Dental veneers allow you to gain your ideal smile.

Have you ever noticed that a genuine, attractive, and confident smile has an almost magnetic appeal? It’s disarming, often making people come across as friendly or trustworthy. Unfortunately, if you’re self-conscious of your smile, achieving a confident, magnetic smile may seem nearly impossible. You may even find yourself trying to hide your smile in public because you’re worried about what other people will think. Thankfully, cosmetic dentistry has a solution that has the versatility to fix a few small issues with your smile or to completely transform it: dental veneers.

Dental veneers are thin sheets of porcelain that are permanently attached to the front surface of your natural teeth to change their size, shape, or shade. The placement process generally takes two appointments in our office. During the first appointment, your dentist will numb your mouth and prepare your teeth by shaving off a small layer of enamel. Then your dentist will take molds of your teeth that an outside lab will use to make your permanent veneers, and place temporary veneers on your teeth. When your permanent veneers arrive in a few weeks, you’ll return for a second appointment so that your dentist can place the veneers on your teeth. Since they’re capable of resolving multiple issues with your teeth all at once, veneers can help you achieve your ideal smile without undergoing multiple different cosmetic procedures. If you’re just starting to look into veneers, however, you might not know very much about them. To help you determine if they’re right for you, we’ve put together a list of 5 dental issues that veneers can resolve.

Fix Stained or Discolored Teeth with Veneers

There are a number of ways your teeth can become discolored or permanently stained over time. Your teeth accumulate stains from the foods and drinks you consume or from habits like tobacco use or drinking multiple cups of coffee a day. Professional whitening treatments can whiten your teeth by multiple shades, but they can’t protect your teeth from future staining. As a result, you need to commit to making a few lifestyle changes and keeping up with touch-up treatments if you want your teeth to stay white in the long-term. Dental veneers provide an alternative, stain-resistant option that will give you a white smile for years to come. In fact, porcelain veneers are even more stain-resistant than natural teeth!

Additionally, permanent stains can develop on your teeth from incidents in your childhood like injuries to your teeth, the use of a certain type of antibiotic, or too much fluoride. These types of permanent stains simply can’t be whitened by professional whitening treatments, so the best way to erase them is to cover them with dental veneers. Porcelain veneers are applied individually, so you can put a single veneer on a permanently stained tooth or get an entire set to transform your smile. This versatility enables veneers to fit your unique treatment needs so that you can reclaim a white, youthful smile.

Veneers Can Protect Damaged Teeth

Dental veneers can also be placed on your teeth to restore the appearance and protect the health of teeth that have suffered injuries like chipping or cracking. They can even be placed on teeth when they’ve broken slightly or been worn down over time—though when the damage from these types of injury is too severe, a dental crown is sometimes better. When a tooth has suffered injuries like this, it becomes more vulnerable to tooth decay. Dental veneers restore the appearance of the damaged tooth, but they also help seal off cracks, chips, and the area where a tooth has broken from bacteria. This protects your injured tooth by helping to prevent tooth decay at the site of the injury. Plus, porcelain veneers’ ability to match the shade and gloss of your natural teeth ensures that your veneer will look just like a natural tooth.

Crooked or Uneven Teeth

When one or two of your teeth are slightly crooked or uneven, investing months or a year to straighten them out with an orthodontic treatment like braces or clear aligners may not seem worth it. Thankfully, orthodontic treatment isn’t always your only option. Although veneers can’t fix severely crooked teeth, they can be placed on slightly crooked or uneven teeth to make them appear straight and even. With veneers, it only takes about two appointments to provide you with the straight smile you’ve always wanted. Since straight teeth have fewer hard-to-clean corners than crooked teeth do, veneers make it easier to floss and brush your teeth thoroughly. This improves your oral health by lowering your chances of getting tooth decay or gum disease.

It’s important to note, however, that dental veneers will do nothing to remedy your bite itself. It may be better to go ahead and get braces if you have a misaligned bite as well as crooked teeth. If you’re not sure which treatment is right for you, schedule a consultation with your dentist. They can examine your mouth, take X-rays, and give you advice on which treatment to pursue.

Veneers Can Fill Gaps Between Teeth

Many people believe that a gap-toothed grin, which is when two of your teeth have a noticeable gap between them, has a unique charm. If you dislike the gap between your teeth, however, placing dental veneers on your teeth can close it without requiring you to go through lengthy orthodontic treatments. Your dentist does this by placing a veneer on each tooth next to the gap. Each veneer is carefully designed so that the edges have the right amount of spacing between them. This also makes it easier to floss the edges of those teeth more effectively, protecting them from tooth decay.

Tooth Sensitivity

The protective layer of enamel on your teeth can erode over time from brushing your teeth too hard or with materials that are too abrasive, drinking too many acidic drinks, or from simple age. As your enamel thins, there’s less of it protecting the sensitive dentin underneath. This leads to tooth sensitivity, which can cause spikes of pain in response to hot, cold, or sweet foods. It also makes your teeth more vulnerable to tooth decay because bacteria don’t have to eat through as many layers of enamel before they reach the soft dentin. As a result, placing porcelain veneers on teeth suffering from enamel erosion helps you prevent further damage to your enamel and protects your teeth from decay. The veneers accomplish this by acting as a barrier on the front surface of your tooth, protecting it from bacteria and eliminating tooth sensitivity.

Your smile doesn’t need to be perfect to be beautiful, but veneers can resolve a wide range of dental issues to make your smile healthier while helping you feel more confident. If you’d like to know more about veneers and how they can help you regain confidence in your smile, you can call our office to schedule a consultation at any time.