A smile makeover or a smile improvement is the process of enhancing the appearance of your smile by using cosmetic dentistry, including composite filling, porcelain veneers, implants, and whitening of teeth.
The outline appearance of your face, your skin tonicity, the color of your hair, your teeth (length, color shade, shape, width), your gums as well as your lips contribute in the appearance of your smile.
Usually, the procedures of a smile makeover will involve treatment of the following:
1. Color of teeth
Improvement of tooth color can be achieved by two main cosmetic procedures:
- Replacement of amalgam dental filling with composite restoration, which has the natural color of the tooth
- Teeth whitening to remove the stains from discolored teeth
2. Teeth alignment
Cracked, overlapped teeth or teeth with diastema (gaps) will be corrected by orthodontic treatment or Invisalign. Dental veneers can effectively treat crooked teeth.
3. Missed Teeth
Definitely your smile is negatively affected if one or more teeth in your mouth are missed; therefore, as well as affecting your bite and increase the risk for teeth caries.
Implants, removable partial dentures or bridges can restore missing teeth effectively.
4. Harmony and balance between teeth and gingiva
Bonding is used to correct the appearance of chipped, cracked, and different teeth. Gummy smiles are re-contoured to enhance the smile appearance.
5. Re-juvenation of aging face
Older faces can be improved with orthodontics and/or maxilla-facial surgery. Fuller Lips are great idea for attractive smiles. Treatment of folds of cheek and face can improve the smile too.
For proper smile makeover, your dentist will have to evaluate the esthetic zone of your smile (The part of upper and lower teeth that appear when smiling); usually the esthetic zone is determined by:
Teeth Length
From a cosmetic point of view, long teeth tend to give younger appearance. Correction of short teeth will include lengthening and reshaping of upper central incisors by veneers or composite bonding. A gummy smile can be treated by utilizing laser to modify the gum line.
Be careful, lengthening of your teeth must be in harmony with your overall facial appearance, for instance, if your face is round or oval shaped, long, shaped and square teeth will give you a slimming appearance.
Smile Line
The smile line is a very important reference line which helps in a successful smile makeover results; it is an imaginary line drawn from side to side following the gingival edges of your upper teeth, ideally, it should be similar to the curve of your upper lip when you smile.
Texture and character of teeth
A cosmetic dentist can characterize your natural teeth crowns according to your personality, actually, an artistic dentist can give your teeth appear more feminine (more rounded or oval) or masculine (more square or straight). He/she can adapt your teeth to be more suitable for your lifestyle esthetically and functionally.
