Carrollton Porcelain Veneers

The “right” number of veneers varies depending on each person’s unique smile needs. The goal of this treatment is for all your visible teeth to match. Many people get 6-8 veneers to create a beautiful, symmetrical smile. Others might need as many as 10-12. Also, veneers can often benefit people who need to just cover a single cracked or broken tooth.

At the end of your initial visit with your cosmetic dentist in Carrollton, you’ll receive temporary veneers to protect your prepared teeth while you wait for your permanent ones to be made. During this period, you’ll need to avoid hard foods like ice, raw fruits and vegetables, or candy because they can damage your temporary restorations. The good news is once your permanent veneers are in place, you won’t need to be quite as cautious anymore. However, it’s still a good idea to be careful when eating sticky, dark-colored, crunchy, hot, or cold foods and drinks. Plus, you’ll want to drink alcohol sparingly because it can weaken the bonding material holding your restorations in place.

While veneers only attach to the front of teeth, crowns cover an entire tooth. Veneers are primarily used for cosmetic purposes or minor shape corrections when the tooth is mostly intact. In contrast, crowns protect worn or cracked teeth or restore those that have undergone a root canal. Also, veneers are only about one millimeter in thickness while crowns are usually twice as thick. Finally, veneers typically don’t show a gum margin after several years the way crowns often do.

Since veneers eventually require replacement, they’re not considered permanent. However, the process of getting them is irreversible. In preparation, our cosmetic dentist will remove a thin layer of enamel to ensure successful treatment. But unlike hair and nails, removed enamel will never grow back. That’s why when teeth are prepared this way, they will always need to be covered with veneers or crowns.

Fortunately, getting veneers isn’t a painful process. It goes smoothly and easily for almost all patients, assuming it’s handled by a qualified dentist.

Before treatment even starts, the dental team numbs your mouth with an anesthetic. This step ensures your teeth won’t ache while they’re being prepared for veneers. At most, you’ll only feel a slight pressure as the dentist and their staff remove bits of your enamel.

There’s a chance you’ll experience post-treatment soreness, though. Some patients report “bonding sensitivity” after veneer placement, which can cause a sharp pain when you bite hot or cold food. You should thus use painkillers and saltwater rinses as necessary, at least until your temporary ache fades.

Yes, you should be able to drink coffee just fine with veneers. Treatment won’t force you to give up your daily cup of java.

Note that veneers are made of porcelain. This material is stain-resistant and non-porous, so dark-colored foods and drinks struggle to slip beneath its surface. That means having some coffee won’t discolor your shells, and you can keep drinking it without worrying.

Of course, “stain-resistant” isn’t the same thing as “stain-proof.” Excessive coffee drinking could stain your veneers if you aren’t careful, putting your treatment results at risk. You’ll want to have your “cup of joe” in moderation to ensure your shells last as long as possible.

Veneers can give some patients a temporary lisp, resulting in mispronunciations of certain words. Whether this effect applies to you will depend on your situation, lifestyle, etc.

If your treatment does cause a lisp, chalk the issue up to muscle memory. Your tongue won’t be used to the veneers’ presence at first, so it’ll move oddly for a while. This change can result in a lisp when you pronounce certain sounds, especially the “s” and “v” ones.

Rest assured that your tongue will adjust on its own. Given time, you’ll be able to pronounce things just as you did before; the lisp won’t last. You can always have the dentist reduce your veneers’ thickness, though; doing so helps your speech impediment fade more quickly.

Sadly, you can’t whiten veneers as you would natural teeth. The brightening process doesn’t work on the shells due to their unique features.

It comes down to how teeth whitening typically works. To remove stains, the procedure applies bleaching gel to your smile that seeps through your enamel’s pores. Veneers don’t have such pores, as they’re made of porcelain; gel thus can’t seep into them.

All that said, there are potential workarounds for this issue. An ideal one is to start with teeth whitening before you have any veneers placed. That way, your final shells will match your newly brightened grin.