Unlock Smile Design Secrets with Christian Coachman's Ultimate Course

Designing Smiles with Coachman: An Advanced Hands on Program

Technology changes how we work, but not what makes a smile beautiful. Learn to bridge the gap between your clinical hands and your creative vision to design natural smiles, regardless of the tools you use.

Christian Coachman hands on dental training in Sao Paulo Brazil

The problems you will solve with this course:

1. Looking at a smile and knowing something is wrong, but the exact reasons are not clear.

2. Not getting the exact smile design you wanted from your lab. It's not clear if the problem was your instructions or their lack of understanding.

3. Not having the skills to actually perform a smile design yourself when needed, whether it’s a direct mock up or a CAD project.

4. Receiving work from the lab and having a hard time evaluating whether it’s good enough, where the problems are, and what changes are necessary.

5. Not having a clear system to analyze work by others and generate clear instructions about the necessary changes to minimize the back and forth.

6. Not having the skills to change chairside mock ups, provisionals, and final restorations. Having to rely on others every time the work is not ideal.

7. Having a hard time making patients understand that you are not only a great clinician but also a great smile designer. Patients taking your artistic skills for granted. Not generating differentiation as a smile designer.

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on the critical link between arch width and airway.

Your patients ask for a "wider, brighter smile."

But what if the key to delivering a truly stunning and healthy result wasn't just in the veneers, but in the very foundation of the arch?

What if you could diagnose a hidden health issue with one simple measurement?

This free class will shift your perspective on smile design forever. Discover how to become the go-to diagnostician your patients need by connecting the dots between beauty, function, and health.

DESIGNING SMILES WITH APA COACHMAN DESIGNING SMILES CHALLENGES DESKTOP

The Missing Link in Restorative Success

You may have exceptional clinical skills, but if you cannot visualize and control the final result with precision, your hard work is often compromised. Lacking a structured smile design process creates three major clinical obstacles that undermine your restorative excellence:

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❌ The "Artificial" Trap

The patient’s primary measure of success is the visual outcome. Without artistic mastery of natural shapes and optical illusions, even technically perfect restorations can look bulky or fake, creating a painful disconnect between your clinical effort and the patient’s satisfaction.

❌ Planning in the Dark

Treatment planning without a precise design reference is like building without a blueprint. It forces you to make decisions based on guesswork rather than clear visualization, increasing the risk of functional compromises and the need for stressful mid-treatment adjustments

❌ The Communication Gap

If patients can’t see what you see, they can’t fully trust the destination. Failing to present a compelling visual design breaks the emotional link between the patient and the treatment plan, causing hesitation and a lack of confidence in your proposed solution.

Bridging the Gap in Natural Smile Design

This course teaches everything you need to know about the smile design process to become a truly great modern smile rehabilitator. Hands-on in-person training and online learning.

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Smile analysis & esthetic judgment

Ability to analyze smiles (pre-op, mock-ups, provisionals, and final restorations) and determine what is visually harmonious or uncomfortable based on esthetic principles and norms.

Translating analysis into instructions for the Lab / Designer

Ability to convert smile analysis into clear, actionable instructions for dental technicians or digital designers.

Performing smile design projects (analog or digital)

Ability to personally design smiles, including diagnostic and restorative designs, using analog or digital methods.

Evaluating smile designs created by others

Ability to assess, control, and manage smile designs produced by technicians or designers using structured systems and checklists.

Communicating corrections and managing designers

Ability to provide effective feedback so others can accurately execute changes and improvements.

Performing smile design adjustments personally

Manual and digital dexterity to identify needed improvements and execute them directly (software, models, or intraorally).

Patient communication in smile design

Ability to communicate with patients—listening, interpreting desires, explaining options, and building confidence.

Propel your success with smile design like this...

Learn

Follow the online classes (module 1) and join us for a value-packed hands-on two days in Madrid (module 2).

Implement

Assimilate the knowledge, resources and hands-on mastery shared by Christian. Understand what is necessary to become a great modern smile rehabilitator.

Advance

Implement the proven smile design principles, esthetic know-how and hands-on training in your daily clinical practice.

