If you’re not happy with the shape, size or colour of your front teeth, the solution to the problem may be to have them covered with veneers. This concealment, invisible to both the patient and their environment is a way to achieve the ideal smile.
Step-by-step treatment process:
- The first step, as before any dental procedure, is a thorough cleaning of the teeth, i.e. an oral hygiene treatment, with a thorough scaling to remove tartar and discolouration from the teeth.
- This is followed by wax modelling, which will show you in advance the aesthetic result you can expect. At this stage, every aspect can still be changed and modified to suit your individual ideas. This procedure is called smile design, which guarantees that the direct veneer to be constructed will result in a perfectly harmonious and natural smile, and will match your existing teeth exactly.
- The smile design is followed by the construction of a tooth in the shape and colour of the model, which is identical in appearance and naturalness to the natural teeth.
Frequently asked questions
How are porcelain veneers made?
Since the aim is to achieve an ideal appearance, a so-called smile design is recommended before the final veneer(s) is/are made. This involves analysing the smile, the position of the teeth and lips when speaking, and the position of the teeth in relation to each other, to develop the ideal tooth shape together with the patient and the dental technician. On this basis, a temporary veneer is made, which is used to verify the new tooth shape in the mouth. Once the patient is satisfied, work can begin. The tooth must be prepared for the veneer. This means removing a 0.3-0.5 millimetre layer of the front surface of the tooth, depending on what the new tooth shape requires, as space must be provided for the veneer, which is at least 0.3 millimetres thick.
With the techniques available today, a high level of precision and aesthetics can be achieved while sacrificing only the necessary, that is, the minimum amount of tooth material.
After preparing the tooth surface, we take impressions of both dental arches. On the basis of these, the dental technician will prepare the veneer according to the previously designed shape and colour on the sample obtained, which will be bonded to the tooth at a subsequent appointment.
What are porcelain veneers and what are they made of?
A porcelain veneer is a thin, solid covering made by a dental technician in the exact desired shape and shade, which is bonded to the front surface of the incisors to give them an enhanced appearance.
It is made of ceramic, which is strong and aesthetic enough to withstand the forces that cause tooth wear, while providing a colour that is almost identical to that of the natural teeth.
