Cosmetic dentistry has surged forward in recent years, becoming better-known and increasingly popular.
All the tooth-whitening products in supermarkets give evidence of this, even though most of them are fairly ineffective.
We realize these days that our teeth can be more than just cared-for - they can be beautified.
A dental veneer is a cover for the front surface of a tooth.
Veneers are used on front teeth visible in your smile.
Rather than requiring a lot of time and money for correcting a problem, they just covers it permanently.
This is often an effective and easy way to deal with defects like: ·Small gaps between front teeth ·Stains or spots that don't respond to tooth whitening treatments ·Slight crookedness ·Slight misalignment ·Small chips Dental porcelain and tooth enamel Sometimes veneers are made of dental composite, but this is not as durable or stain-resistant as dental porcelain.
Porcelain is a magnificent match for natural tooth enamel.
Why? 1.
Both enamel and porcelain are translucent, meaning that light can travel through them.
But they both also reflect light.
The tooth layer beneath enamel is called the dentin, and it's yellow.
Light penetrates the enamel, bounces off the dentin and reflects back, giving teeth their pearly-white gleam.
The layer beneath a porcelain veneer is the dental cement which attaches it.
Light bounces off this cement, reflecting back to the viewer and giving porcelain the same white gleam.
2.
Porcelain comes in many differing shades of white and can be matched closely to your natural tooth color.
Some cosmetic dentists even have the veneers made of several shades of porcelain because when you look closely, you can see that tooth enamel has subtle variations in color.
Slightly different shades of porcelain can be used to mimic this.
The result is a veneer that is indistinguishable from a natural tooth.
Whiten your teeth first Porcelain does not change its color, either from pigmented substances like black tea, blueberries and red wine, or from tooth whitening procedures.
Therefore if you would like to have porcelain veneers [http://www.
healthydentalsolutions.
com/veneers.
html], it's best to do tooth whitening first.
Then your cosmetic dentist can match the porcelain to your bright new color.
How veneers work To correct a defect on the tooth's surface, they can be shaped identically to the tooth and then simply provide a new front surface.
To correct one or more shall chips on a tooth, they can be shaped as the original tooth was, and will then cover the chips.
To correct a gap between two teeth, two veneers side by side can each extend very slightly towards each other, covering the gap.
To correct slight crookedness, a veneer can be slightly thicker on the side of the tooth which slants inward and thinner on the side which slants forward.
The net result is a straight new front surface.
To correct slight misalignment, a cosmetic dentist would place a veneer on the tooth which is set back a little too far, giving it a thicker front surface so that it appears aligned with its neighbors.
Porcelain veneers cover small defects, but not large ones.
An experienced cosmetic dentist [http://www.
healthydentalsolutions.
com/index.
html] can tell you what your best options are.