INSTALLATION OF VENEERS

What are veneers? What is the difference between a plobma or a crown? Are there any restrictions for installing veneers in turkey? How to properly care for veneers? 

What are veneers and what is the technology?

Veneers are a method of restoring teeth using ceramics. The main task of veneers is to improve the smile, change the shape and color of the teeth. The technology consists in the fact that a tooth or part of it is ground and covered with a special cap – a veneer. They are usually applied to the outer, visible part of the tooth.

What veneers are there, what is the difference between them?

There are different techniques for making veneers. It can be cut from a single piece of ceramic or made by layering the ceramic. The second method is more aesthetically pleasing because it uses materials of different shades. Look at your teeth and you will see that they are not monochrome: at the gums, they are denser and darker, at the incisal edges they are more transparent and lighter.

What is the main purpose of veneers: only smile aesthetics or are there other functions?

Of course, aesthetics are important. For example, if a young girl comes to the doctor with dark teeth and a large distance between them, which makes her smile unattractive and prevents her from arranging her life, then a new smile can radically change her life. Also, an indication can be old, worn out, repeatedly restored living (those with a nerve) teeth. That is, they are not the healthiest teeth, which are not a pity to grind.

Is there a medical indication for veneers?

If initially, a person’s dentition was of an irregular shape, which led to uneven abrasion of the teeth, then after the orthodontist puts the teeth in place with the help of braces, we need to restore their previous shape. Many people mistakenly believe that removing braces is the end of treatment. But this is not the case. In order to fully restore the dentition and make sure that the teeth do not return back to the wrong position, the result of the orthodontist’s work must be fixed with the restoration of the teeth. Moreover, as a rule, the entire dentition is restored – both anterior and posterior teeth. On the lateral teeth, onlays are also made of ceramics using veneer technology (they can be made on any surface of the tooth or on several).

For example, if a person’s incisal edge has worn off due to an incorrect bite, it can be increased with a filling. But it will break down all the time. The veneer, due to its larger gluing area and strength, helps to restore the tooth much more reliably and aesthetically. Although there are indeed situations when fillings and veneers are interchangeable. For example, lateral, chewing teeth can indeed be augmented or restored using both a photopolymer filling and a ceramic onlay.

What is the general difference between veneers and fillings?

Veneers are safer than dental restoration with photopolymer fillings. To make it clearer, I suggest comparing a veneer and filling it with porcelain and plastic dishes. Porcelain crockery looks better initially and retains better during service. In addition, the veneer is made of ceramic, which looks more natural, serves better, has greater strength, and, accordingly, less volume (it turns out that the tooth will need to be groundless). A seal is, in simple words, a kind of plastic, it does not look so beautiful, and it is not so strong, and it will be larger in volume. Although, of course, the seal has its advantages. For example, it is done right in the mouth, in one trip to the doctor,

How does a veneer differ from a crown?

The veneer is not applied to the entire tooth in a circle, but only to its outer part. The entire tooth is ground under the crown along the perimeter, along with the gum, during which such a ledge or cornice is formed, and then a volume crown is put on this tooth. The veneer, even in the case of chewing teeth, can only be worn on a part of the tooth. That is, there is no need to file the entire tooth. Another important difference: teeth without a nerve are usually covered with a crown. It is advisable to place a veneer on a living tooth, in which there is a nerve.

Why?

Firstly, a crown is such a unifying element for a decayed tooth. Usually, if a tooth was treated by clearing all the canals, then it noticeably lost its strength. The crown helps to keep the remaining elements of the tooth “in a heap”. A filling in such cases is also not the best option, since a tooth with treated canals becomes fragile, and as a result, the wall of the tooth may break off, while the filling will remain in place. This often leads to tooth extraction. Secondly, if there is no nerve in the tooth, it loses its natural color, fades. And the veneer is made of partially transparent ceramics, which cannot always cover this darkening.

How long does the entire veneer installation procedure take

In general, about three weeks. But there was also such a case in my practice when we did not cut off the teeth of one patient because she had underdeveloped incisors. In fact, it was a ready-made tooth for a veneer, so we installed it much faster. In general, the procedure looks like this. On the first visit to the doctor, the patient is examined, various images are taken (including 3D).

The design of the future smile is simulated on the computer. Different variants of the shape of the teeth are superimposed on the patient’s photo and the optimal one is selected together with the doctor. On the basis of the impression, temporary plastic onlays are made in the same shape as the future veneers and installed on the teeth. I usually allocate about half a day for all these procedures.  After that, you can either immediately grind your teeth (about half an hour for one tooth), or walk around with the design of a new smile for a while, live, consult with relatives, etc. In any case, whether we have prepared the teeth (filed) or not, the patient walks with temporary overlays. If the patient decides to install veneers, then within two to three weeks a technician in the laboratory will make them. The process is lengthy because it is not only painstaking but also creative. The technique needs to choose the most suitable colors, the degree of transparency, adjust the shape. In general, there is no rush here. On the second visit of the patient to the doctor, temporary overlays are removed and veneers are installed.

It’s worth mentioning that if you have orthodontic issues, it’s best to get them fixed first before getting veneers. For example, if you have misaligned teeth, you should be looking for Invisalign in Boynton Beach or braces near you first. Then, once the misalignment is fixed, you can speak with your dentist about your intention of getting veneers.