How to show your dentist the smile you want

Most people know what they don't like about their teeth. Fewer can say what they want instead, beyond "straighter", "whiter" or "like hers". That is normal. You are not a dental technician, and nobody expects you to talk in millimetres. But the clearer your brief, the more likely the crowns that come back are the ones you pictured, and the less you rely on a dentist guessing.

This is a practical guide to putting that brief together, from choosing reference photos to deciding between a natural and a uniform look.

Start with what you have now

Before collecting pictures of other people's teeth, take some honest photos of your own. Daylight near a window, no flash, no beauty mode, phone held at face height. You want:

• a full, relaxed smile
• a big laugh, showing as much tooth and gum as you ever show
• your face at rest, lips slightly apart
• close-ups of the front teeth, top and bottom

Then write down two short lists. What bothers you, and what you like and want to keep. People often skip the second list, and it is just as useful. Maybe you like the length of your front teeth and only hate the colour. Maybe you like the little gap that everyone in your family has. If you do not say so, nobody will know to protect it.

Old photos help too. If there was a time, before a chip or before your teeth darkened, when you liked your smile, bring a picture. It shows the dentist a version of your own teeth that you were happy with, which is a far better target than someone else's.

Choosing reference photos of other smiles

Reference photos are useful as long as you know what you are pointing at. When you find a smile you like, ask yourself what exactly you like about it. Is it the shape of the front teeth? How even the edges are? The colour? How little gum shows? Write that next to the picture. "I like how the front two are slightly longer than the ones beside them" tells a dentist far more than a screenshot alone.

Pick people whose faces are a bit like yours. A broad smile with lots of teeth on show will look different on a narrower face, and a long, square tooth shape that suits one person can look heavy on someone with small, delicate features. Three or four references with notes are better than thirty with none.

Why a filtered photo is a poor target

Beauty filters and teeth-whitening apps do things to teeth that no material can copy. They brighten every tooth to the same flat white, smooth away texture and translucency, and often change the lighting on the whole face. The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled against influencer ads where filters exaggerated what a product could do, and advises against filters that are directly relevant to the product being advertised. You do not have to be selling anything for the same principle to apply: a filtered smile shows a result that does not exist in real life.

If your favourite reference is a filtered or edited image, keep it, but say so. A dentist can still use it for shape and proportion while being honest that the colour and glow will not translate. Our article on Turkey teeth on social media goes further into how lighting and filters change what you see.

Natural or uniform? Decide before the shade is chosen

This is the biggest choice in any crown smile, and it is often made without being named. Broadly, there are two looks.

A uniform smile has teeth that are very even in size, shape and colour, usually bright. It is the look most associated with "Turkey teeth" on social media, and some people want exactly that.

A natural smile keeps the small differences real teeth have. The canines are often a slightly different colour from the front teeth. The edges are slightly translucent. The two front teeth are dominant and the ones beside them a touch smaller. Nothing is quite identical.

Research on how people judge smiles is interesting here. In one study, dental professionals and laypeople mostly preferred a symmetrical smile, and laypeople picked the lightest shade available. Yet the same participants preferred natural, slightly imperfect faces over perfectly symmetrical ones, and the authors concluded that imperfections play an essential part in how we perceive beauty. In other words, people may say they want perfect teeth, then find a perfectly uniform face less appealing.

Small irregularities are also less visible to other people than to you. A classic study altered smile photos in tiny steps and found laypeople could not detect the front-tooth midline being off-centre even by 4 mm, and only noticed a tilted line of front teeth once it reached 3 mm. Dentists and orthodontists noticed some changes earlier. So the slight asymmetry that bothers you in the mirror may be invisible to everyone else, and worth leaving alone. A follow-up study found that one-sided differences, such as one tooth longer or wider than its partner, were more noticeable than symmetrical ones, which is useful to know if you are crowning a single front tooth. Our article on matching one front crown covers that case in detail.

Shade: how white is white enough?

The evidence on tooth colour is genuinely mixed. A review of tooth colour research found that in studies where people judged photos, whitened teeth were linked with more positive judgements of traits like social competence. But two separate experiments that digitally changed the tooth colour in face photos found it made little or no difference to how attractive people were rated. One concluded tooth colour is not necessarily even noticed.

