The standard treatment for his problem involves years of braces, followed by surgery to cut the jaws apart for realignment. It’s a tough procedure for anyone, but for an athlete, it’s a game-stopper.

And Abalos – who’s been playing since before grade school, through high school and college, and on the semi-pro Laredo (TX) Heat – wasn’t ready to walk off the field.

Then he met San Antonio cosmetic dentist Dr. John Moore, DDS, who has developed a pioneering technique for correcting major alignment problems without traditional braces or surgery, and at a fraction of the time of traditional treatments.

As he went from doctor to doctor, getting the same answer, he said, “My Mom did a lot of research and got information about Invisalign (clear braces). I made an appointment for a checkup with Dr. Moore, to see if Invisalign might help me.”

Moore, a San Antonio Invisalign specialist who was honored at an international summit last year for his breakthrough treatment of a San Antonio boxer, immediately saw that his treatment – a unique combination of clear braces and veneers – was an answer for Abalos.

“The soccer player came in with exactly the same demands as the boxer,” Moore said. “He said, 'I'm not going through surgery. I've been told over and over that the only way is to have years and years of braces, and then do surgery'.”

“I looked at this case, and I said, oh my god, this is exactly like the other fellow. Here's an athlete that doesn't want to compromise his career by committing himself to something like the traditional invasive procedure.”

Abalos, a 23-year-old student at San Antonio's Incarnate Word University, agreed to be the second athlete to undergo Moore's treatment.

“So I stick him in the veneers, get him into the Invisalign and move the lower teeth in, and boom! The whole thing is over in less than a year,” Moore said. Along with the boxer, “both guys ended up extremely happy, they avoided the surgery, saved them a tremendous amount of invasive work.”

“The whole thing was done without any shots, no pain involved, no bleeding, no stitches, no surgery . . . I actually didn't even have to trim the teeth for the veneers,” he said. “A completely non-invasive, non-painful process . . . lightly touch the teeth, take some molds, build the veneers, get them into Invisalign.”

Abalos is thankful that Moore's breakthrough allowed him to have the looks and healthy jaw alignment he wanted. “I feel really good about my smile, and the way I got it, with no interruption in my soccer playing. Nothing ever kept me out of the game.”

Moore is now consulting with other prospective patients on his new technique, and is available for new patients.

Contact Information:

Cosmetic Dental Associates 
5837 Babcock Rd. San Antonio, TX 78240 
Phone 210-337-6453 

San Antonio cosmetic dentist Dr. John Moore, DDS, has been in practice  for more than 25 years, and his credits include serving as an assistant professor of dentistry at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. He is a prolific lecturer and published writer, and has won numerous awards, including being voted into America's Top Dentists in Cosmetic Dentistry and honored as San Antonio's Top Dentist in Cosmetic Dentistry.

Moore, a recognized expert in Invisalign braces, has been showcased at an international summit for his breakthrough procedure, which uses an innovative combination of Invisalign and veneers to not only align teeth, but actually modify the jaw alignment. The procedure shortens treatment time to a year or less, involves no invasive surgery or anesthesia, and costs a fraction of the price of the braces-plus-surgery process.

Dr. Moore is now offering treatment for other patients who may be suited to this course of treatment. 
Moore’s pioneering case was John Gomez* – a boxer, a tough guy. But his toughest opponent – his own jaw structure – had him on the ropes.

The boxer’s lower jaw jutted out with a fierce underbite, “like a bulldog,” Moore said. Gomez’s teeth couldn’t meet for a real bite, because the lower teeth had grown outside and in front of the upper teeth.

“He didn't like the way he looked, and he had some physical issues,” Moore said. “He couldn't eat like a normal person. He couldn't bite a sandwich off, for example, because the front teeth couldn't come together . . . the lower ones were out front of the uppers, so when he'd bite into a sandwich, it would just sort of fold the food in the center, and he'd kind of have to rip it off.“

Gomez went from one dental specialist to another, desperate for a solution. Traditional orthodontics had an answer, but it was devastating. One after another, the other offices told him he’d need to be in braces for three to four years, and then have his jaws cut apart so they could be properly aligned, ending his shot at a boxing career.

