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I told my dentist that I wanted to get a smile makeover with porcelain veneers. He mentioned that because of my overbite, I would be a better candidate for something called 360-veneers. I said that would be fine as long as it would remove more tooth structure. He assured me that hardly any structure would be removed. This did not end up being the case. A few days after they were placed, one of them fell off. The underlying tooth was a tiny nub. I called him about it falling off and he did put it back on again for free. However, that tooth has popped off a few more times and well as some other teeth. All of them are the small nubs like the first one. I’m pretty upset about that, not to mention the fact that they keep falling off. Do you have any advice for me? I’m pretty much a nervous wreck all the time.
Mary
Dear Mary,
I am glad you wrote. What your dentist did was unethical. I’d even consider it malpractice. There is no such thing as 360-veneers. Instead, what he gave you was porcelain crowns. He lied to you. If you look at the tooth prep in the pictures above, it shows the difference between preparing a tooth for porcelain veneers as opposed to porcelain crowns. It’s obvious to me by your comment that your teeth were little nubs that you were given crowns. Plus, porcelain veneers only cover the front of your teeth, while dental crowns wrap around the tooth, which is likely what he meant by 360.
Sometimes, when a dentist cannot do a procedure that a patient wants, rather than send them to another dentist they will suggest a different procedure, one that they can do. Porcelain veneers are an advanced cosmetic dental procedure. One that takes significant post-doctoral training. Not many dentists invest in that training., while they were all taught how to do dental crowns. So, that is what he suggests.
Unfortunately for you, it seems like your dentist can’t even get the dental crowns correct. Most dentists go their entire careers without even one tooth falling out, let alone several. It sounds to me like he may have over-contoured the crowns.
My suggestion is that you tell your dentist you are very upset about his misleading you and you want him to pay to have the dental crowns replaced by a dentist of your choosing. There’s no point in him replacing them because he can’t keep them in.
This blog is brought to you by Lafayette, LA Dentist Dr. John Theriot.