What is the single most similar trait almost all actors and actresses have across Hollywood, Bollywood or anywhere in the world? Straight white teeth and a beautiful smile!
Perfect, white, symmetrical teeth is associated with a beautiful smile. A beautiful smile makes an attractive face and even babies love attractive faces! Kids are more likely to trust an attractive face according to research by Science Daily in 2013. The good news is that anyone and everyone can have an attractive smile with a smile makeover.
What Is A Smile Makeover?
A smile makeover is the process of perfecting a smile by improving the colour, shape and position of your teeth according to your wishlist.
A smile makeover can include:
All these options give you many choices to redo your smile. You will be able to explore which ones suit you best depending on the issues you have.
What Are The Benefits Of A Smile Makeover?
Regardless of how your original teeth look, smile makeovers allow you to redesign your teeth to your desired look. We have not had a patient who regretted undertaking the journey to beautiful teeth and a Hollywood-worthy smile. Often, their only regret is the time they wasted thinking and hesitating about it.
A smile makeover can be a major confidence booster as it allows you to smile confidently. A smile makeover may be a good option if the look of your smile is something that bothers you, or affects your confidence in laughing or speaking.
What Is Smile Design In Dentistry?
Have you heard of the golden ratio or divine proportion?
During the Renaissance period, mathematicians started observing patterns in nature around them. From seashell patterns, the veins within the leaf, to the florets of a flower, there existed a constant ratio of sizes. Italian mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci used this to develop a series of numbers that relate to the golden ratio of 1.618. It appeared that when this ratio appeared, things became naturally attractive to our eyes.
Da Vinci made many beautiful paintings including Mona Lisa based on this. Many other disciplines such as design, architecture, photography use this “magic” number as well.
So, the same golden ratio is applied in smile design. It’s known as the Golden Proportion. One important aspect of aesthetic dentistry is to relate the successive width of anterior teeth to the Golden Proportion.
It is thought that your smile appears symmetrical and attractive when your teeth display and teeth size follow this rule.
Thus, a well-trained dentist will use photos and models of your teeth to recreate your smile in aesthetic proportions to match your lips and face shape. They will also use your interpupillary line and midline of your face as landmarks to place your dental midline and to level the plane of your front teeth.
In the near future, digital developments can allow dentists to morph the designed smile onto the patient by looking into a virtual mirror. You can see your new smile superimposed on your face when you see the reflection of yourself smiling!
What To Expect With A Smile Makeover?
Depending on your choice, your smile makeover journey may take only 1 session with teeth whitening, 2 weeks for porcelain veneers or up to 2 years for braces. The whole treatment process is packaged from start to end.
The most instant smile makeover option for life-changing results is porcelain veneers. They are highly customisable, so you can change the shape and position of your teeth. The newer porcelain materials can mimic your natural teeth’s translucency and strength, and you can customise the colour to what you like. Of course, we will examine you to ensure you are suitable for veneers before proceeding.
The process starts with photos and copies of your teeth to create a mockup of your potential smile based on your needs analysis, function and facial aesthetics, similar to how an architect would create a 3D model of his drawings.
We will then create an aesthetic mock-up. This helps you envision the end result on your teeth in real-life. Through this process, we can discuss what teeth shape and length is beautiful to you. An aesthetic try-in may also be done intraorally.
When you’ve confirmed the look you want, we will prepare the teeth so you can receive your new beautiful smile in porcelain veneers. Cerec technology shortens the process from the traditional 2 weeks to just 5 days, as it digitally designs and mills the veneers. This means you can get your veneers fitted in sooner.
Should You Consider A Smile Makeover?
You’re not suitable if:
You have active gum disease, rampant decay or are decay-prone, and have poor oral hygiene. You will need to go through a disease-control phase before you’re suitable for smile makeover options.
We have a hygienist who helps with teeth cleaning and will educate you on the proper methods of teeth brushing, flossing and home-care. We often place our patients on a customised dental maintenance programme. This ensures ensure they are equipped with the help and skills to maintain their beautiful smile.
You’re suitable if:
You’ve wished for a better smile, dreamt about walking into a room and having your smile light up the room, or if you hate your smile in your selfie, I would say “Consider a smile makeover!”
All the time spent thinking about it could have been time spent in treatment. A beautiful smile improves confidence tremendously. It’s also an esteem booster and has helped many of my patients socially, romantically and in their careers.
How To Take Care Of Your Teeth After A Smile Makeover
After you’ve received your new smile, you should always keep to our recommended review schedule. It allows us to ensure your veneers are well-fitted for function and speech, and also assess how you’ve been taking care of them at home.
Porcelain veneers are highly durable, but lack of care can shorten their lifespan. You should brush and floss your teeth as normal to care for them. This ensures you have healthy gums to frame your veneers. Without proper care, gums can become inflamed or infected. Red, swollen, or bleeding gums do not make a pretty smile.
You should avoid
- Biting your nails.
- Using your front teeth to bite into hard, brittle foods such as ice, chocolate straight out of the fridge, or the shell of crustaceans.
- Tearing a wrapper open with your front teeth.
With proper care, you can enjoy your beautiful new teeth with ease and confidence.
In Summary
With today’s advancements in dentistry, you have many options for re-doing your smile. You can explore porcelain veneers, professional whitening or braces to achieve the results you desire. Whether it’s the fastest option (veneers or whitening) or braces, you can change the way your teeth looks and feels for renewed confidence.
If you’re looking to design your smile and get started on your smile journey, you can book an appointment with our friendly dentists today.
