Many people start orthodontic treatment to improve how their smile looks – to straighten the teeth and close gaps. Braces and aligners change above all the position of the teeth. Getting that position right can improve a smile considerably, but on its own it will not change the shape, the length or the colour of the teeth.
That is why it is worth looking at the smile as a whole before treatment begins. It happens that aligning the teeth and widening the arch opens up spaces that were not there before. Once treatment is over they can be closed with bonding or veneers, correcting the shape and the proportions at the same time.
If the teeth are correctly positioned but worn, chipped, uneven in shape or not the colour you want, orthodontic treatment alone will not change that – an aesthetic restoration may be needed as well. Conversely, if the shape and colour are right and the problem is mainly the position, orthodontic treatment may be enough on its own.
Where the irregularities are small, orthodontics can sometimes be skipped and the smile improved with bonding or veneers. That decision has to be planned carefully, though: restoring without moving the teeth first may mean removing more healthy tissue to make room for the material.
The starting point is always an individual aesthetic plan – only on that basis do we judge whether orthodontic treatment is needed first in a given case. Every smile needs a different approach. When planning treatment we look for the solution that preserves as much healthy tooth tissue as possible while giving the right aesthetics, function and durability of the restoration.
The best result comes from combining aesthetics with correct function. That is why we plan orthodontic treatment and the aesthetic restoration together as a team, instead of treating the two stages separately.