Porcelain Veeners

DR. MARK SWEENEY: When porcelain veneers first came out in the early ‘90s, I was really excited because prior to that, we had had very few options for really giving somebody dramatic change in their smile. Porcelain veneers changed all that. Now we can give somebody virtually the smile of their dreams and it’s a fairly simple process. We image on a computer initially to give the patient a fairly good idea of what it is that we’re trying to accomplish and then we have the dental lab wax up that prototype of the final result. And then we do it right here in the office in temporaries initially so the patient gets a three week trial period to try their temporaries and make sure that is exactly what they want.

And many times we’re making changes to those during that three week period until we get them dialed in exactly the way the patient wants. And that way we know the final result is going to be exactly what we’re all looking for. Porcelain veneers are thin sheets of porcelain that are cemented over the natural tooth structure. Many times now a days with lumineers and durathin veneers, we’re able to give a fairly dramatic change in somebody’s smile with very little or no tooth preparation.