By Digital Smile Design
⋅ 4 min read
⋅ 4 Apr 2025
At Digital Smile Design, we often get asked about our DSD Planning Center and what it can really do for your dental clinic’s workflow. Specifically, if you already use treatment planning software such Invisalign’s Smile Architect or SmileCloud by Straumann, why should you consider adding DSD’s dental treatment planning services into the mix?
In this article we will look specifically at a comparison between Invisalign Smile Architect, the treatment planning software created by Invisalign, and the dental treatment planning services provided by the DSD Planning Center – and why there is a place for both in your workflow.
Smile Architect: an overview
Smile Architect is a smile design and treatment planning software from Invisalign which offers clinicians the possibility to have their ortho and restorative planning available in one platform.
Clinicians carry out this ortho-restorative planning inside ClinCheck software, where they have the benefit of using the patient’s face to guide their treatment.
Smile Architect allows clinicians to use technology to improve their clinical outcomes and predictability, and take advantage of visualizations to help patients understand and accept treatment.
Dental treatment planning and the DSD Planning Center: an overview
The DSD Planning Center is a collaborative hub of dentists, technicians, designers and engineers who are experts in treatment planning and dental software.
With a team made up of specialists in each discipline, the DSD Planning Center plans procedures, such as ortho, restorative or implants, and also develops the ‘big picture’ interdisciplinary plan that connects all the procedures throughout the entire treatment.
Working with our dental treatment planning services supports dentists to:
- Diagnose: work with digital tools to analyze patient cases with precision
- Plan: Develop multidisciplinary treatment plans which take patient goals into account
- Present with impact: Showcase treatment possibilities to patients through compelling visuals, helping them make informed decisions
DSD Planning Center and Smile Architect: quick view comparison
Some of the main differences between Smile Architect and the DSD Planning Center include who is responsible for carrying out the planning and the types of treatments that can be planned.
"While Smile Architect is a do-it-yourself software in which doctors invest their time and knowledge to make adjustments, the DSD Planning Center collaborates with the dentist to create the plan for them, with the clinician doing the final review,” summarizes Dr Daniel Ramos, Orthodontic Clinical Mentor at the DSD Planning Center.
In the table below, we have included an overview of the differences between Smile Architect and the DSD Planning Center, including factors such as cost, accountability and treatment specialties.
| Smile Architect | DSD Planning Center | |
|---|---|---|
| Is it a software? | Yes | No |
| Who does the treatment planning? | The end user | DSD Planning Center team |
| Treatment types planned | Orthodontics, restorative | Orthodontics, restorative, implants, periodontics, endodontics, airway, surgery, interdisciplinary treatment plans |
| Quality control delivered by | Invisalign | DSD Planning Center team |
| Cost | No - it’s free for Invisalign providers | Yes - DSD Provider or DSD Clinics membership fees |
| Jaw relationship/occlusion analysis and changes/virtual articulator | No | Yes |
| Lower arch design | No | Yes |
| Upper arch restorative and ortho simulations | Yes | Yes |
| Perio implant simulations | No | Yes |
| CBCT integration | Yes | Yes |
| Interdisciplinary reports | No | Yes |
How do dentists work in practice with Smile Architect + the DSD Planning Center?
With these key differences in mind, what are the main scenarios in which Smile Architect and the DSD Planning Center are most useful for clinicians – and why is there value in working with the DSD Planning Center despite Smile Architect being a key step in your workflow?
The best way to understand is to see how dentists use them in practice. To explore this, we spoke to Dr Elaine Halley – a highly experienced and trained general and cosmetic dentist based in Scotland.
The owner of DSD Clinic Cherry Bank Dental Spa, she has collaborated for many years with the DSD Planning Center and is also a Key Opinion Leader for Invisalign and skilled user of Smile Architect.
We asked her to tell us a little about how she uses Smile Architect and the DSD Planning Center in her own cases.
What does Smile Architect enable you to do?
“Invisalign Smile Architect by Align is an amazing tool that for the first time allows me to plan tooth movements within ClinCheck taking into account the final restorative outcome,” she explains.
