When parents see their child’s smile at the end of treatment, it’s natural to check first whether the teeth are straight. That’s a great place to start—and it’s the first thing I check, too. Then I take a closer look.
A smile can be straight and still appear narrow or slightly off-center. Most people may not be able to pinpoint what feels off, but they do notice when something is. That’s why I spend much of my planning time attending to those details.
At Varble Orthodontics, I plan every case around eight tenets that together make up the VO Smile, my approach to orthodontic smile design. They help me picture the finished smile clearly, and I use them as a guide from the first scan through the end of treatment.
In this post, I’ll walk you through each tenet and explain how it shapes the smile you see at the end of treatment.
What Makes a Great Smile Beyond Straight Teeth
Every orthodontist aims for straight teeth and a healthy bite. I do, too—but I also want a clear written picture of the finished smile. I use it as a guide for every case, whether the patient is 12 or an adult.
I write it down because I’m human. Some days, a small detail catches my eye; other days, it might not. Your child’s result shouldn’t depend on the whims of the day, so I use the same eight checks for every case, from start to finish. This helps you, too. After reading this post, you’ll know what I mean when I say I’m planning around your child’s smile arc.
I’m also a clinical professor at Saint Louis University, where I help train future orthodontists. In a teaching clinic, I can’t simply say a smile looks better—I need to explain why each detail matters. These eight tenets are the clearest, most concise way I know to do that.
Alignment and Bite: The Foundation of a Healthy Smile
Alignment is what most people picture when they think of braces. Each tooth sits in a smooth line, and each one touches its neighbors where it should. The bite is how the upper and lower teeth meet when your child closes their mouth.
I put these first because the rest of the smile depends on them. A beautiful smile arc doesn’t hold up if the bite underneath it isn’t working, and teeth that don’t meet well tend to wear and shift over time.
One thing I pay attention to here is the angle of the teeth. When crowded teeth get straightened, they can end up tipped forward. They look straight from the front, but they aren’t sitting upright over the jawbone. I want teeth that are upright and well supported, since that’s what gives the bite a stable base.
Evaluating alignment and bite together is the first step in every plan I make. If you’re new to braces altogether, then it’s a good idea to have a look at the complete guide to braces.
Smile Width: How Broader Arches Fill Out the Corners of a Smile
When I look at smile width, I’m looking at the corners of your child’s mouth as much as the teeth.
Smile with your teeth showing and look in a mirror. Toward the back on each side, you’ll see some space between the last visible teeth and the inside of your cheeks. Those are the dark corners of a smile. Some darkness there is normal. When there’s a lot of it, the smile looks narrower than it is, as if the teeth stop short of the face.
A narrow upper arch—the horseshoe-shaped row of upper teeth—often causes wide dark corners. When the arch is broader, more teeth show across the smile and the corners fill in.
That’s why I plan arch shape on purpose instead of letting it follow from straightening alone. If a patient’s arches are narrow, then the goal can include widening them so more of the smile shows. The Damon Ultima brackets I use for braces are designed with that broader arch shape in mind.
How wide it should be depends on the face, so I judge smile width on a case-by-case basis.
Smile Arc: Why Your Upper Teeth Should Follow Your Lower Lip
Even if you don’t know the term, people can tell the difference between a good smile arc and a bad one.
Picture the bottom edges of your upper front teeth when you smile. They form a curve, just like your lower lip. I want those two curves to match, so the teeth follow the lip’s curve. If the edges of the teeth run flat or curve the other way, the smile can look a little off, even when every tooth is straight.
Right from the start, the smile arc is a key factor I incorporate into everyone’s plan. Each bracket I use has a prescription—a set of built-in angles that guide how the tooth sits. The smile arc is built into the plan, guiding the teeth from day one so you don’t have to correct it later.
The bracket I use matters, too, so I’m particular about which one each patient gets. This kind of treatment costs more than most, and small details are a big part of what that difference buys you. Some brackets hold the wire with a built-in clip, and others use elastic ties. That one choice is what separates self-ligating braces from traditional braces.
