Technology
What a smile scan actually is.
A Braceys scan turns your phone’s front camera into a 3D record of the smile you can see when you open wide — something you can rotate, keep, and compare over the course of treatment. Here is what that means in practice, and where it stops.
Capture
Open, turn, and save a surface.
The phone reads depth across your smile while you move through a short guided capture. When it finishes, you have a single 3D model — not a photo, and not a clinical scan from the dental office.
What you get from a scan.
The point is a clear record of the front of your smile between appointments — something you and your orthodontist can look at together.
A 3D model of your smile
Open wide, follow the on-screen guidance, and Braceys builds a surface you can rotate, keep, and come back to later.
Guided so every scan lines up
The capture walks you through the angles it needs. The goal is a consistent record over months, not a one-off selfie.
Stored with your progress
Each scan sits in the same history as your photos, so you can see how the visible front of your smile has changed over time.
Compare two visits by eye
When you have more than one visit saved, you can drag a before/after slider between your earliest progress photo and your latest, or play them in order as a time-lapse. Braceys will not measure the change for you — that comparison stays yours and your orthodontist’s to make.
What it will not reach
These are limits of looking through your mouth from the front — not bugs waiting on a future update:
- Occlusal and lingual surfaces. The camera only sees what your mouth opens onto. Biting surfaces and the tongue side of any tooth are not in the model.
- Molars. Even with a wide open jaw, the cheeks block the back teeth from a front-facing camera.
- Tight contacts between teeth. Where two crowns touch, the gap is too fine for this kind of capture, so they can read as one surface.
- Anything behind the front teeth. The palate and tongue are mostly out of view. What does get picked up there is not something to rely on.
A scan is useful for tracking the visible alignment of your front teeth over time. It is not an intraoral scan and cannot be used as one.
The rest of the app
Scanning is one part of the routine.
Wear tracking, guided progress photos, the treatment plan, and the connection to your orthodontist are what you use every day.
Braceys is a non-medical app. It does not diagnose, it does not give medical advice, and it does not replace your orthodontist.