she was struggling to breathe on her own after she was brought out of the coma. “During all those intubations, my back upper teeth were broken and lost,” Melody laments. Dental trauma such as broken or chipped teeth is common during intubations, but without her back upper teeth, Melody struggled to chew food properly and was forced to alter her diet. It was yet another dental issue for a person who had never been happy with her smile in the first place. “For years, I had a pretty large gap between my two front teeth that I never got fixed,” she relates. “I always felt insecure and self-conscious about that, and that bothered me because people think you’re not friendly if you’re afraid to smile. But with me it was because I was embarrassed to smile.” In 2020, Melody brought those dental issues with her when she moved to Florida. Two years later, she developed an abscess in one tooth. The pain and swelling triggered an internet search for an emergency dentist that led her to Blossom Dental and Facial Aesthetics, the Ormond Beach practice of Huda Aljonaidy, DDS. Dr. Aljonaidy is skilled in all aspects of comprehensive dentistry. One of her strengths is simplifying complex cases using proper planning. During her initial visit with Melody. Dr Aljonaidy determined the abscessed tooth could not be saved and required extraction. During that appointment, Melody also asked whether her other dental needs could be addressed.

COURTESY IMAGES BLOSSOM DENTAL AND FACIAL AESTHETICS Melody is no longer embarrassed to smile after undergoing Dr. Aljonaidy’s meticulously planned makeover.

Comprehensive Plan

“When I first met Ms. Beers, she was struggling because of the lost teeth in the back of her upper arch,” Dr. Aljonaidy summarizes. “She was also unhappy with the appearance of her front teeth because there was a big gap between them and because her gums covered those teeth, which made them appear too small for her face. “Another dentist might have recommended removing her remaining teeth and creating false teeth, and that wouldn’t have been wrong because she didn’t have many teeth left in her upper arch. But I explained that her remaining teeth were worth saving and that there are techniques I could use to fully restore her smile.” After learning of those techniques, Melody agreed to a comprehensive treatment and smile makeover plan developed by Dr. Aljonaidy. It began with using Invisalign® to close the space between Melody’s two front teeth and to align her lower teeth to create an ideal bite. “Invisalign is a series of clear aligners that move teeth one-tenth of a millimeter per week,” Dr. Aljonaidy describes. “So, for example, if we want to move the teeth two millimeters, the patient must wear the aligners for 20 weeks. The Invisalign aligners fit like a glove, moving the teeth in a hugging manner so no pressure is placed on the tooth roots.” The second phase of Melody’s plan called for dental implants on her upper arch. Dental implants are root-shaped, screw-like bodies that are surgically placed into the jawbone. Once in the jawbone, new bone naturally grows around the implants to form the foundation for an abutment and replacement teeth. The replacement teeth can be a crown that is cemented or screwed onto the abutment, a partial bridge that can be affixed to one or more implants, or a full denture that can be fastened to a series of implants. The plan for Melody was to be fit with a bridge on each side of her upper arch. In addition, Dr. Aljonaidy performed a “surgical correction” to Melody’s gums to shorten them, which made her front teeth appear longer. “Then, we dressed up the teeth with crowns to give them the full contour they never had,” Dr. Aljonaidy informs. “The change in her appearance is like day and night, and the beautiful bridges I created for her back teeth allow her to chew almost anything she wants.” To finish the makeover, Dr. Aljonaidy addressed a related issue that affected the appearance of Melody’s face. “Because several years had elapsed since Ms. Beers lost her back teeth, her lips were naturally folding in and collapsing, resulting in early signs of aging,” the dentist elaborates. “To corrected that, I added a hyaluronic acid filler to restore the volume of her lips. Now, she can brag not only about her teeth, but her entire smile.”

“My Teeth Are Beautiful”

And brag she does. The makeover was completed in May, and Melody is ecstatic with the results. “My teeth are beautiful; they are just gorgeous,” she effuses. “They’re perfectly shaped and fit my mouth so nicely. And they’re very white. “I’m not afraid to smile anymore, nor am I embarrassed. I’m confident and proud of myself now, so I’m friendlier, warmer and more talkative. It’s a very positive outcome.” Dr. Aljonaidy credits meticulous preparation. “Whenever we do a smile makeover, every corner of the mouth requires specific planning and attention,” she asserts. “Ms. Beers’ success resulted from planning properly, looking ahead at what I’m going to do within a certain period of time and finding the smartest way of utilizing that time, so everything comes together at once in perfect harmony.” Dr. Aljonaidy’s execution of her plan has Melody singing the doctor’s praises. “Dr. Aljonaidy is awesome,” Melody raves. “She’s very knowledgeable and she explains everything in ways that anybody could understand. “She’s also super friendly. And she allowed me to give input about how I would like my teeth to look. I highly recommend her.”