What is Smile Design?

There is a lot of excitement these days in dentistry about smile enhancement, veneers and in general dental esthetics.  How do you know what is possible for your smile and what is Smile Design?

Smile Design is a protocol of managing the shapes, contours and color of the teeth as they appear in a smile and are proportioned in an individual’s face.  This protocol and management needs to balance with the elements of function and health that are specific for each individual in order to achieve a successful result.

A trained Dawson Dentist has the skills to marry the parameters of esthetics with the critical elements of health and function.  This is accomplished in a multi-step process beginning with an understanding of what the patient’s goals are.  Next, through an evaluation of a series of very specific photographs taken at reproducible angles and magnification, the dentist begins to design a vision of the appropriate changes to the smile that would create the most natural beautiful result.  This represents our “2 dimensional” plan.   If our goal is to create a beautiful smile, then the frame to that smile are the gums that drape the teeth and the lips that encircle them.  These changes are then tested out through the use of mounted diagnostic models.  The dentist utilizes 2 sets of models.  The first set severs as the baseline and will remain untouched. The second set of models are then manipulated and shaped, often with the use of dental wax to see if these changes can be accomplished and designed to meet the functional and health needs of the patient.  This creates our “3 Dimensional Dental Blue Print” that will allow the process to be predictably reproduced in the patient’s smile.

The advantage to this Smile Design Protocol is the creation of a system that yields predictable results.  It also provides a great opportunity for the patient to visualize what the final results will optimally be before any treatment is initiated.