How To Talk To Your Dentist About Improving Your Smile

If you want to talk to your dentist about changing your smile, then follow our guide to help you build up a picture of what you want to achieve.

What aspects of your smile would you change?

The more you can tell the dentist about your current smile the better. All of us have a picture in our heads of the way we would like to look, the trick is to work with your dentist so that you both share the same picture. The right place to start is with your current smile, assessing the features that you do and do not like.

When you smile do you feel that you show

• too much or not enough tooth
• too much or not enough gum
• do the teeth look worn on an angle.

Colour

• colour of the teeth generally – are they too dark, too light.
• colour of individual teeth, do you have one or two darker teeth, are there blemishes on the teeth if so which tooth and where

Position

• do your teeth stick out too far or are they too far back
• are they rotated or squint
• do they cross over or appear crowded

Wear and Tear

• are your teeth chipped and broken
• do they look very short
• do they have very visible fillings
• are there missing teeth

Take the 2 foot test

Stand 2 feet back from a mirror and smile. This is what most people see when they look at you. Thus, a tiny blemish, which is only visible when you pull your lip back and stand right up against the mirror, is probably not so important as something that you can see from 2 feet away. Another useful thing to do is to take a friend into your confidence and ask them to answer the questions above for you. Compare their answers to yours and see how they match up, you might be surprised.

Make some notes!

Once you have answered all of the questions above then you are in an excellent position to give the dentist the information he / she needs to help you. With each of the problems that you have listed, the dentist will be able to propose a solution that will help you to get the smile of your dreams.