Perfecting Your Smile With Porcelain Dental Veneers

This multipurpose cosmetic dental treatment can make significant improvements to your smile

Whilst cosmetic dentistry may not be quite as popular in the UK as it is in the USA, it is certainly catching up, with around 40% of people claiming that they had undergone some type of cosmetic procedure in a recent survey.

Whilst teeth whitening is the most popular treatment, it isn’t the only one available and we are going to take a look at another treatment that can be beneficial to our Wickford patients in a variety of extremely useful ways.

The treatment we are going to take a look at today is the fitting of teeth veneers. Although perhaps best known for whitening the teeth, they can be useful for resolving a number of problems.

What are dental veneers?

First of all, it is important to understand that veneers don’t change the actual colour of the tooth in the same way that a teeth whitening procedure does. That procedure works by lightening the enamel and the dentin section of the tooth beneath it. Veneers, instead, replace a part of the tooth in the form of a fine layer of enamel at the front of the tooth. This means that an invasive procedure is needed and is why, when it comes to whitening your teeth, we will always investigate whether the non-invasive teeth whitening method that we offer at the Cygnet Dental Practice could be used instead.

A simplistic way to look at veneers is to compare them to false fingernails. The main difference (apart from the obvious ones) is that false fingernails are placed on top of the existing nail. Whilst some veneers can be placed like this, they are traditionally placed after the removal of the equivalent thickness of the discoloured or damaged enamel from the front surface of the tooth. They are then attached using a special adhesive and are trimmed and polished to make them look natural and attractive.

Smile improvements

The most obvious use for this treatment is to provide the patient with a whiter smile. Whilst a teeth whitening treatment can do this very effectively in many cases, there are others, such as where staining is severe, where the improvements provided by a whitening treatment simply won’t go far enough. In cases like this, veneers offer an excellent way to whiten a smile, and, whilst it is true that this does require invasive dentistry, the fact is that veneers are stain resistant and the new whiteness can last for around ten years. To compare, the results from a teeth whitening treatment will gradually fade and needs to be repeated to maintain white teeth.

Other uses

Using veneers for a whiter smile is perhaps their most common use, but it is not the only one. There are at least three other dental issues where veneers can offer an excellent solution. These are:

Chipped/cracked teeth

One problem that can’t be resolved with a teeth whitening procedure is where the teeth have suffered from small cracks and chips which can appear over time and are probably more common in older patients. Simply whitening these teeth may do little other than to highlight these ‘flaws’. The best way to resolve this problem is to replace the damaged enamel altogether with porcelain veneers, thereby providing you with a smooth, consistent appearance to your smile.

Sensitive teeth

A side effect that can occur with chipped and cracked teeth, or with teeth that have suffered from enamel erosion is tooth sensitivity. If you have ever winced in pain when drinking a really hot or cold drink, or even in a chilly wind, it is likely to be due to one of these problems. By using veneers, your teeth are once again protected and you will be able to eat and drink both hot and cold foods without the discomfort of before.

Orthodontic issues

Crooked and uneven teeth mostly require orthodontic treatment to straighten them. There are a few occasions though where veneers can be used to aesthetically make teeth appear more even. For example, where a gap is present between the top two teeth (also known as a diastema), it is sometimes possible to close this using veneers. This will depend on circumstances and it may be that in your case, orthodontics are more appropriate but there are occasions where veneers may be used instead.

In summary then, porcelain veneers have many uses, all of which are potentially very beneficial to you. If you feel that you might benefit from these for one of the reasons above, why not arrange to have a consultation with one of our Wickford dental team to discuss whether this, or another treatment can return your smile to a healthy and attractive one? To make your appointment with us, please call the Cygnet Dental Practice on 01268 733078.