A porcelain veneer is a thin shell of custom-made porcelain designed to cover the front of a tooth. Porcelain veneers conceal imperfections in teeth, enhance their appearance, and can transform your smile beautifully.
When Are Porcelain Veneers Used?
Porcelain veneers conceal the flaws in your teeth that show when you smile. Some of the issues they correct include:
- Chips
- Cracks
- Gaps
- Discoloration and stains
- Misalignment
- Poor length or shape
- Wear
Why Are Porcelain Veneers So Effective?
Porcelain veneers are effective because dental ceramics have attributes that can produce natural-looking, long-lasting results.
Color
Our dental ceramist blends the right shades to create a smile that complements your eyes, skin tone, and facial features.
Opacity and translucence
Light can pass through porcelain and a skilled ceramist can manipulate the material for natural opacity and translucence.
Strength
Although dental composite can resolve many flaws in your teeth, porcelain is much more durable. Composite can turn dull in a couple of years, but porcelain will retain its gloss for many years. It is harder and more stain resistant than tooth enamel.
Are You a Candidate for Veneers?
We’ll do an exam to determine if you’re a candidate for porcelain veneers.
We look for:
- Healthy teeth and gums
- Sufficient tooth enamel for bonding the veneers
- A correctly aligned bite
What Is Our Process?
You can receive a smile makeover with porcelain veneers in as few as two visits.
- Discuss your smile goals – You’ll talk with Dr. Theriot or one of our other dentists at Theriot Family Dental Care about your smile goals, including the shape, size, and color of your teeth. You can bring photos of some smiles that you like. And we’ll show you pictures to help you define what you do or do not want for your smile.
- Take pictures – We will take pictures of your face and smile to help create natural-looking results with your porcelain veneers.
- Prepare your teeth if necessary – Sometimes, no tooth preparation is needed. But your smile goals and the type of veneers you receive may require us to remove a small amount of tooth enamel—usually a fraction of a millimeter—from the fronts and sides of your teeth. The preparation will help the veneers fit well at your gumline and prevent your teeth from looking bulky.
- Take impressions – We will use an intraoral digital scanner to take impressions of your teeth for veneers that fit precisely.
- Craft your veneers – We will send the impressions and pictures of your face, smile, and teeth to an experienced ceramist to craft your porcelain veneers.
- Bonding – After we receive your veneers, you will return to our office to try them on. If you love how your veneers look and feel, we will bond them to your teeth.
You will love your new smile.
How to Care for Your Porcelain Veneers
- Floss between your teeth daily and brush them twice daily with a soft toothbrush and non-abrasive toothpaste.
- Only schedule dental cleaning and exams with a dentist and hygienist trained to care for porcelain veneers. They know which dental instruments will protect—not damage them.
- If you clench or grind your teeth, we can make a custom mouth guard that you will wear while you’re asleep and protect your veneers.
- Wear a protective mouthpiece if you play contact sports.
Ready to Transform Your Smile?
If you’re interested in porcelain veneers, call us, or complete our Request an Appointment form for a ten-minute complimentary consultation or an exam.