Closing spaces

Marcelo Balsamo is a dentist and professor at Associacao Paulista de Cirurgioes Dentistas, APCD, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

When someone smiles, there are positive and negative aspects of the presentation of the teeth. Positive aspects are natural brightness, natural translucency, symmetry and a harmonious relationship of teeth and lips.

Negative aspects are discoloured teeth, broken symmetry and spaces. The latter are quite common, and the dentist plays an important role in the removal of these disturbances which impair a natural and aesthetic smile.

The photographs shown here describe a clinical problem which can be solved quickly and easily with the help of direct composites and a good finishing technique.

The first two photographs show a young woman with a diastema (fig 1) and small spaces in the anterior occlusion (fig 2, circled).

After shade selection (figs 3 and 4) the enamel surfaces were prepared for the application of a self-etching adhesive and the composite by roughening with a fine diamond (figs 5, 6 and 7). To confirm the shade selection, a small volume of composite can be light-cured on the tooth (fig 9).