Hi Dr Fong here. One of the gentle dentists in Dental House Group.
Dental veneers are a very thin layer of porcelain or composite bonded to the front of your teeth. And are used in a smile makeover to mask uneven smile, crooked teeth, or discoloured teeth.
To make the veneers look as naturally beautified as possible, your teeth will have to be adjusted or modified slightly. However, the more uneven the smile or discoloured your teeth are, the more we will have to modify your teeth and the weaker your teeth can become.
Fortunately, there are procedures we can do to minimise the need of modifying your teeth or even no modification required.
Firstly, we can move your teeth to a more ideal position for the veneers. The less uneven the smile is, the less we will have to adjust your teeth. We can use fast braces to move your teeth or Invisalign, which is a virtually invisible braces, and sometimes we will only need as little as 6 months to move your teeth.
Secondly, we can bleach your teeth. The less colour we need to change for your teeth, the less we have to modify your teeth. Depending on your teeth, we can bleach your teeth to a more ideal colour before we cover them with the shinny white veneers. Now keep in mind, porcelain veneers are almost stain-free, unlike our natural teeth.
Thirdly, the more teeth we place the veneers on, the less we will have to modify your teeth. The purpose of veneers is to even out the smile or teeth. To match the tooth beside the veneered tooth in shape, size, contour and colour, we need layers of porcelain or composite. And hence our artist dentist or technician needs space for the layering. The less they have to copy, the fewer layers are required, especially if all your teeth are small to start with, and sometimes, we don’t even have to modify your teeth at all.
Lastly, some teeth are weak to start with. They either have numerous fillings, large fillings or broken to start with. Dental veneers can even strengthen these teeth.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to planning and clinical experience. I hope this gives you a better understanding of dental veneers, and how they can potentially strengthen your teeth. If you are considering upgrading your smile with either composite or porcelain veneers, we would love to help. Here at Dental House Group, we have done thousands of dental veneers over the years, so you will be in experienced hands. Simply give us a call on 1800GENTLE, direct message us on social media, or complete the form on our website. See you in the next video.