What this means for you: whiter is a preference, not an upgrade everyone will see. A very bright shade can look striking in a ring-lit video and stark in daylight next to your skin, the whites of your eyes and your lower teeth if those are not being crowned. Ask to see the shade guide tab held next to your face in natural light, and ask what the crowns will look like next to any teeth that are staying as they are. A crown's colour is set when it is made, so this is a decision to make carefully.

Material affects the look as well, because different ceramics let different amounts of light through. Our pages on E-max crowns and zirconia crowns explain how they compare, and your dentist should tell you which suits the look you want.

A one-page brief you can send

Put this together before your consultation, or with your request for a plan:

• What bothers me: for example, "dark front tooth, chipped edges, gap at the side".
• What I want to keep: "the length of my front teeth", "my lower teeth as they are".
• The look: natural or uniform, in your own words.
• Colour: "a bit brighter than now", "bright but not paper white", or a reference photo.
• Shape: softer and rounded, or squarer and more even.
• References: three or four photos with a note on what you like in each, saying which are filtered.
• My photos: the set described above, plus an older photo if you have one.

Keep it short. A dentist will happily read a page; a forty-image moodboard is harder to act on.

Previews and try-ins

Many clinics now show a digital design of the new smile, sometimes printed as a model or tried in as a temporary mock-up over your own teeth. A review of digital smile planning described this as a reversible preview that improves communication with the lab and makes consent more informed. The same review warned that a digital design can over-promise if it is not matched to what the gums and bone actually allow. Treat a preview as a conversation tool, not a guarantee.

The real check comes at the try-in. With us, fit, bite and shade are checked at a try-in before anything is fixed permanently. That is the moment to compare against your brief. Look in daylight, smile, talk, take a photo. Anything that feels off, whether length, shape or brightness, is worth raising then. Changes are far easier at this stage than after fixing.

To see how other people's smiles came out, our real results page shows before and after photos of Precious patients who gave written consent.

Sending us your brief

If you would like a plan built around the smile you have in mind, send us your photos, your X-rays and your one-page brief. Our free written plan will say which teeth we suggest treating, which material and why, and where your references are realistic for your teeth.

Common questions

Can I just show my dentist a celebrity's smile?

You can, as a starting point. Be clear about what you like in it, such as the shape, the length or the colour, because a smile that suits one face and mouth may look odd in another. Also bear in mind that photos of famous smiles are often lit, edited or filtered.

What is the difference between a natural and a uniform smile?

A uniform smile has teeth that are very even in size, shape and colour, often bright white. A natural smile has small differences: canines that are a little different in colour, slightly varied edges, some translucency at the tips. Neither is wrong; they are different looks, and it helps to decide which you want before the shade is chosen.

How white should I go?

That is a personal choice, but go in with your eyes open. Studies show people tend to prefer whiter teeth in images, while other studies found tooth colour made little difference to how attractive faces were rated. A shade that looks right in a photo may look stark in daylight next to your skin and eyes. Look at real examples on our real results page.

Will I see my new smile before it is made?

Many clinics can show a digital design or a temporary mock-up. These are useful for agreeing shape and length but can promise more than the gums and bone allow, so treat them as a guide. With us, fit, bite and shade are checked at a try-in before anything is fixed permanently.

What should I do if I don't like the try-in?

Say so, and be specific: too long, too square, too white, too even. A try-in exists so changes can be made before the crowns are fixed. It is much easier to adjust then than afterwards.

Sources

1. Kokich VO Jr, Kiyak HA, Shapiro PA (1999). Comparing the perception of dentists and lay people to altered dental esthetics. Journal of Esthetic Dentistry
2. Kokich VO, Kokich VG, Kiyak HA (2006). Perceptions of dental professionals and laypersons to altered dental esthetics: asymmetric and symmetric situations. American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics
3. Magne P, Salem P, Magne M (2018). Influence of symmetry and balance on visual perception of a white female smile. Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry
4. Höfel L, Lange M, Jacobsen T (2007). Beauty and the teeth: perception of tooth color and its influence on the overall judgment of facial attractiveness. International Journal of Periodontics and Restorative Dentistry
5. Grosofsky A et al. (2003). Tooth color: effects on judgments of attractiveness and age. Perceptual and Motor Skills
6. Joiner A, Luo W (2017). Tooth colour and whiteness: a review. Journal of Dentistry
7. Shepperson A (2023). The digital aesthetic test drive. Primary Dental Journal
8. ASA/CAP (2021). The (mis)use of social media beauty filters when advertising cosmetic products

Checked October 2026. Where we give our own view as a clinic, we say so.