Your smile is the first impression that you leave. A major component in the quality of your smile is the appearance of your teeth. Any damage to your teeth, even if it is only minor, can significantly affect your smile, and your confidence. When your smile is less than perfect, you may be leaving the wrong impression, and you may not even know it. At Healthy Smiles Family Dentistry, we can improve the quality of your smile with porcelain veneers.
Cosmetic Treatment for Minor Imperfections
When the outermost layer of your teeth is affected by chips or cracks, the health of your mouth usually is not affected. However, even the most minor imperfections can significantly affect the quality of your smile. Veneers are a cosmetic restoration designed to restore, or even enhance, the appearance of your teeth. They are thin shell-like structures that are made to be bonded to the fronts of your damaged teeth, effectively covering over the damage, giving you your smile back.
Why Porcelain?
Veneers are frequently either made from composite resin or porcelain. At Healthy Smiles Family Dentistry, our veneers are all porcelain. While composite resin is a cheaper alternative, porcelain offers several significant advantages. For one, it is stronger than composite resin and lasts much longer. Porcelain does not stain as easily as composite resin. It also looks much more natural. Porcelain mimics many of the properties of your natural tooth enamel, including its color and its ability to reflect light.
Correcting a Variety of Issues
Porcelain veneers can be used to restore some different issues, including:
- Small chips or cracks that only affect the enamel of your teeth.
- Minor alignment issues that do not affect your oral health, including small gaps and slight overlapping.
- Teeth that are oddly shaped or sized.
- Discolored teeth.
The Process for Getting Porcelain Veneers
Getting porcelain veneers usually takes two visits to fully complete. At your first appointment, the affected teeth are prepared, and impressions of your mouth are taken. Preparing your teeth is an essential process that involves removing a small portion of the enamel from the fronts of each of the affected teeth. Done under a local anesthetic, this process ensures that your porcelain veneers will fit in perfectly with the rest of your natural teeth. After we prepare the teeth, we then take impressions of your mouth. The impressions are used by a dental lab to design and create your custom veneers.
It can take up to two weeks for your veneers to be completed and sent back. At this point, you will return for your second appointment, during this appointment, we check your veneers to make sure that they sit properly with the rest of your teeth and that they match their color. If we do not need to make any adjustments, we bond the veneers into place, and you leave with a beautifully restored smile.
Why Get Porcelain Veneers?
Porcelain veneers offer several benefits, including:
- They blend in perfectly with the rest of your teeth, improving the quality of your smile and your confidence.
- Porcelain is biocompatible, which means that it will not irritate your gum tissue.
- The material is stain resistant.
- Veneers are strong, and can last 15 years or more with proper care.
Porcelain veneers allow us to restore, and enhance, the appearance of your smile, giving you back your confidence. For more information, call Healthy Smiles Family Dentistry today at Tulsa: (539) 302-3266 Claremore: (918) 343-4300.