Is your smile ready for the new Instagram trends?

Undoubtedly, one of the places where we can find the most smiles nowadays is in the social media. Instagram, perhaps because it is the most visual, is the queen of these when it comes to the most perfect and envied smiles of all. But the perfect smile has no secretsonly has a number of specific characteristics.

How many of these qualities does your smile have? Is your smile ready to show off on instagram? Here are some of the characteristics shared by all these smiles and that I take into consideration when it is my turn to create one.

1. COLOUR:

All attractive smiles feature the white teeth. Dark teeth are considered unattractive and a sign of old age, so it is important to be clear about the ideal colour, and a "colour map" of the teeth, as the initial colour is often not homogeneous, and it is important to achieve this.

For me, colour is one of the most difficult parts of creating a smile, which is why I like to define it tooth by tooth, person by person, with a shade guide that I look at myself: you need a very trained eye to achieve flawless results. In cases of doubt, our intraoral scanner allow us to make "colour maps" of a tooth with high precisionAll efforts are too little, and technology makes our work much easier in case of doubt... but it is not enough on its own.

Colour map of a smile

2. ALIGNMENT AND SPACING

A beautiful smile has all its aligned teeth. Whether there is a lack of space and the teeth are overcrowded, or if there is space and gaps between them, I usually ask my patients to undergo orthodontics to optimise the final result. A few years ago they would always tell me "I don't want to wear irons", but fortunately now it is not necessary to do so, thanks to the use of the clear alignersThese allow us to improve the position of the teeth, avoid their "crowding" or close part of the spaces between them, if there are any.

Precisely for this reason I was part of the first promotion in Spain of dentists certified in Invisalign GOThe aligner system, a system of aligners designed specifically for aesthetic dentistry, allows us to perform short treatments (months) and avoid "filing" the teeth. Today I can say that my patients do not stop enjoying the aligners and that, more and more, my experience helps me to understand that this will be what most dentists will be doing in a few years... although for me it would be unthinkable to do otherwise today.

Patient with Invisalign

3. DENTAL EXPOSURE

By this I mean the amount of tooth seen with the mouth at rest, with a "social" smile and with a "clean laugh". 

- In the first case, ideally, the lips "seal" naturallywithout the patient exerting force.

- In the second, that the 100% of the tooth.

- In the third, which is see 1 to 3 mm of gumdepending on whether he is a man
(less) or a woman (more).

Three positions of dental exposure

In addition, I need to analyse the amount of tooth that is shows by "speaking". If nothing is visible, it gives the impression that the smile is "aged", and the listener may have the perception (without realising it) that we are hiding something, which leads to mistrust in the receiver of our messages. 

Assessment of dental exposure during speecha

All of this is something that can be right from the start... or allow for some improvement to achieve a "perfect" resultThis is something we can achieve with a little patience and study. 

4. SMILE CURVE

It is a imaginary line defining the edges of the upper teeth, from left to right. It should coincide with the line defining the lower lip, and is often used to determine the total length of the teeth. 

That would be the ideal situationIt can also be "straight", due to wear and tear over time, and "inverted", when the curve of the teeth is opposite to that of the lips.

If you liked this first part of the article and you don't want to wait for the second part to find out more about all the characteristics of a beautiful smile, you can now download my book "How instagramers smile". by clicking here. You will also learn about all the benefits of feeling good about your smileMyths about cosmetic dentistry, all the treatments and much more.