A program of two modules

Designing Smiles with Christian Coachman is made up of two modules.

Module 1 is online and can be completed at your own pace. Module 2 is in person and takes place at DSD Headquarters in Madrid.

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Designing Smiles Hands On Madrid October 2026 Madrid, Spain Oct 2, 2026 - Oct 3, 2026

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Smile Design Fundamentals - Module 1 of Designing Smiles with Christian Coachman Online Jun 15, 2026 - May 30, 2029

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What dentists and technicians say about the course

... shift anatomy and perception...

“I think any dentist who wants to get a better understanding of how you can shift anatomy and perception without necessarily having to make massive changes, how you're able to blend things and hide things so that they look nice, I think that's the perfect dentist to come to this course. Anybody who just wants an understanding of how to improve these little details and touches that really can make the big difference in a case, that's who this course is geared towards.”

Dr Reynolds Lawnin

Texas, USA

...the artistry of smile design...

“Any dentist that likes the artistry of smile design and likes to communicate well with their lab could highly benefit from this course. There were definitely some things I have learned that I never realized when I'm looking at teeth all day individually. Like, you know, when you're stepping back and looking at the big picture and the smile frame”

Dr Kristen Donohue

Virginia, USA

... Designing Smiles course is an absolutely essential ...

“I wish I had this course in the beginning of my career. The Designing Smiles course is an absolutely essential course for somebody who wants to pursue esthetic and cosmetics in dentistry”

Dr Karen Baghdasaryan

California, USA

The course has exceeded my expectations ...

“The course has exceeded my expectations. What I really wanted out of it was the ability to talk to the lab and have better communication with the lab so that I could actually work as their team member to make smiles better. And not only have I now learned some of the language and now know what to look for when building a smile, but I've got some techniques myself so that even if I'm making temporaries or transitionals in the mouth, I'm going to be significantly better at it.”

Dr Mark McCullough

Ottowa, Canada

Course director & speaker

DSD Founder, Christian Coachman, is going back to his smile design roots to share with you his 20 years’ experience as a dentist, technician and smile architect.

Before founding Digital Smile Design, Christian traveled the world as a master dental ceramist, working alongside some of the best dentists in the world to design their patients’ smiles.

Through this course, Christian will share everything he has learned over the years as a high-end dental ceramist and digital dental lab owner to help dental professionals improve their smile design skills for better communication between clinician and lab.

Module 1 - On demand

My Smile Design Journey
Christian Coachman's DSD Journey
Is Smile Design under control? And the Challenges of a Smile Rehabilitator
Christian Coachman at AO 2013 - Pink Revolution

Class 1: The Why
1. Intro
2. How important is smile design
3. Smile designer know-how and skills
4. Is smile design under control?
5. The missing link: Establishing the face as the ultimate diagnostic tool
6. The 'implant look': Mastering pink aesthetics and surgical communication
7. The single central myth: restoring nature without references
8. What really matters: the three pillars of natural beauty
9. The art of optical illusion: turning clinical compromises into aesthetic success

Class 2: Smile design evolution
1. The beginnings - first 3 generations
2. The evolution - 4th generation
3. The consolidation - 5th and 6th generation
4. Methods and communication
5. Smile design views
6. The virtual patient
7. The smile design methods

Class 3: The guidelines I

1. The art of smile design
2. Orofacial nomenclature
3. Dento-gingival esthetics parameters
4. The mid-line and the smile curve
5. Central dominance, tooth axis and zenith position
6. Tooth proportion, gingival and papillae curve
7. Incisal embrasures
8. Visual fragmentation concept and nagative spaces analysis
9. The papillae factor
10. 4 components of a soft tissue defect
11. Morphological and esthetic problems
12. Unilateral and bilateral defects
13. The gingiva esthetic score

Class 4: The guidelines II

1. Smile design and occlusion negotiation
2. The starting point
3. The vertical dimension myth
4. Opening OVD
5. The gig in the digital era
6. Intraoral references
7. Dental morph-pyschology

Class 5: The guidelines III

1. Intro
2. Natural head position
3. Facial asymmetries
4. Denture influence
5. 5 steps of the smile design process
6. Orthognathic influence
7. Facial profile and facial thirds
8. The lip factor
9. The 6 possible lip factor patients
10. Facial flow
11. Buccal corridor

