I had four porcelain veneers placed. There are two things bothering me. First, my regular teeth stand out because I wanted white porcelain veneers. Is there a way to get the other teeth whiter so my smile matches together? This leads me into my second question. There was a small divot in one of my porcelain veneers. I went back in to see the dentist and he said that he could fix it. He said he could polish out the divot. When he did that, the divot was gone, but it looks like the shine is gone too. I can’t tell when my teeth are wet, but when they are dry there is an obvious difference, like part of the veneer is shiny and the other small part is matte. I’m worried that small part will start to look different from the rest. What do I do? Will whitening it help?
Sally
Dear Sally,
I’m glad you wrote. I’m guessing your dentist is well meaning, but he does not have adequate training in cosmetic dentistry. That is one of the problems with there not being a recognized specialty in cosmetic dentistry. There are a couple of things wrong here. First, he only gave you four porcelain veneers. Most smiles are eight to ten teeth wide. Now, if you can only afford four porcelain veneers, that is okay. In that case, he should have had you whiten your teeth before you had your porcelain veneers done. The good news there is that you can still have the teeth whitening done. It won’t hurt your veneers at all. The only thing it will whiten is your natural teeth.
The second thing he did wrong was how he repaired your divot. You are correct that with a matte finish your tooth will pick up more stains. The good news is there is a way to fix this as well. However, it does require specialized knowledge and tools. My guess is that your dentist doesn’t have these materials or know what to do with them. You can ask if he knows how to polish these up so that the shine will be close to what you originally have using a diamond polishing paste. If he doesn’t know how, then it is time for you to go to a dentist with post-doctoral training in cosmetic dentistry.
This blog is brought to you by Hoffman Estates Dentist Dr. William Becker.