Tooth Veneers

Overview

Dental veneers, also called dental porcelain laminates or porcelain veneers, are custom-made, wafer-thin shells put on the surface of your teeth to correct your appearance. Veneers are usually meant for treating discoloured teeth that have become stained from excessive drugs, tetracycline and large resin fillings. Also, the procedure treats worn out, broken or chipped teeth, uneven and misaligned teeth and gaps between the teeth.

Before getting veneers, do know that it is an irreversible treatment, so you need to be confident about the procedure. Apart from improving your looks, veneers help to provide resilience and strength to your natural tooth enamel. Your dentist first creates the veneers in a laboratory and bonds it the original tooth.

Mostly, veneers are used to correct smile, enhance the brightness of your teeth, and mend chips or fractures to enhance your appearance. Porcelain veneer is the most common, custom made veneers meant to fit on the teeth. The colour, shape and size of porcelain veneers can last between 10-20 years. Before placing veneers, doctors suggest a few preparations before the final placement is done.

Before the Treatment

• Before the treatment of dental veneers, you need to take a few trips to the doctor’s clinic. First, you should consult with your doctor about the procedure, its benefits, advantages and side effects. After examining your dental condition and going through your dental history and other health conditions, he decides if you are a suitable candidate for dental veneers.
• Next, he will tell you whether a veneer is the best option and how the procedure will be performed. He does X-rays of your teeth and makes impressions of your teeth and mouth. For the same, he takes a mould of your tooth or teeth for which he creates veneers in the laboratory. This is the most significant step since your dentist will determine the shape, size and type of veneers and how it will complement your looks.
• During the period of creating veneers, the patient is given to wear a temporary veneer in order to protect the teeth from any external impact and ensure normal apperance.
• Once the permanent veneers are ready, the patient needs to visit the doctor’s clinic once again to get the new placement.

How it is performed

One or many teeth may undergo the veneering process. How veneers are performed has been described below:

• After the dentist has prepared veneers for your teeth, you are scheduled for an appointment. On the day of the placement, local anaesthesia is administered only for patients who have high teeth sensitivity. Otherwise, in normal cases no anaesthesia is required.
• Before placing the porcelain veneers inside the mouth of the patient, the dentist cleans the tooth with water and pumice. In the meantime, the veneer is etched, rinsed with water and left to dry. An adhesive is put on the veneer and it is then placed on your tooth.
• In the next step, the veneer is light cured for about one minute to allow it to get cemented to the tooth structure. Your dentist will then remove all excess materials and polish the veneers for a symmetrical and smoothening look.

Not in all, but in some cases the dentist schedule a follow-up appointment to check if the veneer is in place and the patient is feeling comfortable wearing it.

Recovery

Unlike other dentistry procedures, veneers do not take so long to recover. Patients may return to work on the same day and continue with normal day-to-day activities. However, if a patient undergoes sedation veneering dentistry, it will take an entire day for him/her to recuperate. Besides, the patient needs someone who can drive him home safely after the procedure.

You should consider taking care of your veneers by regularly brushing and flossing your teeth. Try to use non-abrasive fluoride toothpaste when brushing and avoid dark-coloured liquids as much as possible. The recovery time of Dental Veneer procedure is instant or it may take up to 24 hours. How long the veneer lasts depends upon your oral hygiene.