You've seen the smiles you don't want. Every tooth the same size, the same flat white, a little too big for the face around them. Your own teeth look yellow no matter what you do, and the old fillings up front have gone dark, so you know something has to change. What stops you is the fear of walking out with someone else's teeth. So before you trust anyone with your smile, you want to know how they decide what your new teeth will look like, and why some dentists plan smiles from your face while others start from a chart.

The short answer

I plan smiles from your face because the right length, width and tooth color for your teeth depend on your lips, your skin and how much tooth shows when you talk and laugh. A shape picked from a catalog was designed for nobody in particular, which is why it so often looks fake on the person wearing it. As Darya Timin, DDS, FAGD, I start with photos of your smile and face, and old pictures of you when you have them. Then I show you a preview of your potential new smile on screen before anything is done, and you wear temporary veneers before the final porcelain is made.

Where the catalog approach goes wrong

There are charts of ideal tooth shapes. Rounded, square, oval. There are guides that say front teeth should be a certain ratio of width to length. Pick one, pick the whitest color in the box, and the lab builds it.

I understand the appeal. It's fast and it looks tidy on paper.

The problem is that those shapes are averages, and nobody's face is an average. A tooth length that looks lovely on a woman with full lips can look oversized on someone with thin lips. A bright white that suits deep olive skin can look chalky against fair skin. And when every tooth comes out the same size, you lose the small differences that natural front teeth always have.

That's how people end up looking "done." It's rarely the porcelain itself. It's porcelain designed without looking at the person.

Three things I look at in your face first

1. Your lips when you talk, smile and laugh. I want to know how much of your top teeth shows when your lips are relaxed, when you say a sentence, and when you laugh hard. That decides how long the front teeth should be. Too long and they hit your lower lip when you say "f." Too short and your smile looks older than you are.

2. The width of your smile. When you smile, I look at how far back the teeth show and how the front teeth line up with the canines and the teeth behind them. Six beautiful front teeth sitting in front of dark, narrow back teeth look like they belong to a different mouth. Sometimes the plan needs to include more teeth, and sometimes it needs fewer than you expected.

3. Your skin, your eyes and your own original teeth. I pick a tooth color that suits your skin tone and the whites of your eyes, not the brightest option available. And if you have old pictures from your twenties or thirties, I want them. They show the shape your teeth had before wear, grinding and darkening fillings changed them. Often the most natural new smile is a version of the one you already had.

Before the face comes the bite and the gums

My Kois training taught me to plan from the bite outward. Before I think about how a tooth looks, I check how your upper and lower teeth meet, where the edges are worn flat, and whether you grind at night. A design that fights your bite will chip or wear down, no matter how good it looked on screen.

The gums come first too. If they bleed when you brush, we deal with that before any cosmetic work, because inflamed gums pull plaque into the edge of new porcelain. It's never just the gums, either. Bleeding gums are an open door for oral bacteria and inflammation to reach the rest of the body. I'm not willing to hand you a smile you can't keep clean, so when the gums need help, a deep cleaning with salivary testing comes before the veneers.

When a standard shape is the right call

To be fair, there are times a simpler approach is exactly right.

If you're replacing one front tooth, the best model isn't a chart or even my design software. It's the matching tooth on the other side of your mouth. Copying your own tooth is the most natural option there is.

And if you bring in a photo of a smile you love, I take it seriously. It tells me whether you like softer edges, a little more brightness or a fuller look. I don't copy it. I use it to understand your taste, then fit that taste to your own face.

How you see your new smile before it's permanent

Porcelain veneers are custom-made, natural-looking coverings, and they're not reversible, because a small amount of enamel is removed to place them. That's exactly why I don't ask you to trust a catalog. You get to judge the design twice before anything is final.

First, I run your photos through smile design software and show you a preview of your potential new smile on screen. It's a preview, not a promise, and it's where you say "a little shorter" or "not that white." Then you wear temporary veneers. You see the shape in your own mirror, at dinner, in photos, and you notice how they feel when you talk. Changes happen at this stage, and the final porcelain is made from what you approved.

Tooth color deserves extra care because whitening will not work on veneers, crowns or fillings. Once porcelain is made, its color stays. If you want your natural teeth lighter, we whiten first and then match the porcelain to the result. I want the porcelain thin enough that light passes through it, the way it does through enamel. That's what keeps veneers from looking flat.

The same thinking applies to a full smile makeover, where more teeth are involved and the face matters even more.

A smile that still looks like you

The goal isn't a smile people notice. It's a smile people don't question. They should think you look rested, or happy, and never wonder what you had done.

Your consultation is free. Bring your old photos and any pictures of smiles you like, and you'll leave with a plan built around your face, your bite and your gums. If you'd like a head start from home, the free virtual consult lets you upload a photo of your smile, see a preview of what a makeover could look like, and get a personalized video plan from me. When you're ready, book a consultation at Redefine Dental Aesthetic and Wellness Center or call (214) 295-9270. You can split treatment into monthly payments through Cherry, and HSA and FSA cards are accepted.