YOUR LOOK thesmiledr Dr. Mark Falco, Smile Design Studio What’s a Smile Worth? Compared to the costs of styling your hair or protecting your skin, managing and correcting your smile will seem like an incredible value 90 PAGEANTRY e glamorize our lips, eyes, hair and complexion with various styles that we can change on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, but our teeth don’t have the same ability to be managed that way. It’s impractical to glamorize teeth in the same way and most times, any changes we make to our teeth have to be- come permanent changes. The changes need to be better and more dazzling than the teeth appeared before or they wouldn’t have been worth changing. Your biggest asset, your smile, has to be working for you from childhood to adulthood. If teeth are buck or the bite is open in childhood, they can be corrected early. If teen teeth are crooked or not white enough, they can be made to look better. Adult teeth en- dure many more changes that usually start out as gradual or subtle, but after several years without correction, the whole smile is afflict- ed including the lips and suddenly the teeth look aged and worn. W HOW DO WE IMPROVE? There are several ways to improve a smile. All are permanent except one. Some of these may work in combination with one an- other. The result is always the same, whether it’s to recapture an aging smile, improve upon an average one, or to create a new smile that is stellar, and that is to bring more beauty to an already beau- tiful person. The confidence in your look, the assertiveness in your speech and the friendliness you bestow can all be connected to your smile. Smiles can be changed or improved gradually or in- stantly. Instant changes can be done in two or three visits at a den- tal office. The concentration of time is spent on developing a new look for the most important aspect of the smile, the upper front