Smile Design · January 8, 2026 · 5 min
Smile design and facial balance
Why we photograph your whole face before we ever look closely at a tooth.
The first appointment of a smile design case at Valley View involves no drills, no molds, and very little looking inside your mouth. It involves a camera, good light, and conversation, because the reference for your new smile isn’t a chart of ideal teeth. It’s your face.
The lines we borrow
The line between your pupils, the line of your lower lip when you laugh, the axis of your nose, the corridor of shadow at the corners of a wide smile: these establish the horizon, curve, and width your teeth should relate to. Teeth designed against these lines look inevitable; teeth designed without them look installed.
Motion, not portraits
We photograph and record you talking and laughing, because smiles live in motion. How much gum shows when you laugh hard? Where do your lips rest mid-sentence? A design that only works in a posed photo fails a hundred times a day.
Symmetry, loosely held
Perfect symmetry reads as artificial, because faces themselves aren’t symmetric. We aim for balance instead: harmonies of proportion that flatter your features and preserve the small character notes that make your smile recognizably yours.
