How many teeth should a smile makeover actually include?
The number is set by how many teeth are visible when you smile fully, not by a package, for most faces that is eight to ten upper units rather than twenty.
The photograph decides, not the package
We take a photograph at a full, unforced smile and count the teeth that are genuinely visible. In most faces the upper canine to canine plus the first premolars are on display, which is eight to ten units. Some people show as far back as the first molar; others show six teeth and nothing more. Treating fewer teeth than are visible leaves a colour step at the corner of the smile, and treating more than are visible removes healthy enamel for no visible gain.
The dark corners at the sides
The space between the outer surfaces of the upper teeth and the corner of the mouth is what makes a smile look wide or narrow. Restoring only the front six leaves those corners dark, and the result reads as a small block of white teeth in the middle of the face. This is the most common reason a technically acceptable case looks wrong in photographs, and it is solved by extending the design one or two teeth further back, not by making the front teeth wider.
What the lower arch really needs
In a large proportion of cases, nothing. If the lower teeth are sound and reasonably aligned, whitening the lower arch and polishing is enough, and it keeps the lower incisors intact, which matters because they carry the bite. We restore the lower arch when it is genuinely worn, crowded to the point of being visible, or already carrying failed work, not to sell a second arch alongside the first.
The difference, stated plainly
Porcelain laminate veneers are used where enough enamel remains. The visible difference between a well-designed ten-unit case and a twenty-unit case is often nothing at all, while the biological difference is ten teeth of enamel that could have stayed untouched.
The Ones People Actually Ask.
Is a sixteen or twenty tooth Hollywood smile ever the right choice?
Yes, when both arches are genuinely damaged, worn down by grinding, or already covered in old crowns that have failed. It is the wrong choice when it is picked as a package before anyone has looked at which teeth are actually visible.
Can I start with the upper teeth and add the lower arch on a later trip?
Yes, and many patients do. We record the approved shade so a later lower arch can be matched to it, and we design the upper arch around your current lower teeth so it does not look unfinished in the meantime.
More On Dental.
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What Stands Behind The Plan.
