You only have a few seconds to make the first impression count, and your smile is the number one contributing factor. However, you may find it difficult to smile when you have damaged teeth. Damaged teeth negatively affect many people's self-confidence, self-consciousness, and self-esteem.
The good news is there is still time to have a smile makeover and boost your confidence. Porcelain veneers may be the key to all this. If placed by an expert dental professional, Porcelain veneers can correct damaged teeth and restore your gorgeous smile as they instantly change the shape and color of your teeth to your desired perfection.
At Beach Dental Care Anaheim, we have handled several cases of porcelain veneer placement and can help you transform your smile into a healthy, beautiful one in only two visits. If you wish to undergo the porcelain veneer placement procedure in anaheim, please do not hesitate to contact us. We will schedule a consultation to inform you about porcelain veneers, determine whether you are a good candidate for the procedure, and create a personalized treatment plan before starting the treatment process.
Porcelain Veneers Overview
Veneers are thin, tooth-colored ceramic shells fixed to the outer surface of the teeth and firmly bonded into place to enhance their appearance. They are one of the most esthetically gratifying and effective remedies for damaged teeth, usually incorporated in smile makeovers to achieve attractive smile transformations.
Veneers are usually made from resin-composite or porcelain materials, bringing up different types of veneers— composite-resin veneers and porcelain veneers. This article focuses on porcelain veneers.
Veneers can be molded and attached to the teeth in a short period. And once they have been bonded into place, they look and feel like the natural teeth in your mouth.
What Dental Problems Can Porcelain Veneers Correct?
Porcelain veneers can treat different cosmetic dental problems, including:
- Chipped teeth
- Broken teeth
- Discolored teeth
- Smaller teeth than average
- Stained teeth
- Worn down teeth
- Crooked or slightly misaligned teeth
- Spacing or gaps in teeth
- Cracked teeth
- Misshapen teeth
Some patients may only receive one porcelain veneer if they have a chipped or broken tooth. However, most patients receive six to eight porcelain veneers to create an even, symmetrical smile. The top front eight teeth are the most commonly applied porcelain veneers.
Suitable Candidates for Porcelain Veneers
Those with significant stains on their teeth are the perfect candidates for porcelain veneers. Although teeth whitening can lighten some stained teeth, other stains cannot be removed by teeth whitening. You can opt for veneers to hide all the unpleasant stains that teeth whitening cannot remove. Porcelain veneers can even conceal discoloration from old fillings and decay.
If you have minor cosmetic problems in the structure of your teeth, porcelain veneers can also be helpful. Veneers hide chips, cracks, and misshapes in teeth. Dental bonding corrects these problems, but veneers are ideal because they achieve the most natural correction possible.
You are also a good candidate for porcelain veneers if you do not grind or clench your teeth. Tooth grinding, prevalently called bruxism, can damage porcelain veneers causing chips and fractures. If you chew ice, your nails, or use your teeth as tools, you may not be a qualified candidate for porcelain veneers. These habits compromise dental health to the extent they can sabotage veneers.
Those with fairly straight teeth are also ideal candidates for porcelain veneers. Porcelain veneers can correct slightly crooked or misaligned teeth. However, significantly misaligned teeth or a misaligned bite can be problematic for porcelain veneers. A substantial misalignment exerts pressure on teeth and may even cause the porcelain veneers to crack.
Fragile teeth cannot support veneers. Therefore, you will not likely qualify as a suitable candidate for porcelain veneers if you have weak teeth. Instead, your dentist may recommend dental crowns as the ideal solution to restore the teeth to their natural strength and appearance.
Most importantly, you should have healthy gums and teeth to be an ideal candidate for porcelain veneers. Your dentist may suggest a procedure to enhance dental health in advance. You must also have enough tooth enamel to qualify as the perfect candidate for porcelain veneers. Veneers stick directly onto the enamel. The dental professional must scrap part of the tooth enamel to create room for the porcelain veneers. But if you do not have enough enamel, the porcelain veneers will lack sufficient surface to maintain a strong bond.
How Porcelain Veneers Are Placed
At your first appointment, your dentist will do an oral examination, discuss your cosmetic goals, create a personalized treatment plan, and provide an estimated price for the placement procedure. After that, they will take digital images of your mouth and tooth or teeth that they need to work on. If need be, they will extract a small layer of the enamel where the porcelain veneer will be attached. Afterward, they will take teeth impressions and send them to the laboratory.
