Dennis Mihalka D.D.S. - Life Smile

"Wow! What a beautiful smile!"

It's what we all love to hear. Some are blessed with great smiles, while most of us have compromised smiles that can be enhanced in some way.

So, what can be done to help make your smile contagious?

Smiles vary as much as fingerprints...shapes and alignment of teeth, shade or discolored teeth, large cavities or old defective fillings, broken teeth, mismatched crowns or plain old worn teeth.

To develop your smile's potential, a very unique and personalized Smile Design can be placed on your own teeth. It's entirely reversible, yet shows in real time what can be done to create the Smile of Your Dreams.

Most important in a Smile Design is to understand what you'd like to accomplish...no one knows what your ideal choice should look like as well as you. After listening to your wishes, we'll carefully evaluate your smile...not just your teeth but many aspects of what can make it awesome.

Ultimately our mutual goal is to accomplish this with the least amount of work possible. Simple is always best...although, it's not always possible.

• Amazingly, many smiles are greatly enhanced with a professional whitening (see our web site article on Whitening Teeth). So the first consideration is to evaluate the color or shade of your teeth for uniformity in shade from one tooth to the next.
• After noting the shade, the gums around the teeth are observed. They are essentially the picture frame of your teeth...healthy, pink, firm and the appropriate amount of gum showing in your smile are very important to the complete Smile Design.
• Have you ever noticed a "gummy" smile? Too much gum showing can be distracting from an otherwise nice smile. Health of gums...lack of infection, inflammation and swollenness, are not only important to the final smile design, but are critical to the longevity of treatment as well as in keeping teeth. All these issues are considered the foundation of any smile design.

Defects of teeth are next on the list of important considerations in developing a Smile Design.

• Mis-matched crowns, obvious old fillings, fractures, chipped or broken teeth are considered. However there are other issues to a successful Smile Design.
• For instance: small, rounded teeth result in a smile that is softer and meek, while large, more square-shaped teeth present a bold and outgoing personality.
• Femininity can be enhanced with softened curves and size variations with subtle shade characterization.
• A masculine smile is accomplished with more square teeth at lengths that are similar. Masculine teeth tend to have an edge that shows modest wear and are somewhat straight. Shades will have more character and emphasis.

Of course there are many variations and mixes in all aspects of a smile.

• Other design considerations include the age of a smile. Obviously, a worn smile would appear to be more aged, while edges with little wear and differentiation of teeth infers a younger smile and a youthful appearance.
• With these and other considerations, you might decide what impact you'd like to have your smile create: feminine, masculine, older...younger, strong... soft, aggressive or passive impact, brilliant impact or beautifully natural. It's your choice

Spaces between teeth accentuate each individual tooth and draw attention to them instead of the overall feeling of the smile.

• It is like a black outline around an object that accentuates the object, while a soft edge helps blend objects to become part of the scene.
• Most often folks don't like spaces between teeth or another condition called "black triangles". Here the spaces are between teeth, due to lost gum contours or teeth that significantly vary in width from the neck area of a tooth to its contact area. This leaves a space that is difficult for gums to fill, leaving these distracting “dark triangles.” The good news is that these can be restored very effectively with conservative treatment.

How does the smile or arch form fill the space between the corners of the mouth and spaces inside the cheeks?If the arch is too narrow, usually from small or missing teeth, a distracting dark corridor appears. Even though it seems to present a challenge to correct this situation, conservative treatment with very minimal tooth preparation can resolve this condition beautifully with either veneers or bonding.

Often, a very critical issue is overlooked...a smile makeover that created an abrupt difference between the restored teeth and the adjacent natural teeth.

• Most of us have seen an obvious Smile Makeover with a marked contrast in shade, contour, length or shape making the attempt of a smile makeover very obvious. This is hardly the impact anyone would wish to occur.
• There are very helpful guidelines to follow that will minimize the transition from restored teeth to natural. The eye does not easily perceive the transition if it occurs in appropriate locations.
• A general rule is that the least visible results will involve pairs of teeth beginning with two centrals, or laterals, both centrals and laterals...never the front six teeth as the break between the eye teeth and back teeth is very distracting. With this said, an effective Smile Design will include 2, 4, 8, 10, or even 12 teeth, depending upon how large and wide one's smile appears.

Have you observed a singer with shiny metal or black fillings in the back teeth? It creates a distraction from what otherwise would be an acceptable smile. In this case, consideration must be made as to which teeth can be seen in a specific person's expression.

• Shorter folks tend to show more of their lower back teeth and, conversely, taller folks show more upper posterior teeth.
• As we age, and we all eventually do, the upper lip becomes less taught, resulting in a longer upper lip that covers the upper front teeth while accentuating the lower teeth. In consideration of this, it is always an enhancement for more mature adults to have some conservative show of upper teeth edges. It is always amazing how this one small consideration enhances a mature smile, making it look younger.
• Along with tissues, the location of teeth will either support lips or not. Lips that are too full are distracting, as are under-supported lips. Soft tissues play a very important role in the finished Smile Design.

In our practice a Smile Design consists of all the above considerations combined with the actual application of appropriate shade of materials that are applied to each tooth, but not bonded, so they can be easily removed.

• Beginning with the front teeth, materials are added to establish length
• Then shapes and sizes of teeth, as well as placement to correct uneven or crooked teeth, are determined
• Consideration for function, speech patterns, smile and lip relationships and black spaces inside the cheeks are all part of this design.
• Once the design is completed, a mirror is provided for the patient to see the result and make any suggestions. Most often the single most exclamation is...WOW! It must be said that this is one of the great moments of dentistry.
• If any adjustments are necessary, they are made with the approval of the patient.
• Then photographs are taken, as well as impressions, to be able to have two and three dimensional views of the new Smile Design. These are critical in completing the finished smile as well as the temporaries.
• To finish the Smile Design and to assist the patient in the decision process, before and after photographs are presented to the patient for consideration and to share with family and friends.

A true Smile Design consists of many components, with special emphasis on the patient's input for the Smile of their Dreams.

The Art and Science of dentistry provide the means with which to produce this dream smile. Fortunately, the advances in dentistry now make Smile Makeovers possible. They can be developed to meet the physical and emotional considerations of the patient.

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