A smile makeover is a procedure carried out by dental professionals to improve the aesthetic appeal of your smile and make it more attractive.
To achieve this, the dental professionals may use one or more of cosmetic dentistry procedures such as whitening of teeth, dental veneers, implants, composite bonding etc. These are some of the procedures that are used by orthodontists to get smile makeover done.
To get smile makeover done, your dentist will have to decide in consultation with you, taking many factors into consideration, before getting any smile makeover done.
Before you decide on what kind of smile you want, consider your likes and dislikes about your smile. The aspects of smile that can be improved upon by your dentist include the following.
Spacing of teeth and alignment
People who have misaligned teeth would like to have the set of upper and lower teeth to fall on each other in perfect alignment. Some people have crowded teeth or very far spaced-out teeth. Orthodontic treatment can straighten teeth and make them evenly spaced.
Lost teeth
Lost teeth create empty space between the teeth which gives a negative tone to your smile. In addition to the unpleasant smile, it also affects your bite and other functions including speech. Replacing the missing teeth are one of the major concerns of smile makeover treatments.
Stained teeth
People who have stained teeth due to whatever reason, be it smoking, use of tobacco, or foods and medication, are in need of smile makeover techniques in a big way because yellowed or browned teeth do not look pleasing and makes the person self-conscious. Even the dental fillings used to fill cavities can be considered as an aesthetic aspect of smile makeover treatment because matching the colour of the dental filing with the neighbouring teeth makes the filling blend with other teeth making it invisible and adding to the attractive smile.
Cracked and chipped teeth
Teeth which have been impacted in an accident can be corrected by sealants and inlays and onlays which improves the aesthetics of the smile. Even when the teeth are smaller or longer than average, it can be corrected by cosmetic dentistry. The smile makeover treatments done by orthodontics also include the shaping of lips and cheeks and lips with maxillofacial surgeries.
Planning the smile makeover with your orthodontic dental professional will take a long discussion where your dentist will discuss all aspects of the smile that you want included or discarded in your smile. He will ask you your idea of a perfect smile. When you describe your idea, he will take note of all the aspects that go into making a smile. There are visible obvious factors that you want corrected/added to your smile. But there are other aspects that go into making a smile engaging which may not be obvious but forms an integral part of the good-looking smile.
The less obvious attributes of a smile include: length of your teeth, smile curve, proportion of your teeth, texture and characterisation of your teeth.
Smile curve
Your smile creates a line from end to end on the border of your upper teeth. The perfect smile has this line in alignment with the lower curve of your lip when you smile. The cosmetic dentist will consider this when shaping your teeth to required length.
Length of your teeth
Long teeth create an appearance of youth. With advancing age, the teeth get worn out and become shorter, which makes gums more prominent while smiling. The cosmetic dentist can reshape the front teeth and make them longer with porcelain veneers, or composite bonding. The gummy smile can also be changed with use of laser technology where the dentist can modify the gumline and make the teeth appear longer.
Proportion of your teeth
There is a sort of proportion in the set up of our teeth. The front two teeth are larger and longer than the other adjoining teeth. Similarly, the size of the canines is proportionately smaller than the front teeth but equal with other teeth. There is this aesthetic attached to the well-proportioned teeth. Your cosmetic dentist will consider these aspects when he will discuss the smile the smile line with you.
Texture and characterisation
Teeth give character to the individual in the sense that they can give a feminine or masculine appearance to your smile. When you are considering an aesthetic appeal with your smile, your dentist will discuss this aspect with you while shortening or lengthening your teeth.
All these aspects of a perfect smile can be incorporated in the smile makeover procedure. You can discuss all the attributes of a perfect smile with your dentist and together you can decide on how much can you achieve because going for cosmetic dentistry procedures for a great smile makeover requires one or more techniques to achieve the desired result.
The dentist may for example have to first remove any decay or disease from your teeth gums before starting the procedure. He will then have to use porcelain or composite veneers to give length to your teeth if they are shorter. He may have to correct fractured tooth with bonding material and may have to apply bonding or inlays and onlays to chipped teeth. He will have to use teeth whitening technology for whitening your stained teeth. If your teeth need to be aligned before going further, he will use aligners and braces to properly spaced-out teeth and correct the bite, be it underbite, overbite or crossbite. If there are missing teeth, he may use dental implants to set up crowns with shape and size that you desire.
Smile makeovers are a team work and your dentist will have to work with orthodontics, cosmetic dentist, artistic dental professional and the lab technicians who will make crown and other accessories according to your need.
The whole procedures may take from a few weeks to many months depending on how much work is required. To get the exact smile you want, the dentist may provide you with a temporary made-up smile to wear and see how you like it.
The digital technology can provide you with an image or a preview to consider how your final smile will look like on you.