What Is A Porcelain Veneer?
You can think of a porcelain veneer a lot like a contact lens, but for your teeth! Porcelain veneers are extremely thin (0.3mm, about the thickness of a business card) sheets of porcelain that are bonded to the front of your tooth. Porcelain is the material of choice because it most naturally replicates human enamel. They are used to change the shape, color, size, and symmetry of the teeth and smile.
Advanced Technology
The porcelain systems we have today are technologically much different than they were in the past. You may have seen veneers that remind you of Chiclets. That look is indicative of old-school dentistry, where very opaque and monochromatic porcelain was used, OR it was a porcelain crown fused to metal. The advanced technology we have today produces veneers that are:
- Stronger
- More translucent, like your natural teeth
- Super thin
- The best option for creating a beautiful, natural smile!
Porcelain Veneer Process
Tri City Dental Care has transformed thousands of smiles and placed tens of thousands of veneers. We use science, experience, skill, and art to make sure every case is a perfect 10! We begin with the end in mind – a gorgeous smile!
Check out our step-by-step process below.
Step 1: The Interview & Consultation: The first step in the porcelain veneer process is for you to contact us for a consultation and discuss your options. We’ll take digital images of your teeth and smile, and we’ll talk about your objectives. We’ll show you pictures of amazing smiles to see what appeals to you, and we’ll offer guidance on which smile might best match the shape and contours of your face. You’ll see hundreds of examples of our own cosmetic dentistry work.
Our entire team is dedicated to understanding what you are looking for. We offer custom treatment plans for the treatment of all scopes, whether it’s only two porcelain veneers or a full-mouth restoration of 28 teeth. You’ll receive a personalized treatment plan for best achieving your goals, and we’ll walk you through the details. By the time this appointment is finished, our dentists will have created the formula that will give you EXACTLY the smile you want and more than you might have thought possible!
Step 2: Your Blueprint: Once we’ve established the cosmetic plan for your smile we make impressions (models) of your mouth and teeth. These are sent with detailed instructions to a Master Ceramist. We choose the best ceramists in the country, based on your specific plan. We communicate with them every step of the way to give you the results you want.
The ceramist will mount your models on a chewing simulator machine and place wax on the teeth to mimic what your veneers will look like. This “wax-up” blueprint ensures the restorations will function properly in your mouth. Tri City Dental Care is concerned not only about your smile looking fabulous, but we also want the results to be functionally long-lasting!
Step 3: The Preparation Appointment & Your Temporaries: Following the wax-up, we’re ready to proceed with the actual dental procedure. Our cosmetic dentists do any necessary contouring of the tooth, ensuring that we’re being as conservative as possible. We’ll numb and prepare your teeth to make models on which the actual veneers are made. The contouring will vary based on our wax-up blueprint.
This test drive gives us the opportunity to make modifications, whether functional or cosmetic. We can make adjustments if they’re too long, too short, too round, etc. You’ll get to identify those changes as we move toward fabricating your permanent veneers with our master ceramist. You’ll wear the temporaries for about three weeks, giving you ample time for alterations.
Step 4: The “Seat” Appointment: The final step is the bonding and placement of your beautiful porcelain veneers. Congratulations, this is the big day! You will have been wearing your temporaries for a few weeks, test driving everything about them. At this seat appointment we remove the temporaries, try in the finished porcelain to make sure it is perfect and to make sure you LOVE the results.
We then permanently bond in the porcelain restorations. We’ll equilibrate your bite, meaning we align all forces so you have perfectly natural movement. If needed, we’ll make impressions for a protective guard for night time wear. The process is now complete!
