Digital Smile Design
Photos or a facial scan with intraoral scans, esthetic analysis and a digital wax-up, submitted for approval before anything definitive is made. The smile is designed from the patient's face, then carried through to the final restoration without loss.
Photos or facial scan with intraoral scans
Everything starts from your records: smile photographs (frontal, retracted, profile, lips at rest) or a facial scan, always paired with STL intraoral scans of both arches with the occlusal record, and the starting shade taken in the mouth.
Facial and esthetic analysis
On that data we trace the references that decide the outcome: interpupillary line, facial midline, occlusal plane, incisal curve, smile line, buccal corridor and the width to length proportions of the anterior teeth.
Digital smile design and digital wax-up
We then draw the project in Exocad, 3Shape or Zirkonzahn, depending on the workflow the case calls for, and superimpose the proposal on the photograph and the facial scan.
Transfer to the definitive restoration
The validated form is not redrawn, it is copied.
What is included
- Facial scanning
- Metismile, aligned to the intraoral scan for the esthetic analysis of the case
- Design software
- Exocad, 3Shape, Zirkonzahn, and coDiagnostiX when the case involves implants
- Required records
- STL intraoral scan of both arches, occlusal record, smile photographs or facial scan, starting shade
- Optional records
- CBCT volume in DICOM for an implant case, smile video, scan of the existing prosthesis
- Deliverables
- Digital smile design proposal, digital wax-up in STL, long-term PMMA provisional on request
- Definitive materials
- Lithium disilicate, multilayer zirconia, layered ceramic, PMMA for provisionals
- Indications
- Veneers, anterior crowns, full esthetic rehabilitation, anterior implant cases
- Validation
- Project approved before any definitive fabrication, intraoral try-in through a diagnostic wax-up on request
Turnaround and deliverables are confirmed case by case when the case is taken in.
Digital smile design in practice
How is a digital smile design different from a diagnostic wax-up?
A diagnostic wax-up is shaped on models, so within the mouth only. Digital smile design adds the face: tooth position is judged against the interpupillary line, the facial midline and lip dynamics. The deliverable is just as tangible in both cases, but the esthetic reference is more dependable, and the project exists as a file, so it can be modified and reproduced without being waxed again.
What records do you need to start?
An STL intraoral scan of both arches with the occlusal record, a photographic series of the smile or a facial scan and the starting shade. Add the CBCT volume in DICOM if the case involves implants. If you have no intraoral scanner, send us the models: we scan them at the laboratory.
Can the patient see the outcome before committing?
That is precisely the point. They see the simulation superimposed on the photograph of their own face, and the esthetic discussion happens before preparation, while everything can still be changed. If you also want an intraoral try-in, we produce a diagnostic wax-up with its mock-up shell.
Does digital smile design work on implant cases?
Yes, and that is where it pays off most. The prosthetic project is drawn first, then implant position is planned to support it. We connect the case to our pre-planning of surgical guides, so the surgical guide follows the approved smile rather than the other way around.
How many variants do you propose?
One initial proposal, then the adjustments you ask for. Revisiting an incisal edge length or a gingival zenith line is a file change, not a refabrication, so we would rather iterate until the project is the one you want to seat.
Related services and products
In-Clinic Shade Matching
A calibrated lighting room with Vita shade guides, or our ceramist travelling to your clinic.
View the service
High-Precision In-House Milling
5-axis milling for zirconia, lithium disilicate and the PMMA of validated provisionals.
View the service
3D Printing
Mock-ups, working models and try-in keys printed in biocompatible resins in house.
View the service
An esthetic case to design?
Send us the scan and the photographs: we submit a smile project before anything is fabricated.