SAEF - Smile's Aesthetic Evaluation form: a useful tool to improve communications between clinicians and patients...

Today, physical appearance plays a major role in self-esteem and, as a result, also in the overall satisfaction of the person. Facial esthetics plays a crucial role, with the smile being the protagonist. A multidisciplinary approach, including several specialties of dentistry, is usually needed in order to create a pleasing end result. With the Smile's Aesthetic Evaluation Form (SAEF), the authors propose a new evaluation of the esthetics of the smile. It uses both static (photographs) and dynamic (videos) analysis, followed by several objective and subjective items, thus improving the communication between the different dental specialists and laboratory technicians. The SAEF also provides the patient knowledge of the disharmonies of the smile and increases the patient's comprehension and acceptance of treatment. It is organized in such a way as to provide an understanding of the esthetic parameters of the smile individually, and, simultaneously, evaluate the quality of the smile for the specific case. This form is designed to detect small dental anomalies when the patient is not content with his/her smile, but is unable to pinpoint the parameters that cause this dissatisfaction. This esthetic evaluation form can be a useful additional tool to the clinical diagnostic procedure. In order for the analysis to be fully understood, an example of its use will be presented in a clinical case.

A 28-year-old female patient, dissatisfied with her smile, presented to the Orthodontic Department of Tel Aviv University. She had undergone orthodontic treatment in the past. She presented a relapse in the mandible. The relapse in the mandibular arch was to be corrected with Invisalign. For the maxillary arch, the SAEF was completed in order to improve the communication between the orthodontist, patient, and cosmetic dentist to correct the incorrect parameters highlighted in the analysis.