Secret Code in Dental Aesthetics!

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Fibonacci series we remember from the novel “Da Vinci Code” is also used in dentistry…

It seems that the days where people used to visit the dentist’s office just to chew better are over.  However, cosmetic dentistry is still not properly taught in schools -throughout the world- or not yet recognized as a field of specialty. On the other hand, front teeth produced by using the “golden ratio” result in great admiration by patients almost all the time.

Facial beauty cannot be evaluated as a whole without incorporating the lips and teeth. So, before any intervention is performed on soft tissues, the bone structure underneath these soft tissues should also be fixed.

Again, a complete facial beauty may not be achieved where only the fixing of teeth is considered as far as dental aesthetics is concerned.  All these interconnected factors can actually be explained based on the golden rule.

What is Golden Ratio?

One should know about the Fibonacci series to comprehend the meaning of “golden ratio”. Leonardo Fibonacci is a mathematician who lived in Italy in 12th century. Fibonacci discovered during a mathematical study that the ratio of the numbers following each other in a sequential rule have the same ratio.  The number he found existed in many natural systems, resulting in causing the number be so famous.  This number is known as the “golden ratio”.

The first number value of the sequence is 0 and each sequential element is found by taking the sum of the values of two immediate previous elements, so it increments as follows: 0, 1, 1(1+0), 2(1+1), 3(2+1), 5(3+2), 8(5+3), 13(8+5),21(13+8)…

The initial numbers of the sequence:
0, 1, 1, 2 ,3 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, 1597, 2584, 4181, 6765

For instance, the last number of the sequence is the sum of the immediate preceding two numbers. In further elements of this sequence, the ratio of an element to the immediate preceding one yields a number approximately equal to 1.618 (1:0.618), which is called as the Golden Ratio.  We can surprisingly encounter with the geometrical expansions of this sequence within the nature in certain areas.

For instance, it is possible to see this expansion in the cross-section of the image of hurricane “Irene” as captured from the sky and that of a shellfish, or in a daisy or even in the bones of human hand. And even in the most famous painting ever, the “Mona Lisa”…

Application of Golden Ratio on Teeth and Face:

Everyone would desire to have a nice smile for sure. To have a “nice smile”, there should be a logical ratio between the teeth color, form as well as the lips and the face.  For instance, teeth produced for women having rounder shapes, the incisor edges of two frontal teeth being visible under the lips, even while at rest, would give a more feminine appearance.    For male patients, canines are designed sharper and incisors more of square-like and all these would affect the appearance and first impression unpredictably.

Many patients and dentists have admitted that more aesthetic results can be achieved if which teeth to be exposed and to what extent during smiling is calculated with the golden ratio. At laboratory stage, these factors should be studied on the impressions prepared by using the measurements obtained from the patient and they should be tested carefully before being implemented on the teeth.

It seems that the days where people used to visit the dentist’s office just to chew better are over.. However, cosmetic dentistry is still not properly taught in schools -throughout the world- or not yet recognized as a field of specialty. On the other hand, front teeth produced by using the “golden ratio” result in great admiration by patients almost all the time.

For calculation of the widths of upper incisor teeth which determine the smile line, allowing a visibility rate of 1.6 for the 1st incisor, 1 for the 2nd one and 0.6 for the canine tooth on frontal posture of the patient yields quite pleasant results.

However, regardless of the rate or ratio being used, since patients’ expectations can differ so much that we can never say these techniques are perfectly correct for every lower face (lips-teeth and chin point). Merely, it is very important to use them in general as initial criteria.

Although mathematical and geometrical measures such as the golden ratio are significant/valid, we could not decide about the beauty of a poem or a musical piece by using numbers and measurements, and it would be just as wrong to evaluate physical beauty using such fixed patterns as well.

Who should and who should not have this implementation?

Persons with broken, colored, stained teeth or teeth with worn out restorations, unsatisfied with their old crowns and those who have a crooked-irregular and disproportional frontal teeth structure are suitable for this implementation . If you have perfectly health teeth with only minor separations or irregularities, you should think twice before deciding to have this implementation. Because the procedure is a permanent one an there is no return back.

If the patient suffers from grinding or clenching teeth, gingival diseases, tight or covered closures (about which your dentist would inform you), then the situation will be evaluated in more detail and these disorders should be eliminated as the first task.

What criteria should be observed during the production stage?

Changing the teeth and the smile usually takes 3-4 appointments and around one week. You will have temporary teeth while these procedures are performed, which you should take care of in the same way you do with your own teeth. It is important for patients not to bite hard fruits, such as apples, quinces, with their frontal temporary teeth.  Eventually your dentist will be performing multiple trials during the production of your teeth, which means that your temporary teeth would be taken off and reattached for multiple times, so they will not be bonded very firmly.

What kind of differences would this procedure bring to a person’s face/life? Why is dental aesthetics important in human life?

Many research studies pointed out to a common result that people we meet for the first time mostly focus on a bright and beautiful smile we’d have on our faces, which is the most important factor in creating our image.
Having this type treatment would strengthen self confidence before anything else. Everyone would like to have a warmer smile supported by proportional and white teeth.

What are the benefits?

Not to mention the reflections of the positive energy the person would radiate in his/her daily life, decrease is reported in frontal teeth decay as a result of this implementation.  Though ironic, a possible cause might be that people take care of their teeth much more diligently to protect their nice and pleasant new smiles. Another reason would be that certain teeth surfaces are protected against external conditions.