What are veneers?
You’ve probably heard of dental veneers in the past, but usually in reference to some A-list Hollywood celebrity or media personality. However, far from being an inaccessible luxury reserved for the stars, veneers are actually a moderately priced and completely transformative cosmetic dentistry solution which can entirely change the way your smile looks. Veneers in Wimbledon which we offer at Wimbledon Dental Care, are wafer-thin layers of porcelain which are bonded permanently to the fronts of a patient’s teeth, to give their smile a more overall look of togetherness and address a number of superficial issues patients may have. These include, but are not entirely limited to; misaligned or crooked teeth, staining or discolouration, gaps between teeth, and minor overbites.
Preparing for veneer treatment
For those who are interested in the potential benefits of receiving veneers in Wimbledon from our experts at Wimbledon Dental Care, we typically encourage potential patients to visit our practice to have an instructive, informal chat with a veneer specialist. This consultation allows us to clarify the nature of veneer treatment in detail, as well as answer any questions that the patient may have. It is also during this initial consultation that patients are encouraged to tell us why they feel they could benefit from veneers in Wimbledon, and what exactly it is about the aesthetics of their teeth they wish to address. Then, provided that the patient feels comfortable and clued-up on the basis of veneer treatment and what to expect, an impression of the patient’s teeth is made – either physically or digitally – from which the custom built veneer models are to be created.
As each patient’s teeth are a unique shape, a great deal of attention to detail is required when creating the veneers, which is why models are created initially to gauge how well the patient can receive them and rectify any preliminary issues they may have in order to have them fitted. After the correct shape of the veneers has been established, the models and measurements are then sent to a specialist dental technician who will begin to mould them out of porcelain to be fitted thereafter.
Fitting veneers
After the individual veneers have been created to the specific shapes and contours of the patient’s teeth, the actual installation will begin. In order to permanently bond the porcelain veneers to the front of the patient’s teeth, a small portion of the enamel of their teeth must first be filed down, and their teeth slightly etched to allow for them to bond to the veneers properly. Then, a specialist multi-layer bonding agent is applied to the front of the patient’s teeth, and each veneer is individually bonded to the front of each patient’s teeth. In instances where teeth are misaligned, a portion of tooth may have to be filed away prior to the bonding, to give the patient’s teeth a more cohesive look. After each veneer has been successfully bonded, the patient’s teeth will appear far more together, straighter and whiter and their self-confidence is often given a boost as they now enjoy their very own Hollywood, A-list smile.