Veneers

What are Dental Veneers?

A dental veneer is a thin layer of material placed over a tooth, either to improve the cosmetic appearance of a tooth or to protect its surface from damage. There are two main types of material used to make a veneer: composite resin or dental porcelain.

A composite resin veneer is typically built up directly in the mouth, whereas porcelain veneers are manufactured by a dental technician. In order to do this, a dentist must first take an impression of your teeth. This is then sent off to the technician’s laboratory to manufacture the veneer(s). The impression allows for the veneer(s) to perfectly fit your teeth. The dentist then cements this newly crafted porcelain veneer onto the teeth.

TEETH BEFORE VENEERS
TEETH AFTER A COSMETIC TREATMENT USING CROWNS AND VENEERS

Who needs Dental Veneers?

Dental veneers are an important tool in cosmetic dentistry. A cosmetic dentist may use one veneer to restore a single tooth that has been fractured or discoloured, or multiple teeth to create a total smile makeover. Some people have small teeth with wide gaps that are not easily closed by orthodontics. Porcelain veneers can offer a solution to this problem by increasing the perceived size of the teeth, thereby making the teeth appear bigger and the gaps between them smaller. This can have the same cosmetic effect as orthodontics, and is achieved in a fraction of the time.

Some people have worn away the edges of their teeth resulting in a prematurely aged appearance, while others may have badly positioned teeth that appear crooked. Multiple veneers can lengthen teeth that have been shortened by wear, fill the black triangles between teeth caused by gum recession, provide a uniform colour, shape, and symmetry, and make the teeth appear straight. Dentists sometimes also recommend using thin porcelain veneers to strengthen worn teeth. Thin veneers are an effective option for ageing patients with worn dentition. In many cases, minimal or no tooth preparation is needed when using porcelain veneers.

Each situation is different and the dentist should assess what is best for each case. Veneers are in reality partial crowns and in some situations a fair amount of tooth structure needs to be removed to get the ideal result. In many cases a combination of orthodontics (dental braces), whitening (bleaching) and bonding composite resin can get a great result without the need for veneers.

If you feel that your smile may benefit from porcelain or composite veneers, please book a consultation online here or call us on 020 8748 1381.

What happens when I get veneers at 92 Dental?

Getting veneers at 92 Dental is usually a very simple process. The stages can vary, however, depending on whether you are getting porcelain or composite veneers, and on how much restructuring of the tooth or teeth is needed before veneers are placed.
As with all our treatments, the process of getting veneers will begin with a consultation with one of our cosmetic dentists. During this consultation we will examine the current state of your teeth, go over exactly how you want your teeth to finally look, and therefore evaluate whether veneers offer you the best option to getting the outcome that you want. All stages of treatment and their costs will be discussed during this consultation.
Once it has been decided that veneers are the best course of cosmetic treatment for you, the process of getting the veneers made and fitted usually takes three sessions with the cosmetic dentist.
The first of these is called the diagnostic wax up. This usually takes about 30 minutes and involves planning in detail what the final veneered teeth will look like. We take shade to determine what the final colour of the veneer will be. This can be a whiter shade than your current tooth, but will be a colour which matches your other teeth in order to give a natural looking finish. We will also determine whether we need to prepare your teeth in any way for the veneer to be attached.
Soon after the diagnostic wax up, a second session will be booked where we will take impressions of your teeth to send to the technician. This session will also include any preparatory work that we may need to do to the teeth in order for the veneer to be attached. Such preparatory work may include filing down the tooth structure or reshaping the tooth. Depending on how much preparatory work is needed, and how many teeth are being veneered, this session can take between one and two hours.
Following about two weeks, the time needed for the dental technician to create the veneers, the veneers will be fitted onto the teeth. The cosmetic dentist will use a specialised dental cement to attach the veneers onto the teeth. This is the final stage of treatment and your smile will be fully restored once the veneers have been attached to your teeth.
Please note that this describes the patient journey for getting porcelain veneers. Composite veneers, which we use less frequently, take a lot less time as they are created in the mouth by the dentist. They can typically be created in one session following a consultation.

If you believe that veneers can improve your smile please book a consultation online here or call us on 020 8748 1381.