Porcelain Veneers: The Easy Street to Smile Perfection

Porcelain veneers are thin ceramic 'shells' that are bonded to the front of your teeth. If your incisors and canines aren't as gleamingly white as you'd like them to be, whitening your teeth is a great option — but if they're permanently stained by long-term coffee or tea drinking, smoking, or other discoloration, veneers can be your best bet by far.

Porcelain veneers not only mask discolorations, but they can also be used to brighten teeth, to close gaps between teeth, to lengthen teeth that are too short, or even to repair broken teeth. Wafer-thin veneers are delicate when handled, but once bonded to a tooth are quite tough, also providing a stain-resistance that no other smile design option can give.

Most modern cosmetic dentists, including Drs. Johnson and Risbrudt, consider veneers to be the leading conservative approach to 'perfecting' a tooth's color and size. If your teeth have been exposed to tetracycline, have been broken in an injury, or even have discolored fillings that taint your smile, veneers are likely the answer.

Getting veneers is a multi-step process:

• Your first appointment will be for diagnosis and planning.
• Then you'll come back to get a mold of your teeth taken, upon which the veneers will be based, and have your teeth prepared for the veneers.
• Finally, once the veneers have been sculpted, you'll come back for one last visit during which they'll be bonded to your existing teeth.

Veneers have been shown to stand up to 7-10 years of constant, regular use before needing to be replaced.

Your first appointment will take at least an hour, possibly a few hours depending on the scope of your smile issues. The second involves a minor procedure in which about a millimeter of your enamel is removed before the mold is taken. The laboratory takes 1-3 weeks to fabricate the veneers, after which in the final appointment, the veneers are bonded. That takes a couple of hours. Once you're done, you walk out with the best smile of your life!