What Are Dental Veneers?

Do you like your smile? You may have healthy teeth, but if you suffer from gaps or too-short teeth in the front, you may not want to show off your smile. Don’t let the appearance of your teeth keep you from smiling. Dental veneers can help you to get your smile back with a simple cosmetic dental procedure that can last for years.

What Are Dental Veneers?

Some types restore function to teeth, while others improve the appearance of the smile. Dental veneers fall into the second group of dental services. As a cosmetic procedure, they can dramatically improve the appearance of your front teeth, which show most when you smile.

Dental veneers include extremely thin yet durable porcelain sheets that the dentist adheres to your teeth with a bonding agent. These coverings last for years and fix problems with one or more front teeth that you cannot have crowns placed over.

Because these serve a cosmetic purpose, your dentist will want them to blend as well as possible with the uncovered teeth in your mouth. To accomplish this, they will take molds or scans of your teeth and color-match the veneer to fit the shape and color of your natural teeth. The dentist then sends data for your veneers to a lab where staff custom-build your porcelain veneers and ship them back to your dentist.

If you want a solution for your front teeth that gives your smile a natural color with good spacing between all your teeth, veneers might help.

Who Needs Dental Veneers?

Ideally, dental veneers work best for those who have healthy teeth that don’t look great. Placing veneers over teeth can correct the following issues in individual teeth or groups of two or three teeth:

• Pairs of teeth that have large gaps between them
• Teeth that are too short compared to their neighbors
• Teeth with minor chips
• Individual teeth with discoloration
• Teeth with irregular shapes

If you have any of the above issues, talk to your dentist about possibly correcting the problem with veneers.

What Happens When You Get Dental Veneers?

When you choose to get dental veneers, you’ll need to allow for three visits for the process. These steps allow you to find out if veneers will help your smile, get fitted for the veneers, and have the finished pieces placed.

First, you’ll talk to your dentist about your eligibility for veneers. Your goals for your smile will help your dentist determine if veneers will give you the smile you want. For instance, if you have poorly spaced teeth throughout your mouth, you may benefit more from an alignment process, such as Invisalign, that straightens all your teeth and makes them evenly spaced. However, veneers work best if you only have a couple of gaps in your front teeth you want to fix.

After you and your dentist agree to have veneers put on your teeth, you’ll make an appointment to make the molds of your teeth. During this visit, the dentist will shape your teeth for the veneers and create molds. The shaping process removes a small amount of tooth material to allow the veneers to be at the same level as the rest of your teeth. Once your dentist has the mold, they’ll send it to a lab for the custom creation of your porcelain veneers. You may have temporary veneers to protect your teeth in the meantime.

Once your veneers arrive, the dentist expertly places them on your teeth. To hold them in place, your dentist uses a bonding agent. Application of the bonding agent and the veneers require a deft hand and an expert eye. Make sure to trust your smile to a dentist who has a proven record of successful porcelain veneer placements.

Advantages of Choosing Porcelain Veneers

Veneers offer you a simple way to fix individual tooth problems. For instance, you may have had decay that required a root canal to repair, but the tooth didn’t need a crown. Decay can, however, cause discoloration in a tooth, even after you have had root canal treatment. Therefore, you might notice that the tooth stands out from the others in your mouth. A veneer placed over the tooth’s front will hide the color difference and make you smile with pride again.

Another perk of veneers is its ability to avoid staining. Yes, you still will have to brush and floss all teeth covered with veneers, but the material will remain in good condition throughout the years. Finally, the best advantage of porcelain veneers is how long they last. You may not need to have them replaced for a decade or longer, depending on how well you care for them.

Many people find the benefits of veneers far outweigh any disadvantages they have.

Disadvantages of Choosing Porcelain Veneers

Like all dental fixtures, veneers have some downsides. First, you will need to make multiple visits to the dentist for the veneers. If you have a limited time, you might consider dental bonding as a faster, though less long-lived, option.

Second, with veneers, your dentist will need to prep the surfaces of the teeth by removing thin layers of enamel. If a veneer breaks, you’ll need to get to the dentist as soon as possible to have it replaced to protect your teeth. Plus, you cannot choose bonding on the veneer-covered teeth in the future. You will have to replace the veneers with new porcelain veneers.

Talk to your dentist about how the pros and cons of dental veneers will impact your personal goals for your smile’s appearance and your dental health.

See Us at Langley Dental Care for Dental Veneers or Other Cosmetic Services

Gain your confidence back with a new smile. Let us at Langley Dental Care help. Contact us to schedule a consultation.