Veneers are a thin layer of restorative material that is placed over a tooth surface. It is used to either improve the aesthetics of one’s tooth, or to protect the surface of a damaged tooth. There are two main types of material used to fabricate a veneer, composite and porcelain.
A composite veneer may be directly built into the mouth, or indirectly fabricated by a dental technician in a dental laboratory, and then later bonded to the tooth by a cosmetic dentist, typically using a resin cement such as Panavia. In contrast, porcelain veneers may only be indirectly fabricated.
When using veneers, the appearance of one’s teeth can be changed with minimal tooth preparation, i.e. drilling. Although, many veneers procedures can be completed with the little or no local anesthetic, yet traditionally, reducing the size of the tooth of approximately 0.5 mm is required for fitting a porcelain veneer. Composite veneers are becoming increasing popular with people and cosmetic dentists, as they are easy to repair, whereas with porcelain veneers have potential to fracture more easily. It can also be a bit difficult to match the exact shade of an individual veneer to the teeth that are remaining in one’s mouth, this is reason why cosmetic dentists will place several veneers is common.
Some veneers that do not require any drilling by a dentist, in order to remove the tooth structure, but instead, these types of veneers are constructed to be placed on top of one’s teeth. This is why this type of cosmetic dentistry treatment is less invasive to the patient and may be less time-consuming for the cosmetic dentist to complete, yet since the teeth there is no reduction size in the person’s teeth…the veneers may appear to be too large or bulky unless the material used over the tooth is extremely thin.
Veneers can be used to cosmetically resurface someone’s teeth, for instance, make the teeth to appear straighter and structured with a more aesthetically pleasing alignment. This procedure may also be a fast way to improve the appearance of malposed teeth without having to use any orthodontics, yet the amount of malposition of the person’s teeth may be in a way that the veneers by themselves may not be enough for a successful correction. Instead, orthodontics would need to be used, or orthodontics combined with veneers.
The cosmetic dentist who places the veneers will need to be very careful since veneers could increase the thickness in the front of one’s face from the enlarged teeth. If the teeth are too thick, the person’s face may appear to stand out and push out the lips. This can effectively be enough to give the patient a full or almost “donkey” face like appearance when their lips are closed. Veneers must also be created so that if the patient were to bite into them with minimal force, or else the veneers material may chip off the tooth.
There are a lot of people that have small teeth, as this tends to result in a lot of spaces between the teeth, which orthodontists can not do much to combat. This is reason why veneers are very important tools for cosmetic dentists. A cosmetic dentist may use one veneer to restore a single tooth that may have been fractured or discolored, or use multiple teeth to create a more appealing smile.
If you are considering if veneers will be of benefit to you, we suggest you click on one or more of the links below to connect with multiple cosmetic dentists or orthodontists about your dental situation in more detail…
