Porcelain veneers are often used as a remedy for the following types of dental conditions and cosmetic dilemmas:
The color of a person's teeth might not be to their liking for any one of a number of reasons:
As a species humans display a fair amount of variety when it comes to the color of their teeth. This type of baseline coloration is termed a tooth's "intrinsic" shade and some people just naturally have lighter teeth than others.
Dental veneers can be an excellent way to make a color change with a person's teeth. But for those people whose teeth are already pleasant looking and appealing with the single exception of their color, an attempt at producing a change by way of using teeth whitening treatments might be a better first choice.
Some of the compounds that a person comes into contact with throughout their lifetime can have an influence on the color of their teeth. It is commonplace and normal that as a person ages there is a cumulative staining effect on their teeth from the compounds found in coffee, tea, colas, and tobacco products. (It is also commonplace that teeth whitening treatments can be successful at reversing this type of tooth staining.)
In other cases a person may have had an exposure to certain compounds during that time frame when their teeth were forming. In this type of situation the compounds can become incorporated into the tissues that compose the teeth (tooth enamel and dentin) and as a result produce a blemishing or staining effect. Fluoride and the antibiotic tetracycline are two compounds well known for causing tooth discoloration. Dental veneers can certainly be used as a means to mask this type of tooth staining and can be a good choice, if teeth whitening treatments (a more conservative dental treatment) have not been successful.
Some of the tooth discoloration that a person notices with their teeth can be a result of deterioration or staining of existing white fillings (dental composite fillings). Porcelain veneers can be an excellent way to remedy this type of cosmetic dilemma, especially when considering the long term. The impervious glass-like nature of a veneer's porcelain surface will resist staining much better than dental composite (which is a plastic).
Staining can also be evident on a tooth that has had a history of needing or having had root canal treatment. It is very common that a tooth that has root canal treatment will darken with time. A dental veneer can be one means by which this discoloration can be masked.
Dental veneers are a way a dentist can change the shape of teeth and therefore enhance the appearance of a smile. Some people may have spaces between their teeth (diastemata) and solely related to cosmetic concerns will want to have these gaps closed. Slightly oversized porcelain veneers bonded onto the teeth lying to either side of a gap can accomplish this task.
Porcelain veneers can also be used to make improvements with chipped, worn, broken, or malformed teeth. When planning this type of case a dentist must evaluate and know that each tooth being repaired provides enough solid tooth structure to support a porcelain veneer adequately. In those cases where an inadequate amount of tooth structure is present the dentist will need to recommend that a dental crown should be placed instead.
The apparent positioning of rotated, tipped, or misaligned teeth can at times be idealized by way of placing dental veneers on them. This sort of "instant orthodontics" can be appealing to those people who have chosen to rule out actual orthodontic treatment (braces) because of the months and quite possibly years of treatment time that it requires.
The greater the irregularity of the teeth the less likely it is that the placement of porcelain veneers will provide an appropriate solution. There can be cases where using dental veneers to create tooth alignment changes can produce a result where the cosmetic appearance of the person's smile is visually pleasing to others but has come at a price where the size and shape of the unseen aspects of the teeth receiving the porcelain veneers have become oversized or misshapen.
In this type of instance the physical properties of a set of porcelain veneers can be stretched to its limits, cumulating in an end result plagued with frequent veneer dislodgment or breakage. Additionally there can be concerns in this type of situation associated with the ability of the person to clean their teeth adequately and maintain the long-term health of their gums.