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Great Expectations
The Patient's and Dentist's Perspective
An analysis by Dear Doctor
Does your dentist see what you see - and vice versa? Can you really communicate how you want to change your smile? These are important questions - so let's start by examining what information is available to us from research on this important issue.
One study set out to determine the differences in perceptions of lay persons and dental professionals. Dentists as a group were more discerning of issues such as crown (tooth) length, midlines (how the teeth line up with other facial features) and gum-to-lip distance, to name a few. According to the same study, however, lay persons placed more importance on other features of facial aesthetics: they rated mouth expression and lip shape as more noticeable than other "strictly dental" characteristics.
Studies such as this underscore two different perspectives when it comes to changing a patient's smile. From your perspective as a patient, you must have confidence and trust that your dentist hears what you're saying and that you are able to communicate what you want to look like. By merging your our own perceptions of what you want and need with your dentists' keen eye for what works aesthetically, you'll have a much better opportunity to achieve the smile you want and expect.
Dentists, on the other hand, in seeking to understand what their patients want naturally divide them into two groups. The first group is what might be called the "perfect-minded" patient who expects maximum regularity and alignment along with maximum brightness. The other group involves the "natural-minded" patient, with a desire for a more natural or subtle look; they expect a general sense of regularity and alignment along with definite "brightness," but do not want their teeth to be noticed at every turn.
Read more about both the patient's and dentist's perspective about expectations in the full print article in Dear Doctor - Dentistry & Oral Health, Volume 2, Issue 2.
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