Incisor Display: How Much of the Front Teeth Should Show
Incisors are the four front teeth in each jaw. Incisor display is how much of the upper ones show, both when your child’s lips are relaxed and when they smile.
I look at it two ways. First, with your child’s lips relaxed and slightly parted, I want a little of the upper front teeth to show. Then I ask for a full smile and check how much of each tooth is visible and whether that suits the length of their lips.
If too little of the upper teeth shows, a smile can look closed off. If too much shows, the teeth take over the face. The right amount depends on the person, so I measure by the patient instead of applying one number to everyone.
Incisor display also plays a role in two other aspects: the smile arc and how much gum shows above the teeth.
Midline: Why Centered Front Teeth Matter
The easiest way to explain a midline is Tom Cruise. Look closely at his smile. One of his upper front teeth sits near the center of his face, where you’d expect the line between his two front teeth. His smile is still great, and most people never notice why it looks slightly different.
Your midline is where your two upper front teeth meet. Ideally, it sits at the center of your face, right above the point where your lower front teeth meet. When it drifts to one side, most people won’t notice right away, but the smile can feel a little lopsided.
I check the upper midline against the face and against the lower midline. When they’re off, the cause can be the teeth, the bite, or the jaw, and that determines what I can correct and how.
Tooth Shape and Proportion: The Finishing Details After Braces
Even when every tooth is in the right place, tooth shape and proportion affect how the smile looks.
Proportion is how the front teeth compare to each other. The two upper front teeth are usually the widest and most prominent, and the teeth beside them step down in size. When those proportions are off, a straight smile can still look uneven. A chipped edge or a tooth that’s longer than its neighbor can have the same effect.
That’s why we do soft-tissue and hard-tissue contouring at the end of treatment. Hard tissue contouring means gently reshaping the enamel—the hard outer layer of a tooth—so its shape and length match its neighbors. It’s a small adjustment, and it’s one of the last steps between a straight smile and a finished one. Soft tissue contouring shapes the gums, which I cover in the gumline section.
Gumline: How Your Gums Frame Your Smile (and What Causes a Gummy Smile)
The gumline is the edge of the gums along the tops of the upper teeth. Think of it as the frame around the smile.
In the smile I’m aiming for, the gumline follows the teeth in an even, symmetrical pattern from one side to the other. When the gums sit higher over one tooth than over its neighbors, that tooth can look longer even when it isn’t. When a lot of gum shows above the teeth in a full smile, people often call it a gummy smile.
Some gumline differences come from where the teeth sit, so moving the teeth changes them. Others come from the gums themselves. For those, soft tissue contouring—reshaping the gum around a tooth so more or less of it shows—can even out the frame at the end of treatment.
Shade and Brightness: How Tooth Color Affects Your Smile
Shade and brightness are the last of the eight tenets. This tenet is the odd one out on an orthodontist’s list, since braces move teeth without changing their color. I still check it, because color plays a big part in how the finished smile looks to you.
Shade is the color of the teeth themselves. Brightness is how much light they reflect. Two smiles with the same alignment can look very different when one is a shade or two darker, or when one tooth doesn’t match the teeth beside it.
So I look at tooth color as part of the whole smile, especially when one tooth stands out from its neighbors.
How Orthodontic Smile Design Fits the Whole Face
Straight teeth are still the first test, the same one you run when you see your child’s smile. The tenets are everything I check after that.
No single tenet makes a VO Smile. Each one affects the others, and they all have to fit the face they belong to.
A smile arc that looks right depends on the lower lip of the person smiling, and the right smile width depends on the width of the face. I don’t plan toward one ideal smile for every patient. I plan toward the version of these tenets that fits your child’s face, so the result looks like it was always theirs.
Fitting a smile to a face is the part of orthodontic smile design I enjoy most. It takes judgment on top of technical skill, and it’s the reason I keep these tenets in front of me on every case.
Get a Free Smile Assessment in Creve Coeur or St. Peters
The free VO Smile Assessment is a full consultation that covers treatment options, timing, and next steps. It’s also where I’ll show you how the eight tenets apply to your child’s smile.
We see families at our Creve Coeur and St. Peters offices, so choose whichever is closer to home. We look forward to seeing you.
