Your Edmonton Invisalign® Provider
Dental Planning
Cosmetic dental work entails more than simply applying a veneer to a tooth or slathering on whitening gel and letting it sit. Your Edmonton dentist should talk to you about your goals and evaluate your current smile. Then they must use the tools at their disposal to try to achieve your objectives.
Highmoor Dental dentists understand that your smile reflects who you are and how you communicate. So we know that there are several factors to consider before embarking on this journey toward a straighter, brighter smile.
How Do Patients Expectations Factor In?
The patient's goals and expectations are the most important factors that our dentists consider before beginning any treatment. We try to understand our patients' primary complaints and concerns so that we can direct our treatment plan toward a successful outcome.
Following a thorough examination, your dentist will discuss treatment options and expected outcomes with you so that you can make an informed treatment decision. This allows you to provide feedback and ask any questions you may have.
With the help of dental technology such as the iTero scanner, our Edmonton dentists can create digital renditions of our patient's smiles and even show them how their treatment will progress. This allows our patients to feel more confident in their treatment plans.
What are the factors dentists consider?
There are several things that your dentist will need to consider when mapping out your treatment plan and visualizing the result. Some of these factors include:
Facial Aesthetics - The overall evaluation of the smile must begin with a visual assessment. Facial features and proportions play a significant role in the appearance of your smile. Your dentist will examine your facial features for asymmetries. Notable symmetry concerns can be an indication of skeletal or growth and development issues that may or may not affect the patient's smiles.
Tooth Position - The current tooth position is an extremely important aspect that must be evaluated. Without proper evaluation, the dentist may attempt to achieve ideal results while the tooth or root is improperly angled or in the wrong position.
Upper Lip Length, Lip Position, Mobility, and Symmetry - When it comes to the appearance of your smile, your lips play an important role because they create the boundary for your smile. Overall lip mobility is simply the movement of the lips at rest to the farthest position that occurs when the patient spontaneously smiles and is proportional to upper lip length. Because a significant portion of the patient population has asymmetry of movement of the upper and lower lips, the overall symmetry of the patient's lip mobility must be assessed. This can result in more teeth and/or gum showing on one side versus the other, creating discord in the patient's overall smile.
Incisal Edge Position - The incisal (front teeth) edge position must also be evaluated against the surrounding tissues as well. Generally, your front teeth should be parallel to your pupils.
Midline - During the smile evaluation, the position of the teeth and the dental midline against the facial midline must be assessed. In addition to the overall angle of the midline, it is critical to assess the relationship of the dental midline to the facial midline. Many people will notice if there are slight differences in the midline angle.
Tooth Proportions - Overall tooth proportions are another key and critically important assessment that must be made by your dentist during the initial examination.
Microesthetics - Your dentist will need to assess and discuss the final colour or shade you want with you. Ideally, they will choose a colour that is both naturally appealing and aesthetically pleasing. The dentist should also communicate with the lab technician about the desired facial surface texture, overall incisal translucency, and additional tooth characteristics such as incisal effects, embrasures, tooth shape, and value and hue variations.