What are the Advantages and disadvantages of Dental Veneers?
September 1, 2022
What Are Dental Veneers?
They are dental restorations in Platte Valley Dental Clinic that repair, rebuild, and restore natural teeth. Dental veneers are particularly useful for cosmetic restorations. These dental restorations are tooth-colored and tooth-shaped, allowing them to replace damaged tooth enamel from the front side.
The process of getting dental veneers often requires two separate dental visits. During the first visit, the dentist will prepare your natural tooth, shaving the front side of the tooth. The preparation aims to remove any damaged portion of your tooth while creating room for a dental veneer. After that, your dentist will take impressions of the prepared tooth to guide the creation of your porcelain veneers. The first dental visit ends at this stage. Your dentist will place a temporary tooth crown over your tooth to protect it in the meantime.
The second dental visit is rather short and quick since it concerns installing the dental veneer. Installation requires dental cement and laser. The laser will help cure the adhesive, bonding the porcelain veneer to your natural tooth structure.
What Are Veneers Used for in Dentistry?
Dental veneers are restorations for transforming smiles. They work by masking various dental flaws on the front sides of teeth. The common oral problems you can correct with dental veneers are:
- Tooth fractures – cracks, chips, and breaks can disappear when your dentist places veneers over your natural teeth.
- Stubborn stains – patients with stubborn stains that do not respond well to enamel bleaching can benefit from dental veneers.
- Small spaces between teeth – if you do not want to get braces to close the gaps between your teeth, opt for dental veneers.
- Crooked and misaligned teeth – mild and moderate crookedness of teeth does not always need orthodontic treatment with braces for several months.
- Unusually shaped teeth – your teeth can be too pointy, rounded off, severely short, or worn out. Such teeth can look better with dental veneers.
Advantages of Dental Veneers
The benefits of having dental veneers can help you make a firm decision regarding whether to transform your smile or not. The advantages that make dental veneers very popular among dentists and patients are:
- They are aesthetically pleasing – perhaps the leading reason people love dental veneers is they are aesthetically pleasing. Veneers can improve your teeth’ color, shape, size, and spacing for a drastic smile makeover.
- They look like natural teeth – porcelain is a tooth-colored material mimicking natural teeth’ appearance. After getting veneers, it will be hard to distinguish between them.
- Porcelain veneers are stain resistant – therefore, your veneer teeth will resist food stains much better than other materials like composite.
- They are less invasive than dental crowns – if you have been desiring dental crowns for your teeth, consider dental veneers instead as the less invasive alternative. The reason is that the dentist in Kearney only has to prepare the front side of your teeth instead of the entire surface.
- They are versatile – dental veneers can transform your teeth by fixing an array of dental problems. Some include spaces between teeth, crooked teeth, oddly shaped teeth, stained teeth, and tooth fractures.
Disadvantages of Dental Veneers
Incredible as they are, dental veneers have a few setbacks you should consider before getting them:
- They are irreversible – since the dentist near you must shave your natural tooth enamel to install a veneer, you cannot reverse the procedure. Therefore, if you want to remove your veneer teeth, you must get dental crowns instead.
- They are not permanent – veneer teeth do not last a lifetime. You can keep your teeth intact for about 15-20 years. The better you care for your teeth, the longer your veneers will last.
- They can be costly – dental veneers are not equal cost to composite bonding. The stakes are higher since some dental insurance companies will not cover their cost as they are elective procedures.
- They are only ideal for front teeth – cosmetic dentists generally do not restore molars with dental veneers. The reason is that they only cover the front sides of teeth to mask underlying dental flaws.
- They cannot be bleached – if your porcelain veneers catch stains, you would need to replace them since they are not whitened. In the same way, if you want them to match your teeth’ color, it is advisable to undergo enamel bleaching before getting dental veneers.