Teeth can be technically perfect on a model and wrong in a face. Facial scanning exists because that gap is real and surprisingly common.
What gets captured
The three-dimensional surface of your face, aligned with the scan of your teeth. The result is a model in which the teeth sit inside your actual face rather than floating in isolation.
Against that we can check whether the dental midline relates properly to the facial one, whether the plane of the teeth is parallel to the line of your eyes, and how much tooth shows when you speak.
Why photographs are not sufficient
A photograph flattens depth and distorts with lens choice and distance. Judging tooth prominence and lip support from a two-dimensional image is unreliable in exactly the cases where it matters most.
A face scan preserves the third dimension, which is where lip support and profile actually live.
Where it changes the outcome
Full rehabilitations, where no natural reference remains to copy and everything is being decided from scratch.
And patients with facial asymmetry, which is far more common than people assume. Designing symmetrical teeth for an asymmetric face produces a result that looks subtly wrong to everyone and obviously wrong to no one.
What it is not
It is not a prediction of the final result to the millimetre, and it does not replace the in-mouth try-in. It is a way of orienting the design to the person rather than to the model.
The objective is teeth that suit your face, not teeth that would suit anyone’s. Designing while looking at the whole face is how that distinction gets respected.
If you want to know how this would apply to your smile, book a remote consultation with us.
