Porcelain Veneers Denver Guide

Porcelain veneers are an excellent solution for people with discolored crooked, gapped, worn, or cracked teeth. In fact, in many ways porcelain veneers are the flagship cosmetic dental treatment because they can essentially give a person a whole new smile all at once. In addition, porcelain veneers can be a great protective treatment for your teeth.

Decay Resistant

Unlike tooth enamel, the ceramic laminate used to make porcelain veneers neither decays as a result of exposure to the acid byproducts of mouth-dwelling bacteria or stains as a result of exposure to melanoidins found in foods like coffee, black tea, chocolate, and red wine. This means that porcelain veneers can not only give you a great-looking smile, they can give you a smile that lasts. In addition, they can strengthen your teeth by providing an additional layer of support, almost like the layered composite armor used on modern main battle tanks. However, the teeth behind the veneers are still susceptible to decay, and there are some special considerations you should keep in mind about cavities in veneered teeth.

Behind the Veneer

The veneer itself is made of pressed laminate ceramic, which is very strong, and the veneer is attached to the tooth by means of a plastic compound sometimes called cement. Before the veneers are placed or crafted, the teeth are prepared to receive them through the removal of dental enamel. The amount of enamel removed varies, both according to the preferences and the technique of the dentist doing the preparation, and it is unlikely to be completely uniform. Normally, the amount removed is between 0.3 and 0.5 mm, often leaving little to no enamel on the prepared surface. Fortunately, the prepared surface is protected by the veneer.

Possible Dangers

Cavities can still attack veneered teeth. If veneers are placed by an inexperienced or unskilled dentist, there may be ledges, shelves, or other harborages around the edges of the veneers where food can accumulate and bacteria hide from cleanings. In these locations, plaque can build up, and the acid produced by the bacteria can lead to decay around the edges of the veneers. If undetected, these edge cavities can grow and allow bacteria access to the tooth pulp, necessitating a root canal and capping the tooth with a dental crown.

People often think porcelain veneers are likely to chip, but in fact it is much more likely that the compound bonding the veneer to the tooth will fail and the veneer come loose. This becomes more likely if a person consumes a great deal of alcohol, which dissolves some bonding compounds. Worse than an actual separation of the veneer is if some of the bond gets dissolved and creates a void behind the veneer which can again serve as a harborage for bacteria, leading to concealed decay that attacks the tooth and may not be detected until pain begins.

Prevention Better than Cure

As with all dental treatment, prevention is the best approach. With proper care, you can protect your veneered teeth from any of the negative effects we’ve discussed above. First, make sure you have chosen a talented and well-trained cosmetic dentist who uses the highest-quality restorations. Veneers that are properly shaped and placed can remove the possibility of harborages around the veneers. Brush and floss your teeth according to your dentist’s instructions. Make all your semi-annual cleaning and follow-up appointments to catch any decay before it progresses to the level of a serious threat. Limit alcohol consumption and clean your teeth immediately after vomiting to reduce the dissolution of the dental bonding material.

If you do all this, your veneers will last a decade or more protecting your teeth and keeping them stain-free.

Dental veneers are thin customized covers put over the front surface of a tooth. The porcelain they’re made of is remarkably like tooth enamel in the way it behaves with light. They are both semi-translucent. They absorb some light and reflect some, so that they have the same sort of pearly shine and a porcelain dental restoration cannot be distinguished from natural teeth.

Veneers are not placed on back teeth. They’re used for front teeth as a quick way to give you a new smile. If you have any small chips on your teeth, or front teeth that are a bit crooked, or gaps between them that show when you smile, porcelain veneers could be an excellent option for you.

Chips

Large chips might need repair work for your dental health, such as a porcelain filling or crown. But a small chip can simply be covered with a porcelain veneer. Your cosmetic dentist would send information and images of the tooth to a dental lab, where a customized veneer would be shaped exactly right to give the chipped tooth a new front surface.

Crookedness

Extreme crowdedness and crookedness would indicate that all the teeth are out of alignment, which would need orthodontic treatment. Misaligned teeth can cause TMD (Temporomandibular Joint Disease), which is a misaligned jaw joint. It has many painful symptoms and needs to be diagnosed and given its own treatment.

But if the crookedness is slight enough it can be covered with one or more porcelain veneers. The teeth would not have to be moved into better alignment. The shiny new porcelain front surface would replace the previous crookedness in your smile.

Gaps

In past years, if a person had gappy teeth, they wore metal braces, but we’re fortunate to live in a world of more choices. If the gaps are not so large as to be throwing your bite out of alignment, they can be treated without moving the teeth. Large gaps, like extreme crowdedness, might need orthodontic work.

However, small gaps are easily and beautifully treated with porcelain veneers. The veneers are placed on teeth each side of the gap, and each veneer is slightly wider than the tooth it covers. Each one extends very slightly across the gap. This is a dramatic and fast way to transform your smile.

Discoloration

Most yellowing and staining can be removed by a tooth whitening procedure. But when a child is given tetracycline while the teeth are developing, that causes deep stains, too deep for a whitening agent to reach. Genetic factors and trauma can also cause deep stains. If you have any such discoloration and tooth whitening agents have not been effective, porcelain veneers are an excellent solution. The veneers would be custom-made to fit exactly over your teeth, replacing the front surfaces and giving you a bright, evenly white smile.

The Procedure

Two visits are needed with two or three weeks in between while the dental lab makes your veneers. In that waiting period, you can have temporary veneers, or not, as you choose.

In the first visit, your cosmetic dentist evaluates, measures, photographs and collects all the information needed for the dental lab to make your veneers. He or she also prepares the teeth surfaces for veneer attachment, by removing a very slight amount of tooth enamel. This makes room for the thin veneers.

In the second visit, the cosmetic dentist attaches the veneers temporarily, so that he can check for fit and comfort. When you are both satisfied, he will bond them permanently to the teeth. They are now part of those teeth and will not fall off. They will need the same regular brushing and flossing that you give your natural teeth.