Smile makeover is the process of improving the appearance of the smile through one or more dentistry procedures, such as: crowns, veneers, composite bondings, implants, gum procedures. Essentially, a smile makeover is something that you choose to have performed, while a full mouth reconstruction is something that you need to have performed.
A smile makeover takes into consideration your facial appearance, skin tone, hair color, teeth analysis (color, width, length, shape and tooth display), lifestyle, phonetic analysis, gingival analysis, occlusion analysis and lips to create your ideal smile.
Smile makeovers are performed for many reasons and customized according to your considerations.
Your oral health must be evaluated prior to developing a plan of treatment. This must be a comprehensive evaluation of your teeth, gums, underlying support structure and bite to determine candidacy for smile makeover.
An integral part of a smile makeover process is the preview of potential results you evaluate before treatment begins. Your dentist will incorporate a variety of dental technologies to show you the changes that you can expect to see in your new smile such as: dental imaging software, before and after photos, dental study models, dental mock up.
Diagnostic models represent the teeth, supporting tissue, and the relationship between upper and lower teeth in centric occlusion. They are often used as a diagnostic tool for the dentist to evaluate and create a treatment plan. They also serve as valuable instructional and illustrative aids during consultations. To create a study model, impressions are taken of each arch with an alginate material. Models are poured using a yellow dental stone or a white plaster material.
A mock-up is the creation of a “trial smile”, allowing you the exciting prospect of actually being part of your own smile transformation. This simple procedure allows your dentist to apply tooth-colored filling materials to temporarily improve the shape and form of your teeth, to close spaces between teeth, or to simulate the ideal balance between the gum line and the teeth. In turn it allows you time to try out the newly created tooth shapes, with lips at rest and a full smile. This also gives you time to decide how the changes appeal to you and those viewing your new look. This approach is the most realistic way of experiencing the whole host of improvements that you and your dentist have envisioned.
Digital dental photography allows for accurate determination of the incisal edge position, both horizontally and vertically. Photos used in this process also provides the following information:
When we do a full mouth reconstruction or smile, we emphasize the use of the concept of visagism which involves the creation of a customized personal image that expresses a person’s sense of identity and helps dental clinicians provide restorations that account not only esthetics, but also for the psychosocial features of created image which affect patient’s emotions, sense of identity, behavior and self esteem. These factors in turn affect how observers react to patients following treatment.
During consultation we do an analysis of the face, which begins with one or more diagnostic digital smile designs, wax-ups and mock-ups of the maxillary anterior region, which are evaluated by the patient and clinician with the aid of extra and intraoral photographs and video.
With the visagism concept, clinicians can design a smile that blends the patients physical appearance, personality and desires. One of the most significant challenges is to uncover these personality traits and desires in order to translate them into natural tooth shapes in psycho dentofacial harmony.
