How to Have the Best Smile for Your Wedding Day

Updated: 1/31/2020

Everyone wants to have the best smile for their wedding day, but how do you manage that? Are there tricks to having a whiter, brighter smile? Here are a few:

1. Maintain and Improve Your Oral Health. By continuing your daily dental routine, and possibly changing a few things, you’ll be able to improve your smile. Your daily routine should look something like this:

• Brushing your teeth twice a day for at least two minutes
• Rinsing your mouth with water after you eat
• Flossing at least once a day
• Using mouthwash daily
• Using toothpaste with fluoride
• Changing your toothbrush every three months or when the bristles are worn out

Follow these steps and you’ll have a better smile and better oral health.

2. Seek Needed Treatment. It’s good to visit your dentist several months before your wedding. This gives you plenty of time to seek dental treatment if you need it. If you need fillings or treatment for gum disease, it’s better to get those treatments taken care of early on.

Another possible treatment you may want to consider is getting veneers. If you have broken or chipped teeth, veneers can help cover that by giving you a whiter smile and improving the texture and appearance of your teeth. There are a lot of celebrities who have had this done. However, it’s not the cheapest procedure so you really want to think about whether or not you have the funds and the time to commit to getting veneers.

Alternatively, if your tooth is unhealthy, a dental implant or crown might be the better fit for you. Keep in mind that this could take up to four months before everything is finished.

3. Teeth Whitening. When thinking about your wedding day and having a better smile, teeth whitening is typically the first method to come to mind. It can be done at the dental office or at home. Using whitening strips, whitening toothpastes and mouthwash can all help you have whiter teeth, but it’s a dentist’s professional whitening system that can have the biggest impact.

However, getting your teeth whitened by a professional can be somewhat costly—generally over $300. If you’re thinking about getting your teeth whitened, incorporate that expense into your wedding budget so it won’t be as much of a surprise.

Also, give yourself plenty of time to have the procedure done. Most couples plan on getting their teeth whitened the week of their wedding, but doing it weeks or a month in advance is what you should plan on. Sometimes teeth whitening can make your teeth sensitive, and you don’t want to endure that during your wedding week.

4. Watch What You Eat. All of these teeth whitening methods are great, but if you don’t watch what you eat, it can be really easy to lose that white smile you just worked so hard to get. These are some of the foods and drinks you should avoid before your wedding:

• Blueberries
• Beets
• Curry
• Pickles
• Refined Carbohydrates
• Tomato Sauce
• Soy Sauce
• Red Wine
• Black Coffee
• Teas with Tannic Acids
• Soda

5. Keep Your Breath Fresh. Along with a great smile should come fresh breath, don’t you think? Grooms, keep some mints handy; and, brides, have one of your bridesmaids keep some mints on hand for you.

Some people really struggle with bad breath though and having mints on hand may not cut it. If you have trouble fighting bad breath, try eating these foods. They can help disguise your bad breath.

6. Choose the Best Makeup for Your Smile. As you’re choosing your lipstick for your wedding day, think about which lipstick will make your teeth look the whitest. There are many lipsticks available that can help your teeth look whiter. Red lipsticks are the most obvious choice, of course, but if you aren’t comfortable with that bright color on your lips then try some pink or coral lipsticks with a blue base. These colors contrast with your teeth perfectly and make your teeth look dazzlingly white.

When choosing your makeup for your wedding day, you also want to think about lipstick that will last. If you think about your wedding day, you will likely be kissing, drinking, eating and talking with people. The color on your lips is bound to fade after all of that. To help your color last, use a smoother to prime your lips for the color and use a small amount of lip liner. This will help secure your lipstick when you apply it. Also, when you apply it, use a brush. This presses the color into your lips better.

7. Be Natural. You may never smile as much as you do on your wedding day—what with the joy you experience upon getting married and all of the pictures you have to take. It can be difficult to not cheese up the photos, and what a waste of that gorgeous smile that would be. The key to taking great pictures on your wedding day is to be natural.  Relax and have fun. If you need help relaxing, practice good posture. Surprisingly, this can help you relax more. And then smile. Show those pearly whites you worked so hard to get. If you have trouble smiling naturally, try out a fake laugh. This can often bring out a real smile, especially if you get your wedding party to join in with you.

How did you attain the best smile for your wedding day? Was it something you thought about?