I had four porcelain veneers placed this week and have two concerns. First, while my porcelain veneers are very white, the teeth next to them are still my normal color so they make my veneers look fake. Is there anything I can do about that? Second, one of the veneers keeps catching on my porcelain veneers under my gum. I spoke to my dentist about it and he said it was nothing to worry about because my gums cover the veneers, but I’m a bit worried about food getting trapped there. Am I over reacting?
Sandy
Dear Sandy,
Thank you for writing. Both of the concerns you wrote about indicate to me that your dentist does not have a lot of background or skill doing cosmetic dentistry. Let’s start with the easy one— the mismatched colors. Most people’s smiles are eight to ten teeth wide. Because of that, if a patient is getting fewer porcelain veneers than that, their dentist will suggest they have teeth whitening done first. That way the natural teeth will blend in with the veneered teeth.
While, ideally, you would do this before you have your veneers done, it is not too late. The teeth whitening won’t harm your veneers, but because your dentist did not have you do this or warn you of the need, I suggest you ask him to create teeth whitening trays that are cut in a way that go around your veneered teeth.
The second issue, with the floss catching, is a serious serious problem. Your intuition is correct that food and other bacteria will get trapped there. It doesn’t matter if your gums “cover” the problem if you get get gum disease, which you will if your dentist doesn’t fix the root cause of this problem.
It sounds like you have an overhang, which is a margin irregularity. this is caused when the dentist did not have an accurate impression taken after your tooth was prepared for the veneers. This means the end of the preparation was not accurately recorded. The result of this is a bit of a dip where there is not a smooth transition with the tooth. Your dentist needs to fix this.
I would ask your dentist to fix both of these issues. If he gives you a hard time, show him this post.
This blog is brought to you by Hoffman Estates Dentist Dr. William Becker.
