Dental Veneers in Scottsdale, AZ

Issues with your front-facing teeth can make you feel uncomfortable every time you smile or even speak in front of others. That kind of wanted attention can really hurt your self-confidence and affect your quality of life. Fortunately, there is a solution to this problem. Your chipped, cracked, discolored, slightly crooked, or uneven front-facing teeth can become that bright and beautiful smile you’ve always wanted with the help of dental veneers.

Dr. Seerat Mann and Dr. Todd Shatkin and the team at Mini Dental Implant Centers of America in Scottsdale offer this smile-transforming procedure to all of our patients who are feeling self-conscious about the appearance of their front-facing teeth. If you’d like to learn more, then read on or reach out to us today, and we’ll be glad to answer all of your questions.

What Are Dental Veneers?

Dental veneers are very thin shells that are designed to look and feel like natural teeth. They can be permanently bonded to front-facing teeth in order to improve tooth appearance. Veneers are typically made from porcelain or composite resin. 

There are various reasons why someone might want to receive dental veneers. Some of the most common includes chipped or cracked teeth, uneven teeth, teeth with uneven spacing, an asymmetrical smile, unusually shaped teeth, smaller teeth, and tooth discoloration.

The Different Kinds of Dental Veneers

If you were to decide that dental veneers are a good option for you, you’d then have to pick which type of veneers you wanted. There are two options: porcelain and composite resin. 

Both options offer their advantages and their disadvantages, and the best choice for you will depend on a number of factors, including your personal preferences and your budget. To help you get a better idea of what differentiates the two from each other, let’s take a closer look at both of them.

Composite Resin Veneers

When you receive composite resin veneers, your dentist will actually sculpt the veneer onto your teeth in the office and then shape them in order to give you a bright, beautiful, symmetrical smile. This application makes for a quick, simple, and minimally invasive procedure. 

Composite resin veneers come with a number of other different benefits, as well. We’ve listed just a few of them below:

Less Impact

Less tooth enamel must be removed in order to receive composite resin veneers.

Faster Procedure

Porcelain veneers will take at least two visits, while composite resin veneers can often be completed in just one.

Easier to Fix

Should damage occur to your composite resin veneers, it’s often a lot simpler to fix them than it is with porcelain veneers.

More Affordable

You’ll save money if you opt for composite resin, as they are significantly cheaper than porcelain veneers.

To summarize, the composite resin is faster, easier, and more affordable. So then, what exactly would make you want to opt for porcelain veneers? Read on to find out.

Porcelain Veneers

When you receive porcelain veneers, you’ll need to go into your dentist’s office to have a mold cast from which the veneers will then be made. This approach requires the shaving down of your teeth and the wearing of temporary veneers while you await the arrival of your permanent ones.

While the procedure for receiving your porcelain veneers may be more involved than with composite resin, it still offers a number of benefits that composite resin veneers do not. Some of those benefits are listed below.

Greater Durability

Porcelain is simply a stronger material than composite resin. While composite resin veneers will last somewhere between 5 and 7 years, porcelain veneers can last between 10 and 15

More Natural-Looking

While both options will certainly provide you with a beautiful natural-looking smile, porcelain veneers are generally agreed upon to be the material more capable of imitating the appearance of a natural tooth.

Greater Strength

Porcelain won’t just last longer than composite resin; it’s less likely to break and cause issues during its lifespan.

Simply put, porcelain is a finer material than composite resin, and it will give you a more natural-looking smile. If money is not much of a factor, and you’re okay with a more complicated procedure, then this option is likely the best one for you.

Dental Veneers vs. Dental Crowns vs. Dental Implants

Now you know the difference between the different kinds of dental veneers, but what separates this procedure from other smile-saving dental treatments? 

While dental veneers have plenty of advantages, they may not be the perfect option for you, so make sure to read on to find out what other choices you have and what separates them from veneers.

Dental Veneers vs. Crowns

A dental crown is a cap that is designed to look and feel like a natural tooth. It can be used to restore form and function to teeth that are damaged, broken, or decayed. In order to receive a dental crown, you’ll have to have your remaining tooth prepped by filing or grinding it down more significantly than when you receive veneers. 

This process makes the procedure a bit more invasive. However, veneers are really only