Smile Design - Contemporary Dental Arts

Smile design is the first step in any smile makeover case or full mouth rehabilitation.

To begin the smile design process, the patient comes in, we take extensive clinical photographs and models of their teeth, and then we do an evaluation to determine where the teeth are in the face and where we want them to be. From there we begin creating the design. The design can be created digitally on a computer or it can be done with models and a wax-up on the models. But the whole idea is to create a design that the patient can approve of before it's ever created in their mouth.

Smile design is something that takes more than one visit. On the initial visit, the patient will come in, all the records will be taken, the clinical photographs, the models of their teeth, and all of the appropriate diagnostic information. At that point, the patient goes home and anxiously waits for the smile design.

On the second visit when the patient returns, they have an opportunity to approve of the smile design that we've created while they've been away. Once the approval happens, then we move into the clinical phase of treatment.

That will be the third visit. That would be a clinical visit where we then begin preparing or not preparing the teeth for the new smile design. The preparation visit can be very minimal if we're doing no preparation type veneers, or it can be more extensive. In a more extensive case, we would be preparing the teeth, possibly changing the shape of the gum tissue around the teeth, and the patient would go home with provisional restorations that mimic the smile design.

Once the teeth are prepared and the patient is in provisional restorations, models of those provisional restorations are sent to our aesthetic laboratory and that's where the restorations, the fine porcelain restorations are fabricated. Within a couple of weeks, those restorations come back to our office, and we meet with the patient, and we do a try-in. If all the aesthetic parameters are in place and the patient loves the way the restorations appear, then the restorations are bonded in and the procedure is complete.

On the day that the restorations are finally places, patients are so happy about this visit. Generally speaking, patients return home with their new porcelain restorations, and they function just like natural teeth.

If you want to know more about smile design, please call and schedule a free consultation with myself or with one of my team members.