A porcelain veneer is a thin sheet of custom made porcelain about 1mm thick which fits over the front of the tooth. As with traditional porcelain and gold type restorations it is made in the laboratory by the dental technician to the dental surgeon's prescription, on models of the teeth obtained by taking very accurate impressions in the mouth. A strong bond between the veneer and the prepared tooth is achieved by acid etching the tooth, using a special adhesive by blue light. The result is a strong sandwich restoration, which may actually strengthen the tooth.

Veneers will never completely replace crowns which will often still be required for structural reasons - some of the indications for veneers are:

Tooth shapes may be dramatically altered in certain instances. The great advantage of a veneer is that usually only minimal tooth preparation is required and sometimes local anaesthesia is not even necessary. Likewise temporary crowns or dressings are not usually required between the preparation and fitting appointments, which is usually one week. As such this is a very conservative procedure. The resultant enhancement in appearance may often be quite dramatic but involves less actual treatment and expense then crowning.

Sometimes the technique can be used in side and back teeth instead of the unsightly metals, which many people now oppose. We have a section on Tooth Coloured Posterior Restorations using "ISOSIT" and the technology is similar, using layers of new bio-compatible adhesive materials whereby the restoration will adhere by both mechanical and chemical bonding to the etched tooth using the special intensity/wavelength "command set" lamp.

If you feel that you or your friends could benefit from this technique, we would be very pleased to advise you.