What do I need to consider when it comes to Dental Veneers?

Dental veneers change the colour, shape and position of your teeth. There are two types of veneers: direct—which are composite fillings—and indirect.

Type

Advantages

Disadvantages

Direct Veneers

• Quicker

• Tend to be cheaper

• Less shaving of teeth

• Limited applications

• Shorter lifespan

• Bulkier

• Not very strong

• Stain easily

Indirect Veneers

• More changes can be achieved

• Long-lasting

• Extremely strong

• Controllable thickness

• Stain Resistant

• More time needed

• More cost

Types of Porcelain Used

Also varies on the needs of the patient, the experience of the dentist, and skills of the lab technician

• Feldspathic Porcelain
• Pressed Porcelain
• Milled Porcelain (my personal opinion is they are not as strong as they should be)
• Zirconium Oxide

Taking Care of Veneers

1. Brush and floss regularly
2. Have regular scaling and polishing
3. Eat as per normal, but be careful with foods that are hard, such as those containing bones

The Actual Procedure Involves These Steps:

1. Consultation and impression-taking
2. Preparation (once the design is approved)
3. Final impressions
4. Fitting temporaries
5. Fitting of final veneers

Cosmetic vs Aesthetic Aspects of Veneers

• Cosmetic dentistry superficially covers and beautifies
• Aesthetic implies beauty, giving a pleasing, natural and youthful appearance

With veneers, the results are both functional and biological, and also durable and long-lasting 10-20 year lifespans.

How to Choose Your Dentist?

• Based on recommendations
• Experience (More expensive might not be cheap, but worth it)
• Previous Results (Look at the dentist’s previous cases and also see if they understand your wants and needs)
• Options and Cost
• Reviews (if available, say on social media)

SMILEDESIGN

There is no standard smile— everyone has different personalities and features. Hence, there is no one-size-fit-all smile.

I regularly hear “I want straight teeth!” There are so many factors to achieve a perfect smile. Smiledesign was developed to bridge the perception gap the patient has to check the smile in four steps:

1. Discuss with dentist
2. Come up with mockups
3. Mockup smile in your mouth (wear it home, you can check the colour and the shape)
4. Finally, we achieve the Final Smile which is customizable

To help our patients understand what they want, it’s important to consider:
What can we change with our aesthetic procedures?

• Crooked teeth
• Discoloured teeth
• Overbites
• Underbites
• Gap teeth
• Dracula teeth
• Crowded lower teeth
• Open bites
• Missing teeth
• Redefine baby teeth
• Gummy smiles
• Cross bites