smile

Smile Designing

Smile Designing – Your teeth are an essential part of your smile. Are they aligned and straight? Do they shine with a glistening white color, or are they yellowed and stained? Are they symmetrical, or do you have damaged or oddly shaped teeth? Do some teeth stick out in an unattractive way?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder’, it is said, and we have been hearing this old comment for many years. One person can love Renaissance art, for instance, while another favours post-modernism, and neither would be wrong. However, while the perception of ‘beauty’ is a subjective experience (flavoured by ethnicity, culture and an endless list of other factors), there are certain universal guidelines that transcend this subjectivity and provide us with factual, objective criteria as to what pleases the human eye. These fundamental esthetic standards can help us as clinicians to design and create ‘beauty’ in a quantitative, scientific and predictable manner.

Today – due in part to a convergence of trends in tooth-whitening, ‘Extreme Makeover’ style television shows and oral care companies spending millions on advertising – the smile has been solidified in our culture as a centrepiece of overall beauty. There is greater demand than ever before for elective, esthetically driven dentistry, which is a major shift from the atmosphere of just a few generations ago, when a trip to the dentist meant either a cleaning or the resolution of pain.

Patients today, in addition to wanting clean, pain-free mouths, commonly seek rejuvenated, improved or completely transformed smiles. We as dentists must retool, redefine and reinvent ourselves to be not only competent clinicians, but ‘smile experts’. Simply stated, we need to reimagine who we are today.In classical terms, the horizontal and vertical dimensions for an ideal face are as follows:

  • Horizontal
  • Vertical
  • Square
  • Tapering
  • Square tapering
  • Ovoid
  • Straight
  • Concave

Frequently asked questions

  1. Want to look younger. A smile design can take years off of your appearance.
  2. Want to have a more confident smile.
  3. That cares how they look and wants to make an investment into their dental health
  4. That wants to improve their chances for career advancement or success. It is a known fact that 74% of adults feel that an enhanced smile will allow for a more successful career
  5. That takes care of their teeth with regular dental checkups and good dental hygiene.

1] Symmetry, Color, and Straightness

Depending on the circumstances, any of these issues can be resolved with the assistance of an Invisalign , or by pursuing teeth whitening or porcelain veneers. In some severe cases of malocclusion, you may need to consider surgery; but with modern technology on your side, most of the issues can be corrected within a year or two using less invasive measures.

2] Gum Health and Lip Shape

Your smile isn’t all about your teeth. The soft tissues of your mouth and lips also have their role to play.

How much gum are you showing when you smile?

Are your gums a light, healthy pink or a deep, inflamed red?

Do your gums overlap your teeth too much, or are they receding?

Good oral hygiene is key to keeping your gums healthy and your lips hydrated; but if you’re struggling with serious aesthetic issues, you may need the help of a dentist. Gum grafting, laser gum reshaping, and other techniques can help you achieve a more attractive and balanced smile. If your teeth are protruding, they can make your lips stick out or force your mouth into a crooked shape; so once you fix that issue, your lips can assume a more natural, symmetrical position.