FAO Plain Talker and anyone else who has had a veneer - advice?

[Modwolf 10]

Hi there! Plain Talker, I hope you don't mind me adressing you directly - I've been browsing the forums for posts about dental veneers and I've seen that you have one, so I was wondering if you (or anyone else who has porcelain veneers) could offer me some advice!

 

20 years ago, when I was about 8, I ran into a lamp post and knocked half my tooth out (not one of my proudest moments!). My mum took me to the dentist and he patched it up with white filling material. He really did a great job - you couldn't tell, it looked and felt totally natural, and it stayed intact for 20 years.

 

Anyway, a few months ago, it started to chip. I got myself into a bit of a panic and ended up seeing a dentist on Ringinglow Road (a colleague of mine went there and suggested him - I'm from Hull originally and didn't have a dentist in Sheffield since I had moved here). He patched it back up again but it didn't look as good - I kept getting a visible line between the tooth and the filling. I kept going back to get it polished up, but the line kept appearing. It was then that the dentist suggested a veneer. It sounded like a great idea, so I went for it.

 

To cut a long story short, he did a TERRIBLE job. It was too big, too wide and too bulky. So, I ended up going to Flint and Flint's on Abbey Lane to get it replaced. Now, it looks much better - blends in better with my natural teeth.

 

The problem I have is, it still feels uncomfortable. It feels thick and bulky in my mouth, even though the dentist at Flint and Flint assures me that it is "as thin as it can be". I was not expecting this - I was told that it would "feel entirely natural". I've had this veneer for a month now - I wonder if I'm just having a hard time getting used to it? The bonding I had previously always felt completely natural - I'm starting to regret the veneer, and feel like maybe my first dentist was just a bit rubbish at patching up the bonding and I could have got it patched up better elsewhere. I just want to stop being aware of my tooth!

 

So I just wondered, did veneers feel weird for you in the beginning? Did they take a while to get used to, or did they feel completely natural? Any experiences or advice greatly appreciated!

[Steptoad 12]

I had a veneer on a front tooth a few years a go, it snapped in two after only a few weeks, but to be fair my dentist had warned me that a NHS veneers were "crap", his words. However the alternative veneer was well out of my budget.

 

Apart from it snapping though it had been ok.

 

My dentist replaced the veneer with a cap, that did feel odd for a while, but I got used to it. You just have to give it time, after all you had the original teeth for over 20 years, it's bound to take a little time to get used to it.

[RainbowAngel 10]

Hiya iv got 4 it started with 1 cos i had a chip in my front tooth i hated it and it stoid out like a sore thumb i bit a peice of crusty bread and it broke so i went back and he decided to do the other 3 top teeth telling me they would blend in better. Long story short loads of breaks later i went to a different dentist ... 13 year on no breaks and perfectly natural looking teeth. They all did feel lumpy and wrong for weeks but they do bed in.

[sanman 10]

I had a vaneers on two front teeth. They did feel very strange to begin with but that eventually wore off and I don't notice them at all now. It just takes time for the nerves in your lips to realise they now have a new 'normal' position and therefore stop telling you that there is something stuck to the front of your tooth.

[chocki 13]

What are veneers?

[Modwolf 10]

Chocki, a veneer is a thin layer of porcelain attached to the front of your tooth. They are often purely cosmetic, to brighten up people's smiles - for me I just had the one to cover up a filling in my front tooth that kept discolouring.

 

Thanks for the responses, hearing about your experiences is really helping put my mind at ease. I've been driving myself a bit mad over the past few months because of this, and was beginning to regret starting the procedure. I liked my smile before, my bonded tooth did me well for a very long time - it was only when it started to discolour on a regular basis that I even heard about the veneer option.

 

If anyone else has any veneer experiences to share, I'd love to hear them!

[Plain Talker 11]

Well, My (third) NHS veneer has lasted me almost 20 years, so far. (over 15, definitely) My dentist at the time was one of the top "bods", teaching at Charles Clifford, and had his own practice that I was fortunate to be a patient with.

 

My first two veneers were placed wrongly by the previous dentist. They had a pressure point just where my teeth met, (I have a good, but tight bite when my jaws are together) and the pressure caused the veneers to chip when I bit together. That previous dentist just shoved white composite into the breaches which was very ugly and very obvious. The other thing was that they'd shaved/ drilled the veneer down to fit rather than shaped the underlying tooth, which also made the veneer weaker.

 

After a couple of years or more of misfortune with the breaks, the decent dentist had taken over as my dentist, and he replaced the veneer, with one that matched the natural colour of my teeth better, and fitted better.

 

It still looks okay, and my teeth look very neat and straight. I was very happy with that dentist's work.

 

The advantage is that there is less work needed to fit a veneer than to fit a crown or a cap. The underlying tooth is less damaged by the work done on it, than would happen when fitted for a crown. You still need moulds to be made of the teeth, and a couple of visits to the dentist, one for the moulds taken, and one for the veneer being placed, as you would for a crown.

 

Hope that helps?

[Modwolf 10]

Sounds like you had a bit of a nightmare in the beginning, but I'm glad it all worked out in the end and you found a decent dentist. I suspect having a good dentist is key to this - I had no idea what a specialised area veneers are until I started this process.

 

My veneer still feels weird, bulky and like its pushing out my lip. Perhaps I just need to get used to it, like the other posters have suggested. I'll try to keep busy and keep my mind off it, hopefully soon I'll forget about it and it will feel "normal".