Are your teeth badly stained, strangely shaped, crooked, or otherwise not up to the standards you have for yourself? Porcelain veneers may be the perfect solution for you!
What Are Porcelain Veneers?
Porcelain veneers are precisely cut, thin slices of porcelain that are permanently and seamlessly bonded to the surfaces of damaged or imperfect teeth. In doing so, veneers effectively create a new facade, or veneer, for your smile.
Why Porcelain Veneers Are The Way To Go
Porcelain is inherently a very strong, durable, and nonporous material. Not only will porcelain veneers greatly enhance the aesthetics of your smile, they also have a long life expectancy, resist common staining agents such as coffee and cigarettes (although smoking is still not recommended), and repel odor-producing bacteria. They are biocompatible, esthetic, insoluble, and quite hard. On the Moh’s scale of hardness, dental porcelain rates at a 7, which on par with quartz. Generally speaking, dental porcelain is the industry standard when it comes to life-like, durable, and aesthetically pleasing materials for dental work.
The Porcelain Veneer Process
Typically the whole process will require just three appointments. The first is merely to identify which treatment or procedure is best suited for your needs and budget. Once it has been determined and decided that porcelain veneers is the way to go, a second appointment will be necessary in order to prepare the teeth. During this second preparatory visit, the dentist will lightly buff your teeth in order to remove a small portion of the enamel to accommodate the proposed veneers. On the same visit, molds of the teeth to be treated will be taken and sent to a lab for fabrication of the porcelain veneers. Finally, on the final visit, the dentist or prosthodontist in question will bond your custom veneers to your teeth utilizing a very strong, specialized bonding agent. Once this process is complete, you are done! Your veneers are now an extension of your natural teeth.
Veneer Care and Maintenance
One of the great benefits of veneers is that they require no more maintenance or care than your natural teeth. You will have to brush, floss, and go to your dentist for routine cleaning but porcelain veneers require very little extra upkeep. During the first few weeks after the bonding process, however, you may notice slight changes in your teeth occur. This is natural as the veneers settle in and your mouth gets used to a new and improved set of teeth.