WHAT IS THE VENEER PROCESS?
Veneers are a very thin porcelain shell that are used to correct minor crowding, discoloration, some chipping, cracking, primarily on front teeth. It’s a very conservative restoration in that there’s not a lot of preparation required to place these.
In our office, we believe that all veneers are not created equal. We have a process that we go through prior to preparing the teeth for veneers that ensure that the doctor, the patient, and the laboratory are all on the same page. This process involves an anesthetic workup, which includes several photographs, some radiographs, and a couple of molds that we can make a model out of. This model is an exact representation of the patient’s teeth before we start.
We use that model, we’ll build it up with wax to the ideal shape and form, so that the teeth on that model look just like the veneers that we’re going to place. We can then sit down with the patient, view those models, and if there are changes in shape or form that the patient would like to see, we can modify that model and make sure that it is exactly what they’re looking for as far as a final smile result.
Once we know that the patient is satisfied with the appearance, we make a temporary from the model. And once we’re done restoring–doing the preparation on the teeth, we can place that temporary which is a representation of the wax up that we did on the model. And the patient can wear that while we’re fabricating the veneers. If there are any minor changes that need to be made at that point, we can make that prior to bonding the veneers in. So it’s a very predictable result.
We know that when we get ready to place those veneers, that we have completed those to where the patient will be satisfied. We still try them in, we make sure the patient likes the appearance before they’re bonded in. But there are very few surprises that occur when the process is done in this fashion.