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Dental veneers

A veneer is a thin shell of porcelain bonded to the front of a tooth to change its colour and its shape. A small amount of enamel is removed first, which is why the decision is permanent. Fitting takes two or three appointments across two to three weeks. Good veneers last ten to fifteen years before they need replacing.

What a veneer is

A shell of porcelain, roughly the thickness of a contact lens, bonded to the front of a tooth. It covers the colour underneath and changes the shape of the edge, which together is most of what people mean when they say they want a better smile.

It covers the front and the biting edge. It does not cover the back, which is why a veneer needs a fundamentally sound tooth underneath it. A tooth that is heavily filled or broken needs a crown instead, and that difference decides a great deal.

How the treatment runs

  1. Planning. Photographs, a scan, and a conversation about shape and colour that is longer than you expect. This is where the result is decided, not at the fitting.
  2. A trial smile, where the case earns it. The proposed shape is built in temporary material in your mouth so you can see it before anything is removed. We use this whenever the change is significant.
  3. Preparation. A third to a half of a millimetre of enamel off the front surface, under local anaesthetic. Temporaries go on the same day.
  4. The laboratory. Ten days or so while the porcelain is made and shaded. Rushing this stage is where cases go wrong.
  5. Fitting. The temporaries come off, the fit and the colour are checked with you before anything is bonded, and then they are bonded permanently.

How long they last

Ten to fifteen years is the realistic range, and plenty last longer. They rarely fail suddenly. What happens is slower: the gum recedes a little over the years, the join at the gum line starts to show, and at some point you decide it is time.

Budget for replacement rather than treating the first set as the end of it.

What they cannot fix

Veneers change how a tooth looks from the front. They do not move teeth, they do not treat gums, and they do not make anything stronger.

Badly crooked teeth covered in porcelain still sit where they sat. The porcelain has to be built thicker on one side to fake the alignment, which means more enamel removed and a bulkier result. If the teeth are in the wrong place, move them first. It costs less and it takes nothing away.

The alternative worth trying first

If your teeth are a good shape and the only complaint is colour, veneers are an expensive answer to a cheap problem. Whitening removes nothing, costs a fraction, and can be repeated. Try it, live with it for a month, then decide.

We would rather you whitened and left than had porcelain you did not need. If you want the comparison with the heavier option, it is on veneers compared with crowns.

Questions people ask

Usually between a third and a half of a millimetre from the front surface, which is far less than a crown but is not nothing. It is roughly the thickness of the porcelain replacing it, so the tooth does not end up bulkier. On well aligned teeth a thinner preparation is sometimes possible.

They do when they are all the same length, all the same flat white, and too big for the face. That look is a choice, usually the patient's, and it can only be undone by replacing them. Porcelain can be made to match the translucency of a real tooth, which is what we aim for and what takes the laboratory longer.

Both happen. A veneer that has debonded can usually be rebonded if it is undamaged. A chipped one has to be replaced, because porcelain cannot be repaired invisibly. Grinding your teeth at night is the main cause of both, and a night guard costs very little next to a new veneer.

Yes, and it is the hardest work in the practice. Matching a single porcelain veneer to the natural teeth beside it is far more demanding than making eight that match each other. It is doable and it takes more laboratory time, which is reflected in what it costs.

Lumineers is a brand of very thin veneer that sometimes needs no enamel removed at all. The trade off is that they add thickness rather than replace it, so they suit small or slightly recessed teeth and look bulky on teeth that are already prominent. It depends on your tooth, not on the brand.

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