“The algorithm in Smile Architect will use the wide smile image taken with the Invisalign App to suggest a smile design which can then be altered or adjusted as required. The in-face photo and video simulations are very helpful in this regard.”
In what type of scenarios is Smile Architect the most useful to you?
“This is especially useful for cases with enamel and dentine loss through tooth wear where the final position of the tooth or teeth will be added to with restorative material. It is also very useful in cases where we are planning a dental implant and want to make sure there is adequate restorative space after treatment - and if combined with the CBCT feature we can also plan for adequate root movement of neighbouring teeth.
Another feature that is very helpful is the ability to plan restorations for lower anteriors. Most smile design softwares struggle to allow design for lower anteriors and when the incisal edges are worn and we are moving the teeth, it is helpful to have the shell designs within Smile Architect to plan the final orthodontic movements and allow for restoration after treatment.
The tooth mass analysis can be used to demonstrate to patients the benefit of moving teeth so that any required restorative dentistry can be more minimal than if the case is treated without moving the teeth.”
What does the DSD Planning Center’s dental treatment planning service enable you to do?
“The DSD Planning Center is a much more comprehensive planning service which includes full anatomical wax-ups taking into account all of the information of the patient from the facial perspective but also including video and dynamic movements in the planning stages. These include motivational and diagnostic wax-ups. The DSD Planning Center also allows for guidance with inter-disciplinary treatment planning, and planning of the final restorations. The ortho planning from the Planning Center involves a treatment planning service with an orthodontist (Daniel Ramos and his team) who can also help with the ClinCheck modifications and be sure that there is a predictable outcome.
So while Smile Architect is an amazing tool in straightforward ortho restorative cases, in complex cases where either guidance is needed with the orthodontic possibilities or there are other disciplines included in the potential plan such as perio surgery, opening the vertical or deciding between implants or other restorative outcomes, the DSD Planning Center provides access to collaborative thinking and discussion especially in cases where ortho may or may not be part of the plan.”
In which scenarios is the DSD Planning Center the most useful to you?
“For me personally, the DSD Planning Center is most helpful to me in managing complex ortho-restorative cases, complex ortho cases alone to give me as a GDP the peace of mind that I have cross-checked my thinking with a specialist team, and in high-value esthetic cases where I want the ultimate in facially driven design to be tested in the mouth and then faithfully replicated with digital dentistry and copy-paste.
It is so important to me when treating full smiles and full mouths that we leverage digital planning for all the benefits it can offer and in my experience the DSD Planning Center’s quality control in this area is second to none.”
How might a dentist find value in having both Smile Architect and access to the DSD Planning Center treatment planning services?
“Smile Architect uses the principles of Digital Smile Design to plan tooth movement with restorative shells. In order to fully maximize the benefits of this tool, it is essential to learn how to design a smile according to the face, and how to adapt the designs according to the character of the patient and the initial diagnoses of the clinical situation. It is important to understand the limitations of treatment and as always, the final development of the treatment plan and the ClinCheck is the responsibility of the treating clinician.
DSD explores all of the possibilities and the limitations of the patient’s presenting condition and the possibilities for treatment. In this way, Smile Architect is a tool to plan orthorestorative cases where DSD is a philosophy for comprehensive care, and the planning center is a partner in diagnostics and inter-disciplinary planning.
As a GDP working comprehensively to deliver all the options for my patients, I love the Align Digital Workflow including Smile Architect, and I use these tools combined with everything I have learnt from DSD and with the DSD Planning Center as my partners in delivering predictable outcomes for my patients.”
Don’t have access to the DSD’s dental treatment planning services?
The DSD Planning Center empowers dentists worldwide to implement comprehensive treatment planning and execution to ensure predictable, high-quality results. Access to the DSD Planning Center services is available exclusively through our memberships:
DSD Provider
When you attend the DSD Provider course, you can enrol onto a DSD Provider membership plan in order to work with the DSD Planning Center and Lab. Work with the team for access to digitally planned and guided solutions for case delivery and improved patient outcomes.
DSD Clinics
This is our most comprehensive membership offering which focuses on the whole clinic team. DSD Clinic membership comes with full access to the DSD Planning Center as well as a range of exclusive benefits.
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