Porcelain veneers

A veneer is a thin layer of porcelain, custom made for a single tooth, bonded permanently to its front surface. Porcelain is used because it handles light the way enamel does, with a depth and translucency that composite cannot quite reach, and because it resists staining for years rather than months.

Veneers change shape, size, color and apparent alignment all at once, which is why they are the answer when several things about a smile bother you rather than one. They are also the reason the planning matters so much, because a set of veneers is a design decision as much as a clinical one.

This is the question underneath almost every veneer consultation and it deserves a direct answer. Veneers look artificial when they are all identical, when the shade is brighter than anything found in nature, and when the proportions are copied from a template rather than drawn from the face they are going into.

Real teeth are not identical to each other. They vary slightly in length and in the way they catch light, and the front two are not the same as the ones beside them.

Building that variation back in is what separates a set of veneers people notice from a set nobody does. It takes longer to plan and it is the entire difference in the result.

Preparing a tooth for a veneer removes enamel, and enamel does not grow back. That makes the decision permanent in a way that whitening and bonding are not, and it is the main reason we will steer you toward a smaller treatment when a smaller treatment will do.

Veneers last many years with good care, though they are not immortal and they can chip under enough force. If you grind your teeth, that has to be addressed first, usually with a night guard, or the same forces that wore your natural teeth will work on the porcelain. Whitening also has to happen before veneers rather than after, since porcelain does not lighten.

Cost depends on how many teeth are involved, so a single veneer to correct one tooth and a full upper set are very different conversations. You will be given a written figure covering the whole treatment before anything begins, and we will talk through payment options at the same time rather than leaving it to the end.