Fashion trends come and go, and now even dentists are jumping on the bandwagon, as requests for perfectly imperfect smiles are on the rise. If recent indications are to be believed, the flawless ‘Hollywood’ smile of yesteryear is firmly out of fashion, with people asking for more subtle changes, to copy off such TV stars as Anna Paquin, and model Lara Stone.
Harley Street dentist Dr Simon Darfoor confirmed that most of his patients where after a more ‘British’ set of teeth, and requested a happy medium between eye-catchingly goofy, and noticeably perfect. ‘The fad for filing teeth down for full veneers has gone’, Dr Darfoor believes, ‘People are looking for a halfway point, they want a more attractive smile, but with a less destructive procedure.’
Fitting a full set of porcelain veneers typically involves removing large sections of the outer enamel shell, and is usually irreversible, but it seems that modern dentistry is striving for a more natural outcome these days. Dr Tim Bradstock, of The London Smile Clinic, said that the number one thing he was asked for was a subtle finish, that didn’t appear to be obviously enhanced. He explained how surgeons were achieving this look; ‘Natural teeth have highly complex surface anatomy, texture, colour variation, translucency and all sorts of imperfections. We won’t mimic the unsightly flaws, but we like to keep some ‘perfect imperfections’ in there.’