A Healthy Smile Is Important for a Great Overall Appearance

Dental veneers have become a popular cosmetic dentistry procedure due to versatility. Veneers can be used to cover up a variety of cosmetic flaws including chips and intrinsic dental staining. But not every patient, or patient's teeth, is a good match for a dental veneer.

Here are a few important personal and dental qualities that make a patient a good match for dental veneers.

Wiling to Lose Enamel, Gain Sensitivity

Dental veneers are very thin pieces of tooth-colored porcelain that are bonded onto the front surface of your affected tooth. The veneers are made in a lab off of dental molds to ensure the piece properly fits and creates the best, most natural looking tooth for your mouth.

The bonding procedure requires that the dentist shave away a small amount of your natural tooth to make room for the veneer so that the resulting tooth doesn't look oversized or bulky. This filing away takes off enamel, which is the clean protective layer over your dentin. Your tooth can in turn become more sensitive to warm and cold foods and drinks due to the dentin lost.

Not every veneer patient will experience ongoing sensitivity but you need to keep the possibility in mind.

Teeth are In Overall Good Health

Veneers offer cosmetic assistance not structural support, which would be left to dental crowns and the like. So your affected tooth needs to have relatively good health other than the chip or the staining. A veneer needs the stability of a healthy tooth or the thin porcelain will crack or the veneer will pop off completely.

Neighboring teeth should also be in good health and stain-free unless you are getting multiple veneers put in. The veneer can be dyed to match your neighboring teeth but you want that dye color to look healthy and as natural as possible, which means the veneer won't always perfectly match the neighbors and definitely won't match the unhealthy, stained neighbors.

Teeth are Prone to Staining

Stain prone teeth don't remove you from the pool of good dental veneer candidates. In fact, being stain prone is one reason patients choose veneers over the cheaper resin bonds, which can provide similar cosmetic results. The difference is that the porcelain veneers are stain resistant while the dental bonds can stain just like regular teeth.

Note that stain resistance isn't porcelain's only benefit over resin. The porcelain is also stronger and more natural looking. So veneers can still be a good choice for you even if your teeth don't have a staining issue that needs to be addressed.

For more information, contact a dental expert, such as Paul Dona DDS.