By: Dr. Catrise Austin with Rusty Fischer 
Publisher: Morgan James Publishing 
Publication Date: October 2010 
ISBN-13: 978-1600376443 
Reviewed by: Michelle Hutchinson, D.M.D. 
Review Date: November 2, 2009 

Dr. Catrise Austin grew up in one of Detroit’s roughest neighborhoods, as the child of a single mother, and always wishing her upper teeth didn’t stick out quite so far. Fortunately, during her teenage years, she was able to get braces and finish high school displaying a beautiful smile in her yearbook picture. The orthodontic treatment that changed her looks was the impetus for her to pursue a career as a dentist; her goal was to provide the same transformation to others.

Not satisfied with limiting her advice to the patients in her New York City and L.A. practices, Dr. Austin wrote 5 Steps to the Hollywood A-List Smile: How the Stars Get That Perfect Smile and How You Can Too! to reach a wider audience.

Unfortunately, it takes Dr. Austin 62 pages to get to the meat of what’s implied in the book’s title. In addition, these first 62 pages and those that follow are so riddled with typographical, grammatical, and punctuation errors, that it’s hard to focus on the content.

She does give her readers good advice on how to find a dentist that suits them and how to research dental procedures, and she warns us not to rush into cosmetic dental procedures, but she has a tendency to use and not explain some words (e.g., crossbite, bridge) that may not be understood by those outside the dental profession.

Her section on the pros and cons of various dental procedures should be helpful to those deciding how to proceed with their quest for an A-list smile, but the photographs accompanying that segment and most of the book’s chapters lack captions, thus disorienting the reader.

Quill says: With some editing, 5 Steps to the Hollywood A-List Smile might make a good addition to the waiting room in a dentist’s office.