Smile Beauty with Dr. Jill Morris

By Ryan G. Van Cleave | July 2022

When it comes to dental care, not all dental professionals are equal. Today, we’re going to discover how and why that’s the case by speaking with Dr. Jill Morris of World Class Dentistry (3951 Swift Road, Sarasota), a lifelong Floridian who’s been in private dental practice for 30+ years in our area.

What does the term “smile beauty” mean to you?

Definitely healthy gums and teeth. But when it comes to defining beauty, the standards change all the time. I’ve been in practice for 37 years now, yet throughout that time, people want whiter and whiter teeth. While beauty is in the eye of the beholder, when it comes to smile beauty, people like broad smiles.

In all your experience as a dentist, what has most surprised you?

How long results can last. In the 1990s, I started teaching cosmetic dentistry and was lecturing for some of the biggest companies in the world. I also became accredited with the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. During that time, patients would always ask, “How long do restorations last?” We didn’t really know because it was brand-new technology and brand-new cements. We were hoping 10 years, though nobody really knew. As it turns out, I have smiles that I’ve done that have been in people’s mouths 25 years now and they still look good.

What type of people are seeking to improve their smiles?

It used to just be the older crowd who’d ground down their teeth or simply wanted to improve their smiles which can really reverse time for somebody. When someone has their smile done, their whole face lights up—it rejuvenates them. It sets the spirit free because they can smile without being embarrassed or feeling like they have to hide anything. It really changes the personality of the person. 

Because of movies and TV shows, we’re seeing younger and younger people who now want perfect smiles. Thank God that for the younger crowd, we can usually accommodate them with little tooth preparation—we keep the grinding to a minimum. That way, if they later decide to change their mind, they can have the veneers removed without much damage to their teeth.

Your website says that one of your popular services is a “Smile Makeover.” 

A Smile Makeover is giving someone ten top veneers and eight on the bottom—that’s about average. I also do major reconstruction. For seven years, I taught full-mouth rehabilitation which could correct the bite and get rid of TMJ pain. Plus, patients ended up with an incredible-looking smile.

But if we’re solely focusing on the smile, it’s just veneers that go on the front and the edges of the teeth. We’re not changing the bite or anything else with a smile makeover.

What are some of the current trends in dentistry?

One new thing is that we’re addressing the airway because so many people have sleep apnea. That’s often caused by collapsed airways. So, a lot of times when I do my smile makeovers, or I make a full-mouth reconstruction, I can position the jaw where I open the airway. Instead of someone being on a CPAP for the rest of their life, I can correct their bite with beautiful porcelain, and then put them in an oral bite guard [at night] that keeps the airway from collapsing. 

Wow!

I also have eight lasers in my office, each of which do different things. 

One actually creates tighter collagen for the airways, which is a very easy procedure that’s painless. With it, I can go inside the mouth and even build collagen in the face for women who want that. I can rejuvenate the collagen in the lips and the face, but unlike how plastic surgeons do it, I do it from inside the mouth instead of outside. It penetrates pretty deeply, so we get nice collagen regeneration.

What’s the most difficult aspect of your work?

I’m a perfectionist, so I spend a lot of time troubleshooting everything and rechecking details. Working with smiles isn’t easy dentistry like giving someone a filling. This type of work is psychological. It changes their lives. It’s a more exquisite, fine-tuning type of dentistry that’s important since a smile is one of the first things you see on a person.

You’re a Floridian? 

I grew up about an hour from here. And my grandparents retired here. I did a one-year residency in Virginia, but then I came back and bought my practice from a retiring dentist. I believe I was the first female to own a dental practice in Bradenton. 

Around the mid-2000s, I moved my practice to the Quay [by the Ritz-Carlton] so it’d be easier for Sarasota residents to reach me but still be close enough for my existing Bradenton clients, too. That area got torn down right before the real estate bubble hit, so that’s when I moved into my present building, though my practice is the same practice I’ve always had. Many of my patients have been with me since I started in 1987.

It’s a family business, right?

My husband specializes in implants—he joined my practice in 2004. My son is the other dentist here, and he does orthodontics as well as general dentistry. My other son is our laboratory technician so he runs our lab, and my daughter is in dental school, so yes, you could certainly say it’s a family affair. 

Anything else you’d like to share?

I try to live by the words of my father, a frugal, Depression-era person who said, “Always do your best and be fair to people.” I also feel a connection to the Divine with my work. I see what I do as my way of being a servant of humanity and helping improve lives.