703.478.9574Porcelain Veneers
Herndon, Reston and Arlington, VA
Porcelain veneers are also called dental veneers or porcelain laminates, and are very thin ceramic shells which are custom-made for each of your teeth that needs correcting.
If your beautiful smile is marred by small defects in your front teeth, such as:
- Intrinsic stains (that whitening won’t remove)
- Chips
- Gaps
- Crookedness
You could correct all that with porcelain veneers. They would be shaped and bonded to your teeth such that gaps would be filled, and stains, chips and crookedness covered.
Click here to read more about porcelain veneers.
Advantages of porcelain
- It’s translucent
Tooth enamel, the outer hard surface of our teeth, is translucent. That means light passes through it. Passes through to what? To the dentin inside the tooth, which is a hard and darker-colored substance that isn’t translucent.
So the light bounces off the dentin and returns back out through the enamel. This is what makes our teeth look shiny and as if they possess depth.
Dental porcelain is also translucent. The veneer is bonded to the front surface of the tooth. Light passes through the porcelain to the opaque cement that bonds it to the tooth, and then bounces back through the porcelain, creating the same shiny effect that natural teeth have. - It’s stain-resistant
Stains are created on our teeth mainly by coffee, smoking, tea, cola drinks, and red wine. They slowly soak into the enamel if they aren’t cleaned off every 6 months or so by a professional dental cleaning.
But dental porcelain is like glass, and how often have you seen stains on your glassware? The porcelain doesn’t retain any of the staining components of the coffee etc. - It’s strong and long-lasting
Thinking of “porcelain”, we might think of a ceramic cup, for instance, and see it being dropped and broken into dozens of fragments. Dental porcelain by itself is brittle, but when it’s attached with dental bonding materials to tooth enamel or dentin, it’s extremely strong. It doesn’t break or crack, but will last longer than natural tooth enamel, if it’s cared for.
This patient hated her teeth. She received 8 Tetracycline staining veneers. The patient now loves to smile!
Care of porcelain veneers
Brushing and flossing is just as important for teeth with porcelain veneers as it is for any teeth. We need to remove plaque to remove the bacteria that multiply within it and eventually cause decay.
The porcelain won’t decay, but the other parts of the tooth will, that are not covered by the veneer. And the gums need that care too, to prevent them from receding. The veneer ends right at the gum line, so any gum recession will create a gap and spoil the effect of the porcelain veneers.
Protect them from hard impacts. They won’t be dislodged or cracked by any normal chewing. But biting on ice, grinding your teeth, or using your teeth as tools to separate something or tear off something not edible will put a greater strain and impact on the veneers and could damage them.
Avoid staining substances. While the porcelain won’t pick up any stains, the cement bonding them to your tooth will, over time. That cement could be visible at the veneer’s edges, so it’s best to care for your porcelain veneers as well as you care for your natural teeth.
Click here to read more about porcelain veneers.
Get more info about porcelain veneers by contacting Dr. Katz to schedule your Free Smile Evaluation in Herndon
