What Traits Make a Smile Beautiful?

Everyone wants to have an attractive smile. Thankfully, advances in cosmetic dentistry have made having a beautiful smile quite accessible to people everywhere. However, it makes sense to understand what people tend to find beautiful before pursuing cosmetic treatments. Here is a list of traits the human brain assesses when making a cosmetic judgment about someone’s smile.

Discover the Power of Tooth Color

One of the first things you probably notice about someone else’s smile is what color it is. Barring certain genetic conditions, human teeth are naturally a slightly yellowish shade of off-white. Unfortunately, decades of smoking, poor oral hygiene, or even just consuming foods and liquids that are high in dyes and pigments can leave your teeth with stains and discoloration. Thankfully, your dentist can provide you with cosmetic treatments like direct bonding, teeth whitening, and veneers that can bleach out or cover up these stains. These can give you a shiny white smile in a matter of weeks at most!

Your Alignment Speaks Volumes

After tooth color, you’ll probably notice how someone’s teeth line up with one another. For most people, the ideal configuration has each tooth neatly in its place without any one overlapping another. However, many people’s teeth have noticeable gaps, overbites, underbites, crossbites, open bites, or overjets. While these are often treated with orthodontics, in some cases your dentist can use direct bonding to fill in spaces or veneers to completely reshape your smile into a better alignment.

The Buccal Corridor Frames It All

The buccal corridor is the space between your teeth and the corner of your mouth when you smile, and these spaces are as important to your smile’s beauty as your teeth and gums. In no small way, these spaces define how your smile fits in with the rest of your face. If they are too big, it can look like you are missing teeth, but if they are too small, your teeth can appear crowded or oversized. Veneers and other restorations can help reshape the buccal corridor into a more ideal position.

Cosmetic dentistry only gets more effective as technology advances. Consulting with your dentist can help determine what cosmetic dental treatments can do to beautify your smile.

About the Author

Dr. Mark Stapleton graduated with his Doctor of Dental Surgery from the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry in 2005. His Advanced Education in General Dentistry residency at the University of Florida College of Dentistry focused on complex restorative dentistry including dental implant placement and cosmetic dentistry. His office in Chaska, MN provides general, restorative, emergency, and cosmetic dentistry such as direct bonding, teeth whitening, veneers, and metal-free restorations. For more information on what cosmetic dentistry can do for you, contact his office online or dial (952) 448-2868.