Dental Veneers

What is a veneer? Dental veneers are a thin coat of material that is used to cover something and improve the appearance. So in furniture you sometimes see a thin layer of a more expensive wood covering a piece of furniture in order to give it a richer appearance. In dentistry, the technique of placing a dental veneers over a tooth to improve it's appearance is a relatively recent development. In the past if you wanted to improve the appearance of a tooth the only option was to place a crown or a cap on the tooth. This was often drastic because the entire tooth was cut down to a stub, so a crown could fit over the tooth. This was fine if the tooth already had large fillings in it or there was extensive decay. But if the tooth was virgin, it's considered quite extreme to cap one's teeth for cosmetic dental veneers purposes. The old time Hollywood film stars were notorious for having their teeth capped.

With the advent of BONDING it now is possible to attach the veneer to the tooth without using bulky cements. The bonding material is light activated, which means it will not set until it is exposed to a special light. The dental veneers material sets up in 10 seconds when exposed to the light. So now the dentist can exactly control the bonding procedure, instead of being at the mercy of the limited time he had once a cement was mixed. The material for dental veneers comes in different shades, so the color of the veneer can be customized at the insertion. The combination of light activated technology, improved porcelains that can be made very thin and newer improved materials are what has stimulated the interest in cosmetic dentistry and made veneers possible.