Planning to upgrade your smile? Just make an appointment with any cosmetic dentist. Right? Not so fast.

A wonderful smile doctor can be hard to findparticularly when looking for a seasoned professional who provides sophisticated planning for appearance-related treatments. Cosmetic dentistry is as much about developing an eye for esthetics as it is about using intricate high-tech materials, says Dr. Daniel J. Deutsch, of the Washington Center for Dentistry, in Washington, DC. The trick is to learn about and apply artistic principles to smile design and keeping up with advanced-grade porcelains.

That means knowing your materials and making choices based on physical traitsheight, shape of the face, lips, skin color, bone structureas well as personality traits of patients. A smile does not exist in a vacuum, says Dr. Deutsch. It needs to complement someones overall look and naturally reflect the person inside.

Most dental consumers would be surprised to learn that cosmetics is not even considered a specialty in the practice of dentistry. Any dentist can claim to be a cosmetic dentist with or without years of additional training or experience.

So, how do dentists hold themselves to a high standard and rise to the top of their game in the cosmetic arena? The answer is a lot of educationwith the right teachers. To go for that high level of excellence, it takes a lot of effort to seek out the few, extraordinary practitioners offering comprehensive teaching programs, says Dr. Marc Doctors, also of the Washington Center for Dentistry, who travels far away for lectures and intense hands-on workshop sessions. And any dentist will tell you its hard to leave a practice and take time to improve their level of expertise.

And after all that educationexperience matters most. It is one thing to know it, and it is another to master it and apply it in the right way.

Theres a steep learning curve with cosmetic procedures, says Dr. Deutsch, who has traveled as far as Seattle, Washington for courses. It takes time to learn how to apply techniques to different people, to bring out the best in each person. Thats the true art of being a cosmetic dentist.

And heres a tip for patients looking for the ultimate cosmetic dentist: A highly regarded cosmetic dentist is a dentist who has done hundreds and hundreds of cases, says Dr. Deutsch. He should be able to display photos of many, many of his own patientsshowing their smiles before and after. Thats what really matters.