Cosmetic Dentistry-Veneers

I think getting your teeth nice and straight and pretty and whitening your teeth is the best way to kind of make you have that beautiful smile.

But some people get their teeth nice and straight and they've whitened them, however their teeth are still not that very nice and that's because the tooth shape or color is just how it is that's how they are made.

So if you whiten - and you straighten and everything still doesn't look that good you're a great candidate for veneers. If the teeth are super discolored, maybe they're, yellow or gray or brown, and that's just how they are, then a great candidate for veneers.

So you may be a good candidate for veneers, but who is a bad or terrible candidate for veneers?

That includes people with a really hard bite. People that constantly grind all over the place, they might not be the best candidate for veneers. If you have active decay, veneers are not for those with active decay, they are just a cosmetic thing.

If you have, you know, you need fillings, you need crowns, root canal issues and deep scaling cleanings, you probably should not get veneers.

If your teeth are really all over the place. They're super-duper crowded, also, probably not a good candidate for veneers because they just have to be extensively prepared with so much of the tooth in order to make your teeth, look and appear straight.

If you have really bad gum disease, you may also not be a good candidate for veneers, because the teeth will have to look so long to make it look kind of pretty. So those are kind of like the top four things that I'd say would not make you a good candidate for veneers.

So there's two main types of veneers: there's your typical one that you've probably seen all the time.

Those are the porcelain veneers. They look amazing.

Then there's a number two type, something called composite veneer.

So composite veneers are a little bit less well known and they're not done as much. But if you have a super talented dentist, they can do an amazing job. Those are very few and far between, but there are a few that can do an amazing job with just composite veneers. Those are really cool because you don't really have to do much or you don't have to prepare the teeth.

You don't really have to do anything. The dentist is just kind of gluing, this tooth-colored material on your teeth, it's the same type of material that they do for clear or white fillings, same material they're just putting on your tooth and shaping it in such a way that your two teeth look beautiful. Typically dentists have to be extremely talented to give you a great result with ceramic veneers. That is why the majority of time people are doing porcelain veneers.

The downfall of porcelain veneers is most the time you have to prepare the tooth a little bit. You have to take a little bit of it off, whereas the composite veneers you don't most of the time have to do that. That's a great advantage.

It is just very hard to find a good dentist. You can do an amazing job of composite veneers and most of the time they don't last as long as a traditional veneer or a crown.

I want veneers so what is the procedure? How does this work?

Let me tell you it's a little bit more intensive than the majority of treatments, but that's because it's for aesthetics, you want to get an amazing aesthetic result.

You don't want to put these veneers on and end up with bucked teeth and look all like bugs bunny or whatever. It is very important to get this done precisely correct so you're happy with your result.

So how does it work? Typically, at our clinic, you'll come in we'll take x-rays, we'll take pictures, we'll make sure everything looks all nice and pretty we'll talk to you about your outcomes.

Potentially you've seen some teeth that you really like and you're saying: "hey, is this possible?"

We kind of go back and forth and check to see if it's good and then we'll take an impression of your mouth and we'll send it off to the lab.

Why do we do that? Because the lab will give us a model of what your teeth can look like, and we do this because it's super easy to modify it at that point. Not so easy to modify it when we're about to cement it, so you get it!

Your second visit you come back, you say "hey, is this is what the teeth are going to look like?" we ask "What do you think?" and you're going to go "Oh, this looks really good, but you know that edge, I thin that's too sharp or not sharp enough, and this tooth is too long or short."

We make the adjustments, we send it back to lab, get it back. Okay, cool the next time. We look at it, we say this looks really good and then the dentist goes if you're happy with this, I'm going to start preparing your teeth. So we will know that if you want it to look like this, we have to prepare x amount and that's how it works.

You can't just go into the clinic and say cool, I want my veneers and the dentist to start preparing it for the next visit. That's not a good way to do it for most dentists. That's super rare that it works like that.

Most of the time you come in, we take the impression get it back judge it. We want to give the thumbs up. Then we send it back to the lab for the permanent ones in general, you're going to have at least three visits.

First visit you come in, we talk, you take an impression, send to the lab.

You come back. We have the mock-up of what it looks like. You think, everything's good, we start preparing the teeth at that time and then you will actually walk out that visit with temporary veneers, not your permanent ones, temporary ones.

So they'll look pretty good, but they definitely won't look as good as the final results, then you go OK and we send it off to the lab. The lab gives us back the permanent ones.

You come back in for your third visit at least right there, maybe more, depending on how many back and forth do you go with the lab your third visit and we cement those we actually kind of put them on the teeth to make sure you're happy first and then we cement them and that's it.

How do you maintain your veneers?

You say well, it's kind of similar to what i've been telling you all along just because you have veneers just because you have crowns just because you have feelings doesn't mean you can't get another bacterial seeping underneath that and causing more decay. So if you have veneers just like your normal teeth, just like crowns, you need to treat these things amazingly.

