Featuring Dr. Jeffrey Norden, DMD

Duration: 1 minute, 36 seconds

Veneers are thin shells of porcelain or ceramic that cover the front of the tooth. Usually there’s four main reasons we use a veneer in improving someone’s smile.

The main four reasons are changing the size, changing the shape, changing the color and also for closing spaces, such as diastemas between the teeth. Most people come in and ask for a veneer typically when they’re trying to improve their smile for various reasons, and, typically, those are the same reasons, such as spacing in their teeth, dark teeth, chipped teeth, anything that takes away their confidence in smiling.

One of the most difficult challenges in cosmetic dentistry is trying to improve the smile of someone who comes in with antibiotic, or more typically tetracycline, stained teeth. It’s a very difficult challenge because what we want to do is you want to be able to cover the darkness of the tooth without making the final result look to fake.

Porcelain or ceramic veneers actually can last a really long time. They should really last you eight to ten or more years. A lot of it depends on your home care, making sure you’re brushing and flossing and seeing your dentist to make sure that the teeth are cleaned properly. The main thing about veneers is that the more conservative they are, the longer they’ll last.

Contact your dentist, if you have more questions about it.

Presenter: Dr. Jeffrey Norden, General Dentist, Vancouver, BC

Local Practitioners: General Dentist