Principles of Smile Design

Different studies of the principles of smile design have consistently shown that when asked what feature is most significant in determining whether a person is considered to be attractive the face is listed first. And when asked what facial feature is most important, it is their smile that comes to the top of the list. What is considered beautiful is based on standard aesthetic principles about balance and symmetry between teeth, eyes, and the rest of the face.

Smile, a person's ability to express a range of emotions with the structure and movement of the teeth and lips, can often determine how well a person can function in society. Of course, the importance given to a beautiful smile is not new. It is of prime importance that the final result is not dependent only on the looks alone. Our ultimate goal as your cosmetic dentist is to achieve pleasing composition in the smile by creating an arrangement of various aesthetic elements.

These features include facial aesthetics, gingival (gum) aesthetics, macro aesthetics, and micro aesthetics.

Principles of Smile Design Process & Analysis

Smile design should involve the evaluation of certain elements in a specific order;

• facial analysis

• The relation of the Lower jaw/Upper Jaw to the face and the dental mid-line relation to the face

• The relationship of the teeth to the lips

• The relationship of the teeth to the gingivae (soft tissues)

• The intertooth and intertooth relationships, i.e., form and position along with colour of the teeth

• The concept of the evaluation sequence is based starting with a macro view of the patient and progressively working down to a micro view, i.e., looking at the face first and then progressing to evaluate the individual teeth last.