Dr Dan ShafferDentist and dental technician · GDC 75967

Send me a few photos and I will tell you honestly

No charge, no computer generated picture of your new smile, no sales call. Just a dentist looking at your teeth and telling you what is realistic, usually within one working day.

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What this is, and what it is not

What you get

  • My honest view on whether clear aligners will give you what you are after
  • What I would expect to be able to change, and what I would not
  • A rough price range, in writing, before you have spent anything
  • If aligners are the wrong answer, what the right one is

What it is not

  • Not a diagnosis. Photographs do not show gums, bone or bite
  • Not a treatment plan, and not a quotation you can hold me to
  • Not a simulated image of your finished smile, for reasons I set out below
  • Not a commitment. Most people who send photos do not go ahead, which is fine

The three photographs I need

A phone camera in daylight is perfectly good. Do not use a filter, and do not use the front camera if you can avoid it, because it distorts.

PhotoHow
1. Relaxed smileFace on, lips together, the way your face sits naturally. This tells me how your teeth show when you are not performing.
2. Big smileFace on, as wide a smile as you can manage, teeth apart slightly. This is the one that shows me the crowding.
3. From the sideSmiling, turned about forty five degrees. This tells me how far back the problem goes, which is usually the thing that decides how long treatment takes.

One more, if you can manage it. Bite your back teeth together, pull your cheek aside with a finger and photograph the side of your teeth. It is an awkward photo to take and it tells me more than the other three put together.

Why I will not send you a simulated smile

You have probably seen the tools that take a selfie and hand back a picture of you with perfect teeth. They are very good at generating that picture. They are not looking at anything clinical, because there is nothing clinical in a selfie to look at.

The problem is not that the image is inaccurate. It is that you will read it as a promise. If your gums have receded, if a front tooth is heavily filled, if your bite means the teeth cannot actually finish where the picture puts them, the software does not know and does not care. I would be handing you an expectation I cannot meet, and then spending your treatment managing the gap between the two.

That is the same trick the post-it-to-your-door aligner companies used, and it is the practice I set this up specifically to be the opposite of. You will get a straight answer from a dentist instead.

Common questions

Is this a diagnosis?
No, and I will not pretend otherwise. Photographs show me the shape of your teeth and very little else. They do not show me the health of your gums, the bone underneath, how your bite meets, or what is going on under existing fillings and crowns. What I can tell you from photographs is whether it is worth you coming in, and that is genuinely useful information to have before you spend money.
Will you send me a computer image of my new smile?
No. Software can produce a very convincing picture of straight teeth in seconds, and it knows nothing about your gums, your bone or your bite. Those images are a sales tool and people read them as a promise. You will get my honest opinion in words instead, which is worth more and which I am accountable for.
What does it cost?
Nothing. There is no charge for looking at your photographs and replying. If you then come in for a full assessment that is £90, and it is credited against your treatment if you go ahead.
What if the answer is no?
Then I tell you that, and why. Sometimes the honest answer is that aligners will not give you what you are picturing, sometimes it is that something else needs doing first, and sometimes it is that you need a specialist orthodontist rather than me. I would rather lose the case than take on something that is not right.
Who sees my photographs?
Me. They come to my own mailbox, they are not uploaded to a website, they are not published anywhere and they are never used in marketing unless you have separately signed a consent form for that. If you do not become a patient I delete them within three months. Ask me to delete them sooner and I will.
How quickly will you reply?
Usually within one working day. I treat at Pure Dentistry on Wednesday and Thursday, so if you send photographs over a weekend you will hear from me early in the week.

Send me your photos

Fill this in and you will get an immediate confirmation email from me. Reply to that email and attach your photographs, or send them on WhatsApp if that is easier. They come straight to me and nowhere else.

Your photographs are used only to answer you. They are not published, not used in marketing, and are deleted within three months if you do not go ahead. See privacy.