Mar 19, 20232 min read

The Process of a Complex Smile Makeover

Updated: Apr 24, 2023

The smile makeover below proved to be a complex case because of the many different kinds of restorations that needed to come together to create a natural and seamless smile. This patient had a bad experience with a previous dentist and came to us to improve her dentition.

Below are the steps showing how we plan, digitalise and test the smile on the patient before he/she gets the final restorations. The advantage of this planning is that the end results are predicted, leaving a very small margin for unexpected errors. With this process, the patient is fully engaged in his/her smile design and has the possibility to ask for changes before finalising his/her case.

DOCUMENTATION

A series of photos are taken from the patient. Together with the intra-oral dental scans, we can advance to the planning phase.

PLANNING

These are the dental impressions of the patient's teeth. Nowadays, they are taken with an intra-oral scanner that will create STL files.

Smile Analysis

All of the pictures + scans of the patient are uploaded to the computer. With the help of all of the information collected, we are able to tailor a smile that is specific to all the facial characteristics of the patient.

Design Evaluation

The patient and the dentist will evaluate the integration of the new smile together. The patient can always suggest his changes and it can be rectified directly. Once this step is accepted, we are ready to move to the mock up phase where the patient can see a preview of his end result with the help of a temporary material.

Smile Trial

The patient can evaluate his designed smile live. The advantages of this phase is that the patient can have an idea of the end result. Moreover, the patient can always suggest what he wants to change. The dentist will perform the changes, take new pictures/scans, and send the new information to the dental laboratory. Thanks to this step, we can obtain more predictable results since we made the changes before receiving the permanent veneers/crowns.

PREPARATION

Thanks to digital planning, we are able to define how much from the tooth we need to prepare and how much gum contouring needs to be done.

This crown lengthening guide helped contour the gum to the planned final outcome.

This insert helped us do a flapless crown lenghtening which will allow us to respect the biological width of the tooth.

Teeth are prepared and ready for impression.

IMPRESSION

An intraoral scanner is a device that is used to capture a direct optical impression. The scanner projects a light source onto the area to be scanned. The images are captured by imaging sensors and are processed by scanning software, which then produces a 3D surface model.