Class 6: Smile design and treatment planning

1. Arch width and airway
2. Smile design and airway
3. Smile rehabilitation facially and airway driven
4. From designer to planner
5. Diagnostic design sequence
6. Smile design quality control
7. Ten steps of the smile frame 1 to 3
8. Ten steps of the smile frame 4 to 6
9. Ten steps of the smile frame 7 to 10

Class 7: Digital natural restoration

1. Natural libraries & digital smile design
2. Digital smile donator
3. Relevant factors for esthetics on smile rehabilitations
4. Smile test drive analysis and communication
5. Overcoming compromises with optical illusions intro

Class 8: Tutorial - Using keynote for smile design and quality control

Keynote tutorial

Final quiz to prove your knowledge

Extra content

Go to Module 1 - Smile Design Fundamentals

Module 2 - In person, hands on

Day 1

Day 2

Frequently Asked Questions

This is course is not about digital, it's about learning artistic skills. It teaches participants how to become a better restorative dentist or technical regardless of whether you use digital workflows or not.

The professionals who will benefit the most from this course are:

Smile Rehabilitators

Lab Technicians

Restorative Dentists

Ceramists

CAD designers

Christian Coachman says: “I believe we are all beginners when it comes to smile design; there is so much room for improvement.”

Christian Coachman believes that mastering ideal smile design and orofacial harmony is the starting point of interdisciplinary treatment planning and is vital to succeed in modern esthetic dentistry. The problem is that designing smiles in harmony with faces is complex and subjective, and requires artistic skills that we usually don't learn in dental school or at dental technician courses. And to make matters more complicated, many of our cases are not ideal. As a result, it’s important to become great at developing the best smile design possible for the reality of each case.

The course outcomes are as follows:

Develop your artistic skills and master harmony

Learn smile design principles to improve handmade or digital procedures, wax-ups, direct and indirect restorations

Learn modern orofacial and smile design principles

Understand morphology, real shapes and perceived shapes

Design smiles in ideal and compromised situations

Learn functional design and restorative design

Achieve esthetics with 3D technology

Understand the most common restorative and smile design limitations in real cases and how to use artistic principles and optical illusion to overcome them

Deal with space distribution limitations, gingival level limitations, gummy smile, ridge deficiencies, tooth position, and shape and size limitations.

Overcome diastema or black triangle

Overcome functional limitations

Create efficient dentist-lab communication protocols

No, these topics will not be covered. This course is focused on dento-facial esthetics and the artistic skills to create harmony.

Yes. Dental Academy USA designates this activity for 32 hours continuing education credit. Dental Academy USA is an ADA CERP Recognized Provider. This continuing education activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the standards of the ADA Continuing Education Recognition Program (ADA CERP) through joint efforts between Dental Academy USA and Digital Smile Design.

The Designing Smiles course is for all decision makers in the smile rehabilitation process.

If you’re a doctor, you’ll learn how to improve your smile design skills to communicate better with your lab, how to adjust things in the mouth, reshape mock ups and provisionals, make important modifications in final restorations, how to express your analysis of lab work and ask for modifications.

Even if you outsource your smile designs to the DSD Planning Center, it’s important to understand that DSD facilitates decision making – we don’t take the decisions for you.

So this course will help you to improve your smile design skills to communicate better with your lab.

Learning Hub

Madrid Travel Guide

Plan your trip to Madrid with these recommendations from people who know the best places.

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Course Guide

Get the official Course Guide for an overview of the Designing Smiles course.

Read the guide

Drawing the smile curve

Part of the smile design process, Christian Coachman explains how to draw the smile curve.

Watch video

This course takes place in partnership with:

This course is sponsored by:

Continuing Education Credits

Digital Smile Design is proud to offer 32 Continuing Education (CE) Credits for this course through our collaboration with Dental Academy USA, a PACE Approved organization affiliated with the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD) #420360. The AGD represents a prestigious community, dedicated to the support and advancement of general dentists, by providing valuable resources aimed at enhancing their practices and the quality of patient care.