Are Dental Veneers Painful? Do They Ruin Your Natural Teeth?

What Are Dental Veneers?

They are tooth-shaped, tooth-colored shells, typically made of porcelain, that restore teeth’ appearances. Alexandria veneers are cosmetic dental restorations that impact the color, size, shape, and general teeth’ alignment.

How Do Dental Veneers Work?

In cosmetic dentistry, Alexandria dentists create snugly fitting tooth veneers that match the impression of your tooth. This process is possible only after the dentist prepares your natural tooth. The preparation entails trimming off part of the tooth’s enamel, usually from the front side. The dentist will remove as much tooth enamel as necessary to create room for a porcelain veneer. After preparing the tooth, the dentist takes its impressions and creates a digital mold out of it so it can guide the creation process of your veneer tooth.

The preparation of a traditional veneer occurs in a dental laboratory. The process takes about two weeks to complete. Meanwhile, the dentist will place temporary dental crowns over your teeth, protecting them before your permanent veneers are ready.

Installing dental veneers is a simple procedure. The dentist only needs to place them on the front surfaces of teeth to repair their aesthetics. The process employs dental cement that bonds the veneer to the natural tooth structure.

Are Dental Veneers Painful?

Even though you are excited about elective procedures in cosmetic dental care, it does not take away the worry of painful dental experiences. Ideally, it should be uncomfortable to get dental veneers. The process of preparing your natural teeth before placing the veneers is invasive. Therefore, dentists employ local anesthesia. It numbs your mouth before any dental work begins. After administering local anesthesia, whatever the dentist does in your mouth will be painless and comfortable. Although rarely, sometimes cosmetic dentists may employ sedation dentistry to promote calmness and relaxation.

How Do Dental Veneers Affect Your Teeth?

One thing we prioritize at Burton Dentistry is the sensitization of patients. We make it our primary goal to ensure all our patients are informed of the consequences of their decisions in dentistry. When getting dental veneers, you must know enough about how they affect your oral health. Like all dental procedures, there are pros and cons of veneer teeth. Learning about them beforehand helps you determine whether you are willing to incur those effects on your oral cavity.

Positive Impacts of Veneers on Teeth:

1. Whiter and brighter teeth – dental veneers will mask any stains on your teeth to improve their brightness. However, you can ask your dentist to select a whiter shade of veneers than the initial color of your teeth for teeth whitening.
2. Stronger teeth – porcelain veneers will reinforce the strength of your teeth, especially if they initially were worn down, had cracks, or were broken.
3. Realistic appearance – your teeth will not look fake after getting veneers. Porcelain is the primary material for making dental veneers. It is semi-transparent and smooth, allowing it to mimic natural teeth.
4. Stain resistance – veneer teeth do not stain easily. They are better at resisting stains than composites.
5. Durability – dental veneers can last between 15 and 20 years.

Negative Impacts of Veneers on Teeth:

1. The procedure is irreversible – due to the kind of preparations involved when installing dental veneers, you cannot reverse its effects. Instead, you can only get new veneer teeth or replace them with dental crowns if you want to remove the dental veneers.
2. The procedure is rather invasive – compared to getting composites, porcelain veneers require some degree of invasiveness when preparing the tooth structure.
3. They only repair the front sides of teeth – the feature makes dental veneers ideally suitable for restoring your front teeth, not so much your molars and premolars.
4. They are expensive – porcelain veneers can be quite costly due to the material used and the amount of preparation necessary for the procedure. A veneer for an individual tooth can range between $1,000 to $1,500. Besides, since porcelain veneers are typically elective cosmetic restorations, many insurance companies may not cover the cost of your smile modification.
5. They can get damaged – even though porcelain is a sturdy material, it is not impervious to chipping or breakage. Excessive teeth grinding, poor oral habits, and eating hard foods are among the things that can damage your veneer teeth.