Esthetic planning for the correction of dental morphology: a case report

Abstract

The search for restorative procedures that deliver smile harmony is increasingly common in restorative dentistry. Composite resin is a conservative restorative material that can be used as an additive treatment, correcting dental contours and offering a close optical match to the substrate. This report describes a case of composite resin recontouring in which the morphology of the anterior teeth was corrected through the closure of diastemas, enabling conservative restoration of harmony in the patient's smile. A 25-year-old woman sought care because she was dissatisfied with the esthetics of her smile. The extraoral examination revealed a mesofacial profile and proportionate distribution of the facial thirds. The intraoral examination revealed the presence of multiple diastemas in the region of the maxillary incisors. The treatment plan was developed to prioritize minimally invasive interventions, including in-office dental whitening and additive recontouring with direct composite resin restorations on all of the maxillary incisors and canines. After the dental whitening stage, a diagnostic and functional restorative wax-up was fabricated and used to create a smile design that followed the principles of the golden proportion. The patient approved the mock-up, and the restorative sequence was performed using a palatal guide. Composite resin was added only in the areas necessary to close the diastemas. The successful esthetic and functional results in this patient suggest that strategic contouring to close interdental spaces is a viable and conservative solution for restoring smile harmony without dental overcontouring, thereby contributing to the health of periodontal tissues.

Keywords: composite resin; conservative treatment; dental esthetics; diastema; tooth bleaching.