Natural widths
How wide the teeth look from the front in natural, untreated smiles, on average: the lateral about two-thirds of the central, the canine a little narrower again. The arch turns each tooth away from you, so they look narrower than they are.
- Where it comes from
- Average proportions measured in natural smiles (e.g. Preston, 1993); the central's width is the average crown turned by our arch.
- Its limits
- An average, not a norm: real smiles vary widely around it, and arches differ in width and curve.
In the lab
We start from the face: the facial midline, the smile line and how much tooth the lip shows at rest and in a smile. The central incisor's length and width come first; laterals and canines are fitted to them and to the arch, then everything is tried in a mock-up before any ceramic is made.