Veneers – Waco, TX
Versatile Shells for Your Teeth
Often enough, you only need to address one smile flaw. Maybe your teeth are stained or discolored, or you have a tooth that’s been chipped or cracked. However, treating several defects at once can seem complicated. You might think there’s no single procedure that’d help. Well, there is such a service: porcelain veneers from Dental Station Waco. These versatile shells for teeth clear up all sorts of dental imperfections. To learn more about them, keep reading or book a visit to our office.
What are Dental Veneers?
Put simply, dental veneers are thin shells made of high-quality porcelain. Dentists place them on the fronts of teeth to hide smile flaws. In particular, such imperfections include stains, chips, cracks, and fractures. Veneers can even hide dental misalignments, earning them their nickname of “instant orthodontics.”
Aside from hiding flaws, though, veneers beautify your smile with their material. Lab workers customize their porcelain to match your surrounding teeth in color, size, and shape. As a result, the shells blend seamlessly with your smile. Thanks to special cement and etching methods, they also remain firmly secure on your teeth.
The Process of Getting Veneers
Getting veneers involves a multi-step process. In particular, you must undergo three separate treatment stages: a consultation, a preparation visit, and a final placement. Each is crucial to getting excellent long-term results.
For the consultation, you’ll discuss your treatment options with Dr. Winarick. This talk will include your smile goals, the results you desire, your medical history, and more. By covering these topics, our team can draft a solid treatment plan that suits your needs. The discussion will also help you understand what to expect from care.
Once you’ve settled these details, Dr. Winarick will prep your teeth for veneers. This work removes bits of your enamel to make room for the shells. From there, she’ll take dental impressions that a lab uses to craft the final products. Such crafting takes several weeks, though, so you’ll wear temporary veneers in the meantime.
The final placement occurs when your permanent veneers are ready. At that time, Dr. Winarick will place them on your teeth and make final adjustments.
The Benefits of Veneers
Porcelain veneers happen to have a great many benefits. Among them, the most common ones include the following:
- Lifelike Results: Because veneers are made of porcelain, they’re beautiful and seamlessly blend with your smile. Given these facts, you can expect highly realistic results.
- Versatile Effects: Since veneers cover the entire fronts of teeth, they can hide many smile flaws at once. That means they can treat stains, chips, misalignments, and more.
- Durability: Porcelain is a stain-resistant material, so veneers discolor less often than tooth enamel. The shells also protect otherwise-exposed teeth from plaque.
- Long Lifespan: The average veneer has a lifespan of 15-20 years. If you care for one well, though, it could last for 30 years or more!
Veneers FAQs
What Happens to the Teeth Under Veneers?
Whatever you may have heard, the teeth under veneers remain safe. A dentist simply “preps” them so their shells stay secure and stable.
You see, teeth must be altered before they get veneers. The treating dentist will remove some of their enamel so the final shells will stick to them. Otherwise, the veneers wouldn’t cling to their treatment sites and would slowly (but surely) fall off.
The good news is that “prepped” teeth don’t have a higher risk of cavities. Because their shaved areas are covered by veneers, they remain protected from harmful plaque and bacteria. You just need to keep brushing and flossing them regularly; tooth decay will occur if you don’t.
Is There Anything I Can’t Eat with Veneers?
Getting veneers can involve restrictions on your diet. That said, the specifics will depend on a patient’s unique case and circumstances.
For example, say you’re wearing temporary veneers before the permanent ones are ready. You’ll likely need to avoid hard foods (ice, raw fruits and veggies, etc.) during that period. If you don’t, you could end up breaking the shells and having to get replacements. (You may also need to avoid sticky and darkly pigmented items; they could pull off your veneers or stain them.)
Permanent veneers let you eat most foods, but they still have their caveats. Chief among these is that you lay off very hard, crunchy, or dark foods. Similarly, you should stay away from anything very hot or cold; they could cause tooth sensitivity.
Do Veneers Give You a Lisp?
Once placed, veneers can give some people a temporary lisp. Whether that happens to you will depend on your unique situation.
If a lisp does occur, it’ll likely stem from muscle memory. Your tongue won’t be used to the presence of veneers when you talk, as there’ll be a new thickness on your teeth. Moving it as usual could cause a lisp when you try to pronounce the “s” and “v” sounds.
Of course, any lisp you develop will fade after a while. Your tongue will eventually adjust as it adapts to your veneers’ presence. Still, practicing your pronunciation of certain sounds could speed up the adaptation process.
Can You Whiten Veneers?
You can’t whiten veneers like your natural teeth; treatment wouldn’t change the shells’ general color. As such, making them look different would require that you replace or shade them.
The main issue is that treatment is meant to whiten enamel. As its brightening gel enters the pores in your teeth, it removes moderate to severe stains. However, veneers don’t have any pores through which the gel could “get inside” and alter shades.
All that said, it’s possible to work around this restriction. You could start the whitening process first and follow it up with veneer placement. That way, the final shells would be color-matched to teeth that already look white.