You probably know what you don’t like about your smile. David Cashel knows how to make you love your smile. There are tried and tested principles used to create beautiful smiles. As always, the most important thing is what you want so sometimes rules are made to be broken. Your individual facial aesthetics are taken into account too, so you have a smile which is made for your face.
Here are some of the more important principles:
- Symmetry: symmetry across the midline of the face is very important. We evenly balance the teeth to create symmetry, or the illusion of symmetry.
- Horizontal alignment: your smile should be aligned so that it is parallel to the horizontal or the eye line.
- Smile line: the lower edge of your upper teeth should follow the natural curve of your lower lip for a youthful smile as older, worn teeth tend to be flat.
- Gum line: the gum line should echo your upper lip line. Think of your lips as being like a frame for your beautiful smile.
- Golden proportions : the “golden proportions” of 1.6:1:0.6 are found in nature and art. Leonardo da Vinci used them when drawing and the Egyptians used them when building the Pyramids. In smile design, they help work out the ideal ratio of the visible width of the front six teeth.
- Tooth proportions: there are also guidelines for the width to height ratio of each tooth.
- Smile width: smiles look better if you can see the teeth first molar to first molar without any gaps or dark shadows.
- Embrasures: these are the triangular spaces at the biting edge of your teeth. They increase in size towards the back of your mouth. Without them, teeth look too squared off and unnatural.