Does Your Face Shape and Denture Match ?

            DOES YOUR DENTURE & TEETH FIT YOUR FACE ?

                                       By: F.Spiva Jr. CDT MDT CD

                                                           The Denture Pro

                                                           Copyright 2009.

 

    I can't tell you the number of times patients that came to my office with either "no" teeth, or a denture that was just simply wrong for them, wanted a dental appliance that balanced with their natural physical appearance and facial structure.

 

    After creating a dental appliance, or set of appliances, many patients would be astounded at how natural they looked. That astonishment had nothing to do with how white the teeth, how even they lined up, or if you will, pretty the teeth looked by themselves...The reason they looked so good was because the tooth shape, size, color and placement in the appliance was matched to their natural facial features and other influences, such as hair, skin, eyes and personality.

 

    Truly successful dental appliances must meet three criteria, Fit, Function and Appearance, in that order. For purposes of this discussion I will only deal with appearance.  As you sit in front of the person who is going to create your dental appliance, especially those that are removable and replace all of your extracted natural teeth, or just the front ones., that person should be mentally taking notes and writing down specific observations. Those observations should include the shape of your face, the color of your skin, hair, eyes, and an evaluation of your personality. Are you very reserved, even mannered, or do you exhibit a very outgoing personality. All those observations should be used to select the proper denture tooth, it's shape and it's color. The personality observation is used to influence how the teeth are arranged. The size of the denture teeth are determined by specific physical measurements and oral structure landmarks.

 

    Let's talk about what shape your denture teeth need to be to balance with your facial features. Say you look straight at the face of a friend,  take a pencil, and on a piece of paper, draw a line that represents the curve of the hairline across the forehead from temple to temple. Now extend that line down the left cheek, around the chin, and back up to the right side end of the hairline.......You should now have a line that depicts an outline of the persons face. Now, turn that outline drawing upside down, hold it next to the persons face, have them smile and you see that the outline of their face is the same outline of either of the two center upper front teeth.....So, if you came to my office with "no" teeth, I would use this facial criteria to decide what shape denture tooth would best balance with your facial features. This formula will prove correct with over 95 % of the population.

 

    Now, how about the size of the teeth best suited for you. First, the gums themselves will provide the best and most precise landmarks by which to select tooth size. However, those landmarks may not be totally correct if age shrinkage has occurred, or oral disease has changed them....Gum size and shape still must be a consideration in those instances, but other criteria can be taken into account. The other criteria can be combined with the physical characteristics and between the two, the best choice can be achieved.

 

    If you will hold a straight edge, such as a small ruler, vertically next to the outer edge of the nose nostril flange so that it extends down past the mouth and have the person smile, 90% of the time the edge of the ruler will pass down though the center of what we call the eye tooth...or Cuspid. What that tells you is that the distance between the outer edges of the nostrils, side to side...is the distance that should match the distance between the center of the Cuspid's...There are (6) six front teeth and the Cuspid's are the ones at each end of the six. You now know how wide the combination of the front six teeth should be to properly fill and balance the mouth from side to side.

 

    How about the length of the front teeth. To begin with, the distance between the jaws, when they are in a balanced centric position, must be determined. In other words, when the back denture teeth close together so they touch in proper occlusion...the jaws should be in a balanced position. While a denture professional will know a number of ways to determine that proper position, there is a very old, often called , unprofessional way to get an idea if the jaws are in a balanced position when the teeth come together. Jaws that are either "Over-closed" or "Open to far", can create slight to serious pain and jaw joint damage.

 

    To check your jaw balance yourself and get a reasonable idea if it's close to correct, do the following: Begin by taking a pencil an placing a small "dot" in the center of the end of your nose. Now place a small "dot" in the center of the most forward end of your chin....Now, using the ruler, measure the distance from the center of one eye pupil to the other eye pupil. Now, close you teeth together so that they touch in a normal bite.....Measure the distance from the dot of the nose down to the dot on the chin.....If that distance is less than the distance between the eye pupil measurement, it's likely the jaws are "over-closed", if on the other hand the distance is greater, it indicates the jaws are being held to far "open" when the teeth come together. In either of those cases, the jaws can be damaged and the facial features distorted from a natural attractive appearance.

 

    How about tooth color? Dental appliance tooth color must do one of two things, match existing teeth it sits between, or match the persons features that best compliment the tooth color. Your skin and eyes dictate the best tooth color to balance your appearance.  Dental appliance teeth that are to white scream out "FALSE TEETH". Dental appliance teeth that are to dark scream out...."UGLY".  Dental appliance teeth that are balanced with your skin and eye color don't scream out anything, they just make you look balanced, natural and great. Dark skinned people don't have natural exceptionally "white" teeth....90% of the time their teeth are two to three shades darker than a light skinned person, it's the contrast that makes their teeth look so white. Hair color can cause the same contrast issues with skin shade. What someone else has is no rule to use when creating an appliance for you.

 

    OK, how about the tooth arrangement? If you really, and I mean "REALLY", want to look both good and natural, you don't want the dental appliance teeth set up like a picket fence. While dental appliance teeth, crowns and veneers are created to mimic the iridescence and reflective properties of natural teeth, they look good in a group, but on an individual bases they are still lacking. If you set dental appliance teeth in a totally straight line, snugged  up next to one another, and you laugh, and smile, the light rays hit the tooth surface and bounce straight back making the teeth almost seem to be just one big expanse of teeth. If however, the teeth are arranged with just enough angle to cause the light rays to bounce from one tooth to the next, the refection is like the reflections from the facets of a diamond. That type of reflection allows each tooth to express it's own beauty and independence.

 

    If an expression of your personality is added to the arrangement you will look natural in the most positive way. That is accomplished by taking the teeth and maybe making one slightly overlap another at the chewing edge, or it may require making one or more of the front teeth a bit shorter or longer compared to the rest of the teeth....A competent creator of dental appliances will know what angles or twist to put on a tooth to achieve a personality effect. When all of the above factors are brought into play and skillfully assembled, a dental appliance should not draw undue attention, but instead blend with all your features....and if the fit and function has also been achieved, the result is very close to your feeling as though you still have healthy functioning natural teeth that add to your confidence and great appearance.

 

    A denture or partial denture that is properly created will provide facial tissue support. On the other hand, if you fail to get your first dental appliance correctly constructed, or you fail to have existing dental appliances and the oral structures checked on at least a yearly bases, facial tissue distortion can take place that even a newly created dental appliance can not correct. You can't achieve a face lift though dental appliances when facial tissues have been allowed to sag and become distorted due to poor health practices or ignoring preventative dental appliance exams.

 

    If you have comments or questions about any of the information offered, feel free to write The Denture Pro. at thedenturepro@aol.com