Porcelain Veneers

In a hurry?  If you want to skip the informational explanation that follows and jump straight to some before and after photos....just click on one of these names....  

Catherine    Donna

Porcelain veneers have been around for a long time.  If you've seen many Shirley Temple movies, you may have noticed that during all those movies...which span the entirety of her late childhood and early adolescence...you never saw her with missing or partially erupted front teeth...as you would expect to see with children.  Her teeth always looked straight and perfect...with nothing rotated, crooked, partially erupted into place, or missing.  This was achieved with a combination of porcelain veneers for the partially erupted or crooked teeth...and dental prosthetics for the missing teeth.  These veneers could not be permanently attached to her teeth because bonding had not been invented yet.  But, they could cement them into place long enough to film each scene she was in. 

In the late 70's/early 80's various bonding agents became available that allowed porcelain veneers to go from being just a temporary "Hollywood fix" to a more long-lasting option to consider for improving one's smile.  Dr. Quevedo has been doing porcelain veneers since the early 80's.  In those days, the typical case involved very little (if any) tooth reduction.  The veneers were made to bond directly on top of the patient's teeth which (of course), made the front teeth feel "thicker" to the patient than they originally were.  Although they looked nice, they did not look beautiful by today's standards.  In addition to the "bulky....thick" way they looked and felt....it was almost impossible to get a good, smooth margin around the edges.  You ended up with the edge of porcelain creating a ledge along the gumline, which is not good for the gums.  It is very difficult to take a diamond bur and smooth this edge of porcelain flush with the tooth without also scratching, abrading, or ditching the neck of the tooth.  Because of these reasons...no-prep veneers fell out of favor and you didn't see very many high end cosmetic dentists placing them anymore.  The only situation that no-prep veneers make much sense is in the case of abnormally small front teeth, such as "peg laterals". 

Let's fast forward to today.....  The finest cosmetic dentists almost always minimally reduce the front surface of the teeth receiving porcelain veneers.  Minimal prep veneers involve removing from 0.3 mm to 0.75 mm across the front surface of each tooth, which is almost negligible.  This is how thick today's more beautiful porcelain veneers are.  This keeps the teeth from looking and feeling "bulky" or thick...and allows us to achieve very smooth finish lines along the margins (in other words...no ledge around the edge).  With minimal prep veneers being the current state of the art, it is somewhat amazing to see a reemergence of no-prep veneers today.  The company that markets them so heavily has renamed them from what they were called back in 1984...but even with the new name and the multi-million dollar advertising budget...they're still the same basic thing we put behind us back in the 80's.   

With ALL of our porcelain veneer cases we begin with two things.  First of all, the patient selects their perfect smile design using our computerized "Smile Style Guide".  You'd be amazed at the variance from smile to smile...and beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.  So...rather than have you tell me you'd like a "pretty smile" (which really isn't very specific, is it?)...you get to pick the smile that YOU think is beautiful!  Since the best surprise is NO surprise, we feel it's better to have the patient involved throughout this process rather than making them wait until it's time to deliver the case before they've seen what they are going to look like.  Next...we communicate the smile style you've chosen to our lab and they create a diagnostic wax up of your new smile on stone models.  This allows you to "preview" your new smile.  We do not continue the case until you're happy with your smile design.  Once we have your approval, we make a mold of the diagnostic wax up using a silicon putty material.  We use this mold of your wax-up to make the temporary veneers you'll wear while the real things are being made at the lab.  This gives you one more opportunity to get a glimpse of your new smile...since the temp's are going to be shaped just like your porcelain veneers.

  The Interactive Smile Style Guide    The diagnostic wax-up and mold we used
                                                                    for Catherine's case below          

Catherine

Catherine is a good case to begin with.  She was a victim of Tetracycline staining across her front teeth, which made them very dark.  She had had some direct composite bonding done several years ago in an attempt to cover up the stains, but was unhappy with the result.  In addition, her central incisors were just wide as they were tall, making them appear "square".

           Pre-Op Smile

She seems pleased with her new temporaries, doesn't she?  This is immediately after prepping her teeth, getting impressions, and making her temps.

                       The smile says it all!                                                          

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Donna

Donna is a good example of a Smile Makeover.  Her old dentist removed all four of her first premolars and filled in the gaps with dark bonded metal bridges.  She was very unhappy with them, and wanted to lighten her teeth and get a prettier smile while she was at it with some porcelain veneers.

First of all, we had to remove those four dark bonded bridges, and then close the spaces and correct rotated teeth with Invisalign.  Then we whitened her teeth with Opalesence^© and began the process of starting her veneers as described above.    

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Back to the Photo Gallery to see photos of other types of dentistry

Ready to start YOUR Smile Makeover?  Call 407-786-2552 to schedule a cosmetic consultation with Dr. Quevedo.  Serving Longwood, Orlando, Lake Mary, Altamonte Springs, Apopka, Winter Park, Maitland, Casselberry, Winter Springs, and all of Central Florida,  Daniel T. Quevedo D.D.S., Member Florida Academy Of Cosmetic Dentistry.