Yeoksam Station Dental Clinic: How to Make Front Tooth Resin Repairs Truly Unnoticeable

The gap between the front teeth

made me self-conscious every time I took a photo...

Yeoksam Station Dental Clinic

The patient was a female college student.

She said she often had to take photos with her friends,

but because of her teeth,

she couldn’t smile brightly and felt very stressed.

I also remember taking a lot of photos with friends

when I was in college.

But I, too, had a complex because of my crooked teeth,

so whenever I took photos with friends,

I would either keep my mouth tightly shut

or pose without any expression to hide my teeth.

Before front tooth treatment

So I even heard my friends complain,

"You should smile a little more too~" ^^;

I wanted to smile brightly too, so I received treatment for my front teeth,

and that became the reason I started studying front tooth treatment even more seriouslyㅎㅎㅎ

After front tooth treatment

👇🏻 Why I became focused on front tooth treatment 👇🏻

Going back to the main point,

when I looked closely at the patient’s teeth,

it was not simply a matter of a gap between the front teeth.

Date taken: 250619

The distribution of the space was uneven,

and the size proportions of each tooth were different.

In addition, the midline was slightly off.

But as I always say,

"closing a space" does not simply mean

"filling everything in."

What matters is where and how you fill it,

and how much empty space you leave.

There are things you can see only when you leave them open.

Yeoksam Station Dental Clinic

What I first did in the treatment room

was look at each front tooth separately.

Date taken: 250619

It was almost like a design project.

There was quite a bit of space, but there was no need to place resin along both sides of the gap.

If handled incorrectly, it could make the teeth look unbalanced

and throw off the overall proportions.

In this case,

"left-right balance and the midline" were the key points.

Yeoksam Station Dental Clinic

So I planned to use only "half of the empty space."

Especially in the case of the left lateral incisor (tooth 22),

even if it looks slightly gapped from the outside,

actually filling that space with resin could make the tooth

look unnaturally large.

So I used an optical illusion.

From the front, it looks perfectly natural,

and from the side, the space is completely closed — a very subtle design.

This is the essence of resin design that does not simply fill what you see.

The time spent designing a smile down to the millimeter

Yeoksam Station Dental Clinic

Please refer to the post about tooth whitening too :)

Since the patient also wanted whitening,

we decided to do whitening first

and then proceed with resin restoration.

Date taken: 250619

If resin is done first, the color of the resin after whitening

can appear yellowishㅠㅠ

If you are considering both treatments,

it is better to consult in advance and decide the treatment order.

Date taken: 250619

After a gap of about two weeks,

we began the full front tooth treatment.

Once the real treatment starts,

I go into focus mode.

That’s because teeth are not smooth like skin;

they have a very delicate structure,

with bright light, dark shadows, and even a transparent layer in between.

First, I carefully refined the space,

then layered the resin in tiny increments on top.

Date taken: 250619

To make the midline look natural,

you can’t simply close the gap.

The left and right teeth must be made to "look the same,"

and the visible area when smiling also has to be considered.

In particular, with the left lateral incisor,

even adding a little too much resin can quickly make the overall proportions look awkward,

so I designed it to be "slim from the front, fully filled from the side."

This is almost an art of optical illusion....

Yeoksam Station Dental Clinic

While checking with the patient along the way,

I also joked a little,

"Now there won’t be any more light coming through this gap when you smile~"😄

Date taken: 250619

The lower teeth, too,

are often cases where enlarging the canines to close the space

is much more advantageous^^

The power of resin that no one notices, yet makes no obvious treatment marks

Yeoksam Station Dental Clinic

After the treatment was finished,

the patient looked into the mirror and stayed silent for a while.

Date taken: 250704

Then she smiled and said,

"It really feels like this is how my teeth originally were. Where did you attach it?"

That kind of reaction is the best thing to hearㅎㅎ

A treatment that doesn’t look treated.

The feeling that they are my own teeth.

That is the result we always aim for.

Date taken: 250619 / 250704

The key point of this case

was that I only adjusted what was necessary,

and carefully restored only the needed areas.

Yeoksam Station Dental Clinic

Rather than covering the front teeth entirely or forcing them shut

to make the size asymmetrical,

this was a treatment that achieved both aesthetics and balance.

Just because there is a gap between the front teeth

does not mean filling everything in

is the right answer.

Yeoksam Station Dental Clinic

I always first think about

"how little can be done?"

Preserving the structure of the natural teeth

and creating a natural line when smiling

is the real purpose of resin treatment^^

Date taken: 250619 / 250704

Even touching just one side tooth can change the midline,

and excessive restoration can actually make things look awkward.

That is why it is the dentist’s role

to calculate and design all of this in advance.

Even dentists consider resin treatment that is done so it is barely noticeable

to be one of the more difficult procedures.

But that is also what makes it such a rewarding treatment.

If you are worried about the gap between your front teeth,

we will think together about a way to achieve both naturalness and balance.

This was dentist Sohyun-su. Thank you :)

• Depending on the individual, symptoms such as sensitivity, a foreign-body sensation, or discomfort when biting may appear temporarily,

and in rare cases, additional treatment may be necessary.

Treatment period: 250619 - 250704