Porcelain Veneers Questions
Cosmetic Dentistry Directory
What are porcelain veneers?
Porcelain veneers are thin pieces of ceramic bonded to the front surfaces of your natural teeth. They are custom made to fit the exact shape of your teeth, or to slightly change their shape, depending on what is wanted. The porcelain used is chosen to blend perfectly with your natural teeth and create a natural, beautiful smile.
What can porcelain veneers do for me?
Porcelain veneers can conceal:
- Discoloration or spots
- Small gaps
- Old fillings
- Slight crookedness
- Small chips and cracks
- Slight unevenness in tooth sizes
They are a quick and dramatic way to dispose of all those relatively small defects, in one treatment. Alternatively, depending on how severe each defect is, you could have teeth whitening for discoloration, dental bonding for small gaps, chips, crookedness and unevenness of size, white composite fillings or porcelain inlays or onlays to replace old fillings, or porcelain crowns to give each tooth a completely new surface. Porcelain veneers are one of the most popular cosmetic dentistry procedures.
Does it hurt to get porcelain veneers?
No. Anesthetic is given so you should not expect to feel any discomfort. The teeth will be slightly roughened on the front surfaces, to better bond with the veneers, but this involves only an extremely shallow treatment, with only a tiny amount of enamel being removed to make room for the porcelain. Sedation dentistry can also be an option if you have trouble relaxing in a dentist's office.
How long will the procedure take?
Generally, for the entire procedure to be completed, you will need to schedule four appointments. The visits will consist of:
- An initial consultation to discuss the procedure and address your questions
- A visit to prepare the teeth that are to receive the porcelain veneers and to create a mold of them for the lab to use as a model
- The visit where the veneers are bonded to your teeth
- A follow-up visit to ensure your veneers are comfortable and problem-free
What is dental porcelain?
It's a glass-like ceramic which is brittle by itself, but when it's bonded to a tooth, it gives a very tough and durable restoration. It reacts to light in much the same way as our tooth enamel does. Light shining on a natural tooth partly penetrates the enamel and reflects back off the next layer underneath, the yellow-colored dentin. This gives the tooth that characteristic pearly sheen.
Similarly, light shining on a porcelain restoration partly penetrates the porcelain and reflects back off the dental cement used to bond it to the tooth. So the porcelain has that same kind of pearly sheen. If the porcelain matches the shade of white your natural teeth have, it's virtually indistinguishable from them.
Dental porcelain comes in many shades of white, and in the best dental labs, it can be made to match tooth enamel even more by being given slight variations in color, such as our teeth have when you look closely at them.
Dental porcelain does not respond to tooth whitening agents, so it remains whatever shade it was to start with, and does not get any whiter. Therefore, if you'd like to have porcelain veneers, it's best to have a tooth whitening procedure first.
