These are white tooth covers that are attached to the surface of your tooth or teeth to hide tooth discolouration that cannot be treated using teeth whitening gels or conventional teeth cleaning. Before diving into details about dental veneers, you need to understand what happens before they are attached.

Dental Examination

When you visit a dentist for dental veneer treatment, your dentist will first examine your teeth. This is mostly to confirm that you do not have any underlying dental condition that could make dental veneer treatment impossible.

An example of such an underlying condition is tooth decay that has led to tooth structural damage. Depending on the severity of the structural damage, you might need various procedures; for example:

  • For minor tooth decay, you need a dental filling
  • For moderate tooth decay, you need a root canal
  • For severe tooth decay, you need tooth extraction services, followed by the installation of an artificial tooth or dental crown through dental bridges, dental implants or dentures.

Healthy Teeth

If the dentist finds that you have no underlying conditions, you will become eligible for a dental veneer procedure. You have two options: to get composite or porcelain veneers.

Composite veneers

These are cheaper and do not involve a lot of dental work; in fact, the procedure can be completed in one dental visit. Your dentist applies the composite veneer on your teeth and spreads it out evenly to shape it for each tooth. It is then dried so that it does not come off easily. Composite veneers do give a good white colour, but some people might say the colour is not as good as porcelain veneers. Additionally, they might not last as long as porcelain veneers.

Choose these veneers if you can't afford porcelain veneers or if you do not want any drilling on your healthy teeth. 

Porcelain veneers

These veneers are more expensive than composite veneers because they involve a lot of dental work. The dentist needs to create a mould to get precise measurements for making the porcelain veneers.

Porcelain veneers cover the front side of your teeth and the bottom (biting surface). The dentist may need to inject you for numbing purposes then drill away a small thickness of the enamel. The porcelain veneers to be attached are of the same thickness drilled away.

Porcelain veneers are popular because they offer a more natural look. Therefore, if you want great results and don't mind the cost, you can choose porcelain veneers.

Contact a local dentist to learn more about dental veneers.

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