Well, so you want to brush floss, come to your regular dental visits and just keep them as clean as possible, because just like crowns bacteria can seep underneath the veneers and the cause decay and if it causes decay, not very good. Those things are going to pop off and everybody's going to be upset, and it's not good, and that is just not good. The other thing you should likely do is have something called a night guard, because what happens is at night.

We're all stressed out. Things are crazy and you start grinding your teeth a little bit and if you grind too far forward, you can pop off the veneers popping off the veneers is not good. If you do it and it's been early enough and everything kind of works out properly, maybe they can cement it back in, but if you fracture it or pop it off in a weird way, they're going to have to redo the whole thing.

So you really really really want to protect those veneers. So if you know you're a grinder, then that's like a no-brainer. You have to have to get a night guard, so you can keep your veneers as long as possible. You're like okay, doctor, I think I know the procedure. I know I need them.

How many do I need?

That is obviously a very personal decision, everybody's going to be different, but most the time you want to be able to have a beautiful smile.

So if you smile - and you only show like four teeth, then you probably want those four teeth done, but most people show at least their front six teeth and maybe the front 18 on the top at the very least on the bottom. It may be the same. It just depends on your personal preference people for sure do the front four at the very minimum, most likely front six or front eight. That is going to make you have that nice beautiful smile, because nothing is worse than having like two teeth that look really good or three teeth or whatever that look really good and then the other ones are kind of off it.

Just isn't going to look good. So if you're going to do it know you're going to invest a little bit more money but you're going to make the teeth, look, really nice and beautiful.

So how much is that going to cost you because veneers aren't cheap they're cosmetic things?

So most of the time insurance covers about that much of it. They don't cover anything. It's going to be all out of pocket majority of time if you're doing a multiple, if you're doing more than one you're going to get some sort of discount but be prepared to spend on average a thousand dollars per veneer with insurance covering zero dollars of it.

So you have to prepare for that. There's a lot of different ways to do it. You can obviously have that saved up. You can put it on a credit card. If you just saved up, you know monthly, then you're going to be able to give it to the dentist at that time, but there's other ways like care credit, there's different ways to finance the veneers but be prepared to spend at least about a thousand dollars.

How many do I need?

That is obviously a very personal decision, everybody's going to be different, but most the time you want to be able to have a beautiful smile.

So if you smile - and you only show like four teeth, then you probably want those four teeth done, but most people show at least their front six teeth and maybe the front 18 on the top at the very least on the bottom. It may be the same. It just depends on your personal preference people for sure do the front four at the very minimum, most likely front six or front eight. That is going to make you have that nice beautiful smile, because nothing is worse than having like two teeth that look really good or three teeth or whatever that look really good and then the other ones are kind of off it.

Just isn't going to look good. So if you're going to do it know you're going to invest a little bit more money but you're going to make the teeth, look, really nice and beautiful.

So how much is that going to cost you because veneers aren't cheap they're cosmetic things?

So most of the time insurance covers about that much of it. They don't cover anything. It's going to be all out of pocket majority of time if you're doing a multiple, if you're doing more than one you're going to get some sort of discount but be prepared to spend on average a thousand dollars per veneer with insurance covering zero dollars of it.

So you have to prepare for that. There's a lot of different ways to do it. You can obviously have that saved up. You can put it on a credit card. If you just saved up, you know monthly, then you're going to be able to give it to the dentist at that time, but there's other ways like care credit, there's different ways to finance the veneers but be prepared to spend at least about a thousand dollars.

Summary

This per tube all right, let me break it down again. Let me break down the pros and cons of getting dental veneers the pros is they look amazing. You know they're going to give you that bright, beautiful smile. You can choose the shade if you have yellow teeth. If you have gray teeth, you're going to make them look, super nice and white and pretty they can last a while and it's in general a pretty comfortable, pretty easy procedure.

What are the negatives? What are the cons? The cons are just like your crowns, just like pretty much everything we're doing in the mouth. Nothing lasts forever, but these veneers may need to be replaced every 10 to 15 years. They're. Definitely definitely not permanent they're not covered by insurance, so they're actually pretty expensive, and you also need to maintain your oral health like perfectly if you brux, if you grind, you may pop them off and that may incur more costs, so you have to be prepared for All the cons, as well as the pros and weigh them out yourself and see if this is something you're interested in doing or if you're like eh.

I don't mind my teeth right now, maybe i'll just get them straight. Maybe i'll whiten them first and then see how it goes from there. So, in conclusion, you know everything there is to know about veneers. You know the cost. You know the procedure, you know the pros and cons. You know if you're a good candidate for it, and now you know where to go all right. Gentle there you go a little plug, so this is it.

That is everything you need to know about dental veneers. Once again, i'm dr nate, I am providing all this information. I am trying to put out articles every single week to help inform our patients and everybody on the youtube. So please leave your comments below please subscribe below and I look forward to our next article and I will see you then you