Orthodontics is the speciality that specifically deals with improving the aesthetics of your smile. Physical attractiveness plays an important role in how we view ourselves and how we are viewed by others.
Our smile is a major determinant of the overall physical attractiveness and at Ely Smiles we have only specialists at a Consultant Level providing this specialism of dentistry.
It is a known fact that people mainly focus on other people’s eyes and smiles during interpersonal interaction, with little time spent on other facial features. For the general public, the smile ranks second only to the eyes as the most important feature in facial attractiveness highlighting the importance of having a nice smile.
Our Smiles have different components that render them attractive. One of the most important factors is the buccal corridors.
Buccal corridors are defined as the space between the buccal surfaces of the maxillary teeth and the corners of the mouth during a smile. Their size plays a very important role. It is for this reason that at Ely Smiles we place a lot of importance in expanding the upper arch to a reasonable level as broader smiles with no Buccal Corridors are more attractive than smiles with Buccal Corridors.
Other important factors to improve smile attractiveness is the symmetry between your left and right parts of your smile. The more symmetrical the nice and more attractive your smile is.
As we age our perception of what we deem attractive remains unchanged and therefore the smile attractiveness does not change as we age.
At our practice we first start with a consultation to investigate the reason for a Narrow Smile. This would lead to an increased in “negative mouth space” and hence an increased buccal corridor space. This can be caused by the width of the top jaw, misalignment of the upper teeth and/or missing teeth. This can in turn lead to unsupported muscles of the cheeks and lips eventually giving a more aged appearance and hence a less attractive smile. This also creates an illusion that the front teeth look too prominent or they stick out as the front teeth take prominence in your smile and are more noticeable than if your top arch was symmetrically rounded from front to back.
At Ely Smiles we have several appliances that could help us manage such circumstances and your cooperation with wearing them and maintaining good level of cleaning is paramount for success. We are also able to place wire of big-enough dimensions to allow this correction. If your case is one where your jaw is too narrow, we need to widen it in order to make room for the teeth to be properly spaced. The only true, effective way to do this is with the use of palatal expanders.
We have published various other blogs about these type of expanders however if you have any queries about this please do not hesitate to contact us.
Aesthetics and beauty is a personal matter however it is important that you are happy with your new smile and more importantly notice an improvement with the treatment chosen.
