Creating a Naturally Beautiful Smile

 

The following information is part of an article by Steve Ratcliff, DDS, Resident Faculty at the Pankey Institute.

As part of your comprehensive evaluation, you and your dentist may have had a discussion regarding the appearance of your teeth and changes you would like to make. This may have been as simple as wanting to lighten your teeth or as complex as wanting to change the position and size of your teeth.

After spending time with all the diagnostic aids gathered during the evaluation process, your dentist will make suggestions on how best to achieve your esthetic wishes for your smile. The best dentists understand that comprehensive dentistry includes creating the most esthetic result possible and that by restoring the proper form to the dentition, naturally beautiful results will follow.

The explosion in new technologies gives dentists wonderful techniques and materials to create that natural beauty in a manner that was not achievable a few short years ago. Your dentist may suggest any number of modalities to help you maximize the result you desire.

If you are wondering what the possibilities might be for yourself, the best dentists can help create a vision for you as you discover together what might work for you. Part of that vision might be a "wax-up" or wax mock-up of what is possible in your mouth. It might be pictures of other individuals who have similar issues. You might spend time looking at images of your face and smile and altering those images until they reflect what you would like to achieve. However it might happen, it is important to understand what you most want and then determine how it can happen.

The results can be spectacular.