Cosmetic Dentistry Blog

For anybody looking for the ideal Hollywood smile, there is no cosmetic dental procedure that surpasses porcelain veneers in providing the best possible results. Porcelain veneers are thin layers of porcelain that are bonded to the front of prepared teeth. When they are applied to the front of teeth, they can simultaneously:

• Whiten teeth
• Correct uneven teeth
• Fill gaps in teeth
• Cover chipped, cracked, or otherwise misshapen teeth
• Make slightly crooked teeth straight

There are other cosmetic dental procedures that can fix these problems, but none of them provide the same quality of results as porcelain veneers.

Tooth whitening can make your teeth whiter, of course, but it suffers from a number of limitations. First, how whit your teeth can be depends on the whiteness and thickness of your enamel, whereas porcelain veneers can be as white as you would desire. Tooth whitening is also very temporary, whereas porcelain veneers retain their color for the lifetime of the veneers. This is particularly important if you are a smoker, since smoking often creates very noticeable isolated staining that can set in quite quickly following your whitening procedure.

Dental bonding can correct chipped or misshapen teeth, including filling gaps, by being shaped into the chips of voids of the teeth. However, since dental bonding is essentially a plastic whereas your teeth are ceramic, dental bonding restorations do not blend in as well as our hand-crafted feldspathic porcelain veneers. Dental bonding is ideal as a cavity filler, but for the front of your teeth, nothing surpasses porcelain veneers.

Slightly crooked teeth can be made straight using orthodontics, but straightening with porcelain veneers is not only known as "instant orthodontics" because of its speed, but for many people it is a better option. Our gums have a memory of where our teeth were, and when teeth are moved, the gums want to push them back, forcing you to use a retainer to keep your teeth straight. By maintaining root position and changing the shape of the tooth, porcelain veneers allow straightening without a retainer. When your teeth have been out of alignment for years, they wear down according to their position, and when teeth are moved back into alignment, they may look uneven and need to have their shape corrected using porcelain veneers anyway. Porcelain veneers can transform your slightly crooked smile into a straight, even one right away.

If you want to learn more about the cosmetic benefits of porcelain veneers, contact cosmetic dentist Dr. Brock Tekin at Art of the Smile today.