Digital Smile Design

Cosmetic dentistry can be an exceptionally challenging discipline within dentistry. In fact, there is very little that is taught at the dental school level, so most cosmetic dentistry education is through various dental teaching programs throughout the world. What makes cosmetic dentistry so challenging is the planning and execution of it all – creating a smile that looks natural while respecting the biology of your teeth, gums, and bone as well as the proportions of the face.

Smile Design involves the use of photos, videos, and models to create the ideal smile with respect to size, shape, position, and proportion. It is a very challenging technique that can be done digitally through a computer program, manually through what is called a direct mock-up of the mouth, or through the lab by way of an indirect wax-up done by either Dr. Seddon, General Dentist, or a lab technician. Every case is different and would be benefit more from one technique over the other. As technology improves, we will become more and more focussed on the digital aspects.

Digital Smile Design is a technique that Dr. Seddon, General Dentist, has extensive training in through Dr. Christian Coachman of Brazil. It uses both videos and photos in a software program to plan the new smile. From this, we are able to create a digital wax-up, which creates the ideal smile based on various esthetic principles. Once we have the digital wax-up, we are able to print up the wax-up with a 3D printer and then transfer this to your mouth so that you can test-drive the smile and see how it looks and feels in the mouth!

If you would like to test-drive your smile, feel free to come in for a consultation with our amazing treatment coordinator, Gillian!