Dental Veneers: A Path Toward a Brighter Smile

Your smile is a beautiful thing and part of what makes you unique. If you feel self-conscious about your smile, your dentist can help address your concerns and make you proud to wear it. One way to help improve your smile is dental veneers, which can brighten and straighten your smile by covering small imperfections with your teeth. 

What Options Do I Have to Brighten My Smile?

Fortunately, there is no shortage of options available to help you meet your smile goals. These include:

  • Dental bonding
  • Dental crowns
  • Orthodontics, including clear aligners
  • Professional whitening treatments
  • Teeth contouring
  • Veneers

Your dentist will work with you to better understand what you hope to achieve for your smile and can recommend the best options to meet your goals, health, and budget. For many patients, dental veneers offer a permanent solution to dramatically improve their smile. Veneers can help fix cosmetic issues of your teeth like shape, shade, and misalignment. 

How Are Dental Veneers Placed?

Before undergoing any dental procedure, your dentist will meet with you to discuss your options. If you have oral health issues like gum disease, cavities, or missing teeth, your dentist will help address them before moving forward with any treatment, including veneers. Your dentist will also assess any damage to your teeth to understand if more protective solutions, like dental crowns, are right for you. 

During your procedure, your dentist will scrape some enamel from your natural teeth. This new surface will help the veneers stick to your teeth better. Your dentist will then take dental impressions which will be used to create your custom veneers, ensuring a perfect fit and an improved smile. 

When your custom veneers are done, your dentist will bond them to your natural teeth using dental cement. Finally, they will check the placement and your bite to make sure they fit comfortably. Your dentist may need to shave off any excess material to achieve a better fit. 

After the procedure, you may require ongoing maintenance, including professional cleanings, to keep your veneers looking new. 

What Veneer Options Are Available?

Porcelain veneers and composite veneers are the two most popular types of permanent veneers. These options differ in their material, durability, and cost. 

 

Porcelain Veneers

Stain-resistant porcelain veneers are custom-made of high-quality material to perfectly fit over your natural teeth. There are advantages and disadvantages to this option.

Pros: 

  • Durable: Porcelain veneers can last up to 20 years with proper maintenance.
  • Easy to care for: These veneers do not stain easily and can remain in prime shape with good oral hygiene practices.
  • High-quality: Porcelain veneers can be customized to perfectly match your natural teeth.

Cons:

  • Expensive: Porcelain veneers can cost up to five times as much as composite veneers. Further, if porcelain veneers are chipped, they have to be replaced completely, which can prove costly. 
  • Longer treatment: Your dentist may require multiple visits to measure and place these veneers. 
  • More enamel removal: To ensure a better fit, your dentist will have to remove more enamel while placing porcelain veneers than for others. 

 

Composite (Resin) Veneers

Made from resin designed to match your natural teeth, composite veneers offer a cost-effective alternative to porcelain veneers but have their own pros and cons. 

Pros: 

  • Affordability: These veneers are made of lower-priced material than porcelain veneers and can cost significantly less to place.
  • Fewer treatments: Composite veneers often only require one treatment to place. 
  • Less (or no) enamel removal: Your dentist can usually place resin veneers without removing any enamel from your natural teeth.

Cons:

  • Less durable: Composite veneers will need to be replaced regularly and generally do not last more than eight years.  
  • Lower quality fit: Resin veneers are not as customized as porcelain veneers and may not have as natural a fit. 
  • More maintenance required: Stains can show up more quickly on resin veneers than on porcelain ones. Resin veneers require regular, professional cleanings to keep them looking like new.

With a full range of options to enhance your smile and a tranquil treatment space, Roots Dental Studio is here to help give you the smile you’ve always dreamed of. Book an appointment to learn how.

 

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Roots Dental Studio

5425 W 95th St
Oak Lawn, IL 60453
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Hours

Monday: 9:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M.
Tuesday: 10:00 A.M. - 7:00 P.M.
Wednesday: 10:00 A.M. - 7:00 P.M.
Thursday: 10:00 A.M. - 7:00 P.M.
Friday: 8:00 A.M. - 2:00 P.M.
Saturday: (Open the First Saturday of the Month) 8:00 A.M. - 1:00 P.M.
Sunday: Closed

Phone

708-636-0565

Email Address

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