The lab will then mold customized porcelain veneers using the impressions. After your dentist takes your teeth imprints, it generally takes one to two weeks to receive your custom-made porcelain veneers from the laboratory.
After the lab shapes and makes the veneers, you will return for your next appointment for your dentist to place them. During this appointment, the dentist will evaluate the porcelain veneers' shape, color, size, and fit to ensure they meet your specifications. After that, they will clean your teeth thoroughly. This is critical as it prevents bacteria from being trapped underneath the porcelain veneer leading to decay.
After cleaning, they will use a grinding device to make a rougher surface on every tooth, onto which they will attach a porcelain veneer. A rougher surface makes the porcelain veneer stick onto the tooth more easily. The dentist will then place a strong adhesive onto the tooth, attach the porcelain veneer on top, and bond it into place quickly with laser light.
The second appointment typically lasts up to two hours. You will have a full smile makeover within no time. However, the period the appointment lasts may vary based on how many porcelain veneers you need to be placed and whether the dentist used a local anesthetic.
The porcelain veneer placement procedure is not painful. You might experience slight sensitivity while the dentist prepares the tooth, but porcelain veneers can be applied with sedation dentistry techniques or a local anesthetic for a painless experience.
The Cost of Porcelain Veneers
Insurance does not usually cover porcelain veneers because placing them is deemed a cosmetic dental procedure. The veneers generally cost from $925 to $2,500 per tooth, per the American Dental Association. Because each porcelain veneer procedure is personalized to satisfy the patient’s individual needs, the charges vary from one case to another. The final price is determined using several variables, such as the number of porcelain veneers required, the brand name of the veneers, your dentist’s expertise, and your area’s cost of living.
The cost can be significantly lower if you go to a dental clinic with dentistry students supervised by dentists on the dental school faculty. However, even though you might be capable of finding a dental professional who will conduct the porcelain veneer placement procedure at a much lower cost, opting for a less experienced dental professional can result in poor results or expensive complications in the days to come.
Are Porcelain Veneers Durable?
When properly taken care of, porcelain veneers can last several years or even decades. Studies show that traditional porcelain veneers generally last ten to twenty years. Porcelain veneers are made from long-lasting stain-resistant material, which prevents them from changing color, makes them strong, and keeps your smile attractive. Scheduling regular dental exams and practicing proper daily dental hygiene is the ideal way to keep your outcome long-term. If you clench your jaw or grind your teeth during the night, consider an oral appliance to safeguard the veneers when sleeping.
Caring for Your Porcelain Veneers
Unlike other dental processes, recovering after a porcelain veneer placement procedure does not take long. Instead, once the dentist cements the veneers on your teeth and any anesthetic has worn off, you will be able to chew and eat normally. While the anesthetic wears off, do not chew on your tongue or cheeks.
In some instances, right after the dentist places the porcelain veneers, you might realize they feel pretty rough. The rough spots (often from the excessive adhesive that can adhere to the porcelain veneer) wear off after a few days of the usual teeth brushing and eating. Your dental professional can smoothen them out if they do not wear down.
Taking given precautions can ensure your veneers last the longest time possible. The precautions measures include the following:
- Avoid chewing on hard items such as your fingernails, ice, or pens.
- If you clench or grind your teeth during the night, buy a retainer or splint to safeguard your veneers.
- Wear a mouthguard if you play sports.
- Do not chew using your front teeth. Eat harder foods only with your posterior teeth; cut hard food into small pieces to make this possible.
- Avoid using your teeth to open packages.
Benefits of Porcelain Veneers
Porcelain veneers are very popular among people looking for the best way to improve their smile's appearance due to their many advantages. These benefits include the following:
Dental Veneers Require Low Maintenance
You do not have to do much to keep the porcelain veneers pearl white. Porcelain veneers are not porous; thus, they can resist cavities and permanent stains better than tooth enamel. Regular oral habits are required to maintain dental and oral health, although you want to know you do not have to do things out of the ordinary to preserve the porcelain veneers. Unlike natural teeth, porcelain veneers can resist stains, although you still have to floss your teeth once, brush twice a day, and schedule routine dental checkups.
Apart from Correcting Tooth Discoloration that Has Already Occurred, Porcelain Veneers Prevent Discoloration That is Yet to Occur
If you choose the right foods and proper oral hygiene, your veneers will last several years. They can still feel and look great in the next ten years should you care for them properly. Porcelain veneers will absorb most of the impact and come into the most contact with the drinks and foods you consume. Therefore, they will assist in protecting your original teeth. But you should take good care of the veneers. For example, biting down on hard foods or ice too hard may chip them.
Porcelain Veneers Require Minimal Enamel Removal
Unlike a broken bone that can heal itself, tooth enamel does not have living cells; therefore, it can never be replaced after it is worn out. But porcelain veneers only need a thin enamel layer to be scrapped off. If the porcelain veneers are bonded onto the teeth without scraping off the enamel, the teeth will look unnatural and too large. The veneer placement process is often non-invasive and painless, and most patients do not even need anesthesia.
The veneers are attached only to the front part of the teeth, unlike bridges and crowns that are fitted over the whole tooth. Thus, by undergoing the porcelain veneer placement process, you will preserve much tooth enamel compared to a dental crown.
Porcelain Veneers Feel and Look Natural
Porcelain veneers look natural in your mouth since they are customized to fit you. No one will be capable of noticing that you have porcelain veneers on unless you tell them you underwent a cosmetic dental procedure with the porcelain veneers. You cannot downplay the peace of mind you will have if you are sure you have greater self-confidence in your smile. Imagine not worrying about people staring at your teeth. The feeling is invaluable, and porcelain veneers can assist you in achieving that.
Porcelain Veneers Can Correct a Wide Range of Cosmetic Problems at Once
You want to consult a cosmetic dentist to find out if you are an ideal candidate for porcelain veneers. Porcelain veneers can correct minor cosmetic problems you may not like about your dental appearance and smile because they are visible whenever you talk or smile. For example, if your front teeth are slightly gapped, your dental professional may recommend porcelain veneers. Porcelain veneers can also correct chipped, cracked, broken, crooked, worn down teeth and other dental problems mentioned above.
Faster than Orthodontics
When porcelain veneers are used for teeth straightening, they are sometimes referred to as instant orthodontics as they take only a month to complete, compared to one year for traditional orthodontics. That is because porcelain veneers straighten teeth differently compared to conventional orthodontics. For orthodontics, the tooth roots are moved, requiring the body to reshape the bone around the teeth, and this is a slow process. For porcelain veneers, the teeth are reshaped so they straighten without the tooth roots moving. Unlike traditional orthodontics, you do not have to wear a retainer once the treatment ends.
Porcelain Veneers Are Durable
Most people hear the term porcelain and think that veneers are fragile. However, this is not true. Porcelain veneers are generated from advanced dental ceramics known as porcelain, mainly due to their color. The ceramics are so strong that they can be utilized in advanced applications like tank armor and bulletproof vests. This does not mean porcelain veneers are bulletproof. It only means that these veneers are not fragile. Generally, porcelain veneers last a long time without cracking or chipping. Additionally, they resist stains and can shed discoloring beverages for several years if you care for them properly.
The Difference Between Porcelain Veneers, Implants, and Crowns
Porcelain veneers are not similar to dental crowns and implants. Porcelain veneers encase only the front tooth surface, whereas crowns cover the whole tooth. Also, porcelain veneers are thinner than dental crowns— approximately one millimeter compared to two millimeters. Veneers are also less invasive. If you wish to have a dental crown, your dental professional will need to grind or file down more of the enamel to prepare your tooth for the dental crown than they would have to do for the placement of a porcelain veneer.
Meanwhile, a dental implant is affixed in the jawbone to replace a missing tooth, and a dental crown is placed on top of a dental implant. It can take a while after the dental implant is installed for the region around it to heal adequately for the crown to be attached on top.
Find an Experienced Cosmetic Dentist Near Me
At Beach Dental Care Anaheim, we can remedy a wide array of cosmetic dental problems with porcelain veneers and achieve a more natural solution to prevalent issues affecting the function and appearance of your teeth. At our consultation, one of our expert cosmetic dentists will review your individual cosmetic goals before recommending a personalized treatment plan to address your specific needs.
Thanks to our innovative technology, every patient can view a dynamic digital image of their gums and teeth, allowing an in-depth comprehension of the treatment approach. Our technology also facilitates dentist-patient communication, which can result in well-informed treatment decisions and more satisfying final results. If you need dental services for your smile makeover in Anaheim, do not hesitate to contact us at 714-995-4000.
