Smile Design

The Failsafe way of ensuring you get the smile you want

1. SHAPES OF TEETH – For example, more masculine smiles usually have squarer angles while feminine teeth are more rounded on the corners. Mature smiles are flatter while young smiles have more contour and different shapes. Your dentist should show you all the different shapes and styles that they can remodel your smile.
2. The LAW OF GOLDEN PROPORTION in nature is also true for your smile. The dentist should be able to take measurements of your facial and teeth proportions to work out the right size and length if teeth for you.
3.  THE FRAME OF YOUR SMILE that is, your lips, and your gums. Are your gum heights symmetrical from one side to the other?
   

   Note in this example the gum heights are asymmetrical from one side to the other, the teeth are at different heights.

4. CANTS – Does your smile slope (cant) one way or another?
   

   This smile cants towards the patient’s left. With these temporary crowns on, we can see if the cant is corrected before they are committed to the final porcelain restorations.

   

   This smile cants down toward the patient’s left too. There are also asymmetrical gum heights. In this case we only did the front 4 damaged teeth with new crowns, one side crown with the black margins, corrected gum heights with laser, and bleaching of the dark canine teeth.

5. MIDLINES – Does your midline of your smile line up with the midlines of your face?
6. SMILE LINES – Does the shape of your smile follow your lower lip smile line?
   

   This smile has a reverse smile line. The shape of the smile is in a “frown” rather than turning upwards. So when we created Stephen’s new smile, we made the smile follow his lower lip curve.

7. TOOTH DISPLAY – How many teeth do you show in your smile? Stephen from above only shows the six front teeth when he smiles. Lisa below shows a whole heap more! Generally for the ideal smile, you need to treat as many teeth as the lips show, otherwise you may get compromised results. Stephen has the social 6 teeth white and proportional while the back teeth are small, and a different colour.
   

   Lisa

8. Do you have a wide smile or a narrow smile? – This reflects how wide or narrow your jaw is. Jaw expansion is possible to widen the smile with systems like Invisalign. We can also build wider smiles with veneers placed on the cheek side of teeth to build them out toward the cheek and give the appearance of a wider smile.
9. Do you show adequate tooth length at smile and at rest?
   

   This patient does not really show any top teeth at rest as the teeth are worn down. As we age we also tend to show more top teeth then bottom teeth. To regain youthfulness, we try to rebuild some length back in to the top teeth so that more teeth show at rest and at smiling.

10. Are you too gummy?
    

    Consider Laser recontouring to reduce gumminess and improve gum symmetry.