Testimonials

The 'smile mechanic' crafts another transformation (excerpt from Chronicle newspaper editorial)

This year has seen a new generation of dental care professionals established in the UK following the introduction of new regulations for oral prosthesis by the General Dental Council. Only 30 such practitioners are on the books. The Black Country's Steven Burchell is one of them and is fast earning a country-wide reputation as a professional 'smile mechanic'.

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A smile costs nothing. Yet for Maggie who could not smile, it is priceless.
She lost her smile ten years ago when dental surgery let her down. Ill-fitting dentures she was prescribed were unwearable and got dumped in disgust in the back of a drawer, along with her smile and . . . her confidence.

With lips pinched and sunken, life became as awkward and embarrassing as those horrible and clumsy choppers, the butt of every comedian since Dick Emery’s horse-faced vicar sketch.

But there was hope from one of a rare new breed of dental care professionals, Steven Burchell, who is bringing the smile back to her lips – and turning back the clock ten years, without plastic surgery.

In his surgery Mr Burchell scans a collection of faded photographs of a once-smiling woman and reassures Maggie - not her real name - she will once again have the confidence to recapture those happy moments snapped at a family party.

Embarrassed and perplexed the 40-something-year-old explains, with hand cupped over her mouth, the saga of failed attempts to regain the looks she lost.

Dudley Clinical Dental Technician Mr Burchell listens intently, to what he describes, as "common story" of a succession of ill-fitting teeth, eventually being dispatched to the back of a drawer.

When, after much coaxing Maggie finally does brave a smile, her lips look pinched and sunken and her lower teeth cannot be seen. The expression is awkward, forced and short-lived as a number of digital photographic images are taken while she sits in a dentist's chair.

"I know it appears incredible, but it is possible to take ten years of ageing process off her facial features without plastic surgery. But what we do need is the provision of correct denture treatment and to properly open the bite. The results are nothing short of a transformation," says Mr Burchell.

A gallery of lower face before-and-after pictures are called up on the laptop showing examples of this "smile mechanic's" work.

"I have people visit me from all over the country, from as far as away as the Isle of Skye off the Scottish West coast and North Wales. They present an array of clinical problems, but there appears to be a common issue. Our teeth are like the scaffolding for our facial features and although some prosthetics can be functional for eating, often that is where their usefulness ends," Mr Burchell says.

"False teeth are regularly comedic material and many true-to-life anecdotes add to humour. But the distress of losing teeth should never be ignored. For many, they not only lose their natural teeth, they also lose confidence . . . and their natural smile. They hide away behind cupped hands just like 'Maggie' and rarely open their mouths to express happiness. It's a basic life-quaility function which they have lost," he adds.

Mr Burchell, who has a close working relationship with dental surgeon Dr Richard McEvoy, and works out of a clinic in his surgery in North Street, Dudley, is one of just 30 new generation denturists in the UK. The 41-year-old has nearly 25 years' experience in dental prosthesis provision.

In March this year the General Dental Council introduced registration to regulate the industry of oral prosthesis provision. Mr Burchell, who was raised in Netherton, and attended Dudley's former Sir Gilbert Claughton School, was first in the UK to register.

A former dental technician, he ran his own dental laboratory before training for his DD MCDP CdtDipRCS(Eng) (Member of the college of dental prothesis clinical dental technician Diplomate of the Royal college of Surgeons) under the auspices of the International Dental Education Centre in Toronto, Canada.

The four-year study programme in the UK and Canada for the internationally recognised qualification, covered 30 medical modules, including anatomy, physiology, pathology and practice skills.

Subsequent training has seen Mr Burchell at Keele University to gain an X-ray qualification from the College of Radiographers and has also undergone a Royal College of Surgeons general practice and treatment planning skills course as part of the requirement for his UK denturist registration.

"The training enables me to deliver my expertise directly and independently to the patient and not work typically as a technician would, under the instruction of a dentist and without seeing the patient.

"There is a unique professional partnership between Dr McEvoy and myself.. To have both streams of clinical provision under one roof is the best of both worlds where we can each make an assessment, often with a single appointment," says Mr Burchell.

"The biggest thrill of my work is a growing reputation of making people like 'Maggie' smile again and giving them back their confidence. It's not just a question of creating dentures that fit, but carefully examining how facial profiling can be achieved. Patients wanting to restore their natural smiles often ask me after treatment: 'How did you know that was the way I looked?'

"There are clear facial anatomical clues - the width of the nose and various other measurements - that point to how features need to be reshaped by the teeth. Old pictures help in my work and the use of wax blocks to support the face can offer a patient insight into the finished work. The natural look is my hallmark. I am, amongst other things, simply a smile mechanic," he says.

Typically, patients need five consultations. Mr Burchell's patients include a whole range of people . . . "from little old ladies to a multi-millionaire businessman with a private jet. It's not exclusively for the wealthy."

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