Veneers: Making Your Smile More Beautiful

In a perfect world, our teeth would last as long as we do. Unfortunately, this doesn't happen as often as we might like. Even in America, where a dentist is on every block, it's easy to let our oral hygiene fall below the standard. Decay can set in and create cavities. Sometimes it isn't related to hygiene at all. A tooth can get chipped in an instant and the odds of getting it repaired naturally are not good. Sometimes people are born with natural discoloration that no amount of whitening gel is going to fix. If you have any of these issues, veneers may be your ticket to a more beautiful smile. Filling a Need Tooth whitening is an excellent choice for anyone who has a smile that has been stained by time, nicotine, and coffee. Dentures are a great option for those who have lost teeth altogether. But that still leaves a substantial population of patients who can't find what they need for their one discolored tooth. Or that tooth that simply never grew to match the rest. For these people, veneers fill a very important need, both cosmetically and functionally. While there are other options for people who need aesthetic improvement, few overlap significantly with this application. Creating Veneers The best options in dental care are always those that are custom made for your particular situation. Veneers fit this bill. The dentist will make a mold of your teeth and the mold will be sent away to the lab so that a custom application can be made for your tooth. The most popular materials to use in the application are porcelain and ceramic, though there are other options. Once they have been fabricated, the dentist will place them on your teeth, having buffed your enamel with a scuffing material to enable them to stick. After an adhesive has been applied to the surface of your teeth, the application is ready to go on. Drawbacks Are there any negatives to using veneers? There are a few, which may or may not be significant to you. While designed to last a long time, they won't last forever. Getting them removed isn't really an option, either, since your natural tooth underneath will actually look worse due to the scuffing necessary to apply them originally. This leads to the other drawback, which is that they can be expensive. Unless the dentist can say definitively that there is a medical purpose for the application, you may have to pay for them out of pocket.