Fine Dentistry
The real art is a smile that looks like it was always there.
They call it a smile. But a smile is usually made of 28 teeth, with 28 different starting points, all meant to come together as one harmonious result, aesthetically and functionally. That takes precise diagnostics, individual design and planning that turns 28 separate decisions into one. In his case, some teeth were heavily worn, others already restored, some structurally compromised. Some were missing entirely and first had to be replaced with implants. So the task was never to treat everything the same. It was to bring all these different starting points together so that, in the end, none of them reads as a separate solution.
Diagnosis
Generalized tooth wear with pronounced sensitivity, inadequate previous restorations, significantly reduced vertical dimension with functional impairment.
The Decision
Preserve as much natural tooth structure as possible, without compromising stability, function or aesthetics. That is why no two teeth were treated alike. Depending on each tooth, we used non-prep veneers, veneers, ceramic table tops, partial crowns, all-ceramic crowns and implant crowns. Where a tooth only needed to be built up, preparation could in part be avoided entirely. Teeth that were more damaged or previously restored needed more protection. Missing teeth were replaced with implants, without involving healthy neighboring teeth. For him, that meant as little intervention as possible, and exactly the stability he needed where he needed it.
Goal
Restore lost tooth structure, shape and chewing function, and integrate the missing teeth into one overall concept. Each tooth was to be treated only as far as its own situation required. In the end, natural teeth, restored teeth and implants should no longer read as different starting points, but as one coherent, natural smile.
Our Approach
- The Facial Aesthetic Concept©: Tooth shapes, proportions, aesthetics and bite height were first defined as a whole, in the face, before the definitive reconstruction began.
- Real Face Preview: The planned result was visible in advance and fine-tuned together.
- Vertical Restore, the new bite height: The lost vertical dimension was redetermined and transferred into a functionally stable bite position. The new height wasn't estimated. It was planned, measured and then clinically tested.
- Test Drive: The plan was transferred into his mouth as prototypes. He could eat, speak and laugh with them, and get used to his new bite height, tooth shapes and aesthetics.
- Follow-ups: During the test phase, shape, proportions, bite height and contacts were further adjusted under real-life conditions.
- Digital Transfer: Only the clinically optimized situation was captured digitally again. So what went to our specialist dental technicians wasn't just a plan, but a result that had already been tested.
- Final reconstruction: Depending on the type of restoration and its functional demands, we used individually layered feldspathic and lithium disilicate ceramics and individually layered zirconia. Despite different materials and technical requirements, shade, translucency, surface and form were matched so that the individual restorations read as one.
Result
Different restorations, different ceramics, natural teeth and implants come together as one. The transitions don't show as separate pieces of work; shape, shade, surface and light work together. Functionally, too, the final restoration wasn't a new beginning. Bite height, contacts and chewing function had already been tested in the Test Drive and refined in the follow-ups. What is technically complex looks, in the end, effortless.
Treatment Time
Three to four weeks of Test Drive and functional-aesthetic fine-tuning before the definitive reconstruction.
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Please Note
The treatment shown is an individual case. Treatment plans and results vary depending on the initial findings.
What are Zaritzki Restorations?
It should be perfect, but it shouldn't look perfect. That is the hardest brief in dentistry, and it comes down to three things.
No one should see it. A restoration must never look more regular than the rest of your teeth. Light, surface and translucency are matched to what is already there, not to an ideal. A tooth has texture, tiny irregularities, its own way of breaking light. That is exactly what is recreated. This is why the ceramic is handcrafted in a master laboratory, and why the shade is refined in a try-in before anything is permanently placed.
It should feel exactly as before. Your tongue knows every millimeter of your mouth and finds every edge. Contact points, bite guidance and transitions are therefore shaped so that nothing new feels new. The spaces between your teeth stay as you know them, and floss should glide as it always has.
As little as possible should be taken away. We fight for every millimeter of your natural tooth. Every tooth raises the same question: how much is necessary, and how little is enough? An inlay, for as long as an inlay will hold. A partial crown when the chewing surface is lost. A full crown only when the tooth needs protection all around. We work with 5× magnification loupes and specialized LED light, with instruments made for this standard, and with the time it takes. Preserving tooth structure takes longer than removing it. That is why it takes longer here.
And because a restoration must fit not only the tooth but the face, it begins with The Facial Aesthetic Concept©: the aesthetic goal is defined first, and bite guidance and load are built around it. What remains is the impression that nothing was done, only that everything is right.
More about Zaritzki Restorations
What made Dr. Felix Zaritzki a specialist?
The first thing Dr. Felix Zaritzki looks at in a new patient is the face in motion: how they speak, how far the lip lifts when they laugh, how much tooth shows. That is where he decides what a smile should look like. He has been a dentist since 1999, and after several thousand veneers, that decision has become his signature.
From it grew a method that breaks with a rule. In German dentistry, the order has always been function first, then aesthetics. He reversed it. First, the aesthetics are defined: the length, width, proportion and shade of every tooth, attuned to facial architecture and smile line. Then the form is built to match, and with it the function. Bite height, contacts and guidance are measured, simulated and tested until they carry the defined image exactly. The aesthetics set the goal, and the data aligns every millimeter to it.
His patients from Germany and abroad see their result before it exists: in the Real Face Preview, in their own mouth, and in the Test Drive, in their own everyday life. Only what has proven itself there is made in ceramic.
In the profession, this method is known as The Facial Aesthetic Concept©. It was published as the lead article in cd cosmetic dentistry. The spaces he works in follow the same standard: his practice at Gendarmenmarkt was the first dental practice featured in Architectural Digest Germany.