“And this whole time he's thinking, 'Oh my God, I can't wear braces and be a boxer’,” Moore recalled. 
“Basically if you have a broken jaw, or get a broken jaw during boxing as a career boxer, that pretty much finishes you off as a serious contender.” Moore said. “Obviously the braces would be something impossible to wear during a boxing match, unless you wanted to pick your lips up off the mat.”

The case seemed hopeless.

Moore’s first thought was to agree with the previous dentists. The bite was just too far out, and the answer might be to put him in Invisalign braces instead of regular braces, and then later perform surgery on the jaws.

“And he's looking at me like, no, there's no way that's going to work, because now you're going to have to cut my jaws apart, and that's going to ruin my career, end my career right there on the spot. I can't heal from something like that and go step into the ring and get hammered on my jaw. It's going to break it again.”

Thinking outside the box, Moore, came up with an elegant solution – a groundbreaking one-two punch of Invisalign and veneers that solved Gomez’s problem of aesthetics and eating problems, while saving his career.

Relating his thoughts as he planned out the treatment, Moore said:

“I'm going to try and put some veneers on the teeth, and I'm going to bring the top teeth out as far as I can and set them on top of the lower teeth and use Invisalign to pull the lower set behind and inside of the upper set, so we make the jump that way.

“This way we just put the veneers on them, then we do the Invisalign and the whole thing is done. We won't have to do the surgery, you won't have to wear braces, maybe I can skip the whole deal.”

“So I started studying this case and looked at it and I thought, ‘Wow, with this deep bite the way it is, if I open the bite a little bit, that alone would start to line things up better’,” Moore said. “I went ahead and built some veneers, and then took some plastic filler and built up his back teeth so he could actually bite there when I set them on top of his front teeth.”

“So once he's on top of his front teeth, and I had a few little blocks of plastic in the back to hold his bite, the whole thing was stable there.” Moore added.

“Then I ordered the Invisalign and put it on, and we began to draw the lower set in. As I drew the lower set in, I noticed it was getting smaller and smaller and it came up inside of the upper set, and I thought 'this is perfect.’ Now it's time to sand the little blocks off the back, let his bite fall together, and drop down where the top front set would sit down over the lower. And once it did, then I could see his bite all coming together.” 
“To my amazement, and really quite a surprise to everyone, the doggone case was finished in like nine months. And we had been looking at a previous treatment plan that would have taken him three, four years, and then six months of surgery, and healing and cutting his jaws apart and tens and tens of thousands of dollars to go through all of this.”

“Instead, I put him in a set of veneers across the front, and that only took two weeks. His teeth suddenly looked better. Drew the lower set in – that only took six to nine months – the bite was completely corrected – the thing dropped together and the whole case was completely finished.”

“So now we have, for the very first time, a real genuine, different way of fixing somebody's bite like this.” Moore said. “The whole thing was done without any shots – there was no pain involved, no bleeding, no surgery, no stitches, no nothing – completely non-invasive.”

Since then, Moore has duplicated his feat with another professional athlete – a soccer player – whose career was threatened by the same issues as the boxer.

Moore is currently consulting with other patients, and is available for providing his services in other cases in which the traditional orthodontic treatment is not advisable, or in which patients want to shorten treatment time and trim costs. Prospective patients or interested dental professionals may contact Moore at 210-337-6453.

About Dr. Moore:

Dr. John Moore, DDS, (http://johnmooredds.com) has been practicing dentistry in San Antonio for more than 25 years, and his credits include serving as an assistant professor of dentistry at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. He is a prolific lecturer and published writer, and has won numerous awards, including being voted into America's Top Dentists in Cosmetic Dentistry and honored as San Antonio's Top Dentist in Cosmetic Dentistry.

Contact Information:

Dr. John Moore, DDS 
Cosmetic Dental Associates 
http://www.33smile.com 
5837 Babcock Rd. San Antonio, TX 78240 
Phone 210-337-6453

(*Note: John Gomez is a pseudonym – the boxer requested that his real name not be used, for personal reasons.)