Beauty and Bite: How Your Bite Shapes Your Smile and Face

Beauty beyond the smile.

A truly beautiful smile is about more than straight, white teeth. The position of your jaw, the height of your bite, and the relationship between your teeth and the muscles of your face all influence your facial proportions, the look of your smile and the overall harmony of your face.

At Perfect White Smile, Dr. David Frey brings over 37 years of cosmetic dentistry experience, and a close understanding of how the bite works, to smile makeovers that go beyond traditional cosmetic dentistry.

Your bite: the hidden element of facial beauty.

Your teeth give structural support to the lower third of your face. They hold out your lips and cheeks and help set the distance between your nose and your chin. Dentists call the height of your bite, measured with your back teeth together, the vertical dimension of occlusion.

When teeth become worn, when back teeth are lost, or when the jaws meet poorly, the bite can lose height and your face can lose some of that support. A reduced vertical dimension may contribute to:

• A shorter looking lower face
• Less support for the lips and the area around the mouth
• Changes in facial proportions
• Deeper lines and folds around the mouth
• Front teeth that show less when you smile, and a flatter smile line
• Changes in how your teeth meet and how comfortably you chew

Worn teeth do not always mean the bite has lost height, because teeth can keep erupting as they wear. That is why your bite is measured at your consultation rather than judged from a photograph.

In appropriately selected patients, restoring lost bite height and dental support can improve facial proportions while creating a fuller, more harmonious smile.

Bite-enhanced smile makeovers: more than veneers.

Traditional cosmetic dentistry often focuses on the visible teeth, improving their color, shape, size and alignment. At Perfect White Smile, we take a more comprehensive approach.

Before designing a smile makeover, Dr. Frey evaluates how your upper and lower teeth fit together, the position of your jaw, the condition of your bite and the structures of your face that your teeth support.

The bite matters for how long the work lasts, too. Porcelain sits exactly where your teeth meet, and the American Dental Association notes that veneers may not be a good choice if you clench or grind your teeth or have a deep overbite. Planning the bite first is how we design a smile to look right and to hold up.

Depending on what your mouth needs, treatment may include porcelain veneers, crowns, orthodontics, bite correction, full mouth rehabilitation or other restorative care.

Our goal is a beautiful smile that complements your face, supports comfortable function, and is designed for long term dental health.

How a smile and bite plan comes together.

1. A conversation first. What you would like to change about your smile, and anything you notice when you bite, chew or wake up in the morning.
2. Records of your teeth, bite and face. Photographs and an iTero 3D scan, with T Scan bite analysis to measure the timing and pressure of your bite.
3. Foundations before cosmetics. Gum health, missing or worn teeth and the position of your bite are addressed first, so the new smile has a stable base.
4. A trial before anything is final. When the height or position of your bite is changing, a trial bite or provisional restorations let you live with the new bite and the new look, so the plan can be refined before the final porcelain is made.
5. Your final smile. Porcelain shaped and shaded by hand with our on site master ceramist, designed to suit your face and your bite.

Your jaw, your muscles and your bite.

A harmonious relationship between the teeth, the jaw and the muscles is an important consideration in comprehensive dentistry. Bite discrepancies, dental wear and unfavorable jaw relationships may affect how efficiently you chew, how evenly your teeth share the load, and how restorative treatment should be planned.

Dr. Frey examines these relationships before making significant cosmetic or restorative changes. If you also have jaw pain, clicking or headaches, he looks at those too, and our TMJ treatment page explains how.

Can a smile makeover create a more youthful appearance?

In certain patients, yes. When dental wear or loss of tooth structure has reduced the height of the bite, carefully planned restorative dentistry may restore facial height and support around the mouth.

These improvements can create a more youthful looking smile and more balanced proportions in the lower face, without changing the skin or the soft tissues of the face. Results depend on each patient’s anatomy and clinical condition.

Changing the height of the bite is a significant decision. Published reviews describe it as safe and predictable when it is clinically indicated and carefully planned, with any early discomfort usually settling on its own. Dr. Frey makes that decision only after examining your teeth, jaw joints and muscles, and the new position is tested before anything is final.

The art and science of facial harmony.

A successful smile makeover considers both the appearance of the teeth and the way the whole bite functions. Dr. Frey has also written on the subject for fellow dentists: his case report on adjusting the bite to reduce a gummy smile appeared in the professional magazine cosmetic dentistry in 2010.

See more finished cases in our smile gallery.

Further reading.

• American Dental Association, MouthHealthy: Veneers and Teeth grinding.
• Fayad MI. A literature review of vertical dimension in prosthodontics theory and practice, part 1. Cureus, 2024.
• Sierpinska T, Kuc J, Golebiewska M. Morphological and functional parameters in patients with tooth wear before and after treatment. The Open Dentistry Journal, 2013.
• Abduo J. Safety of increasing vertical dimension of occlusion: a systematic review. Quintessence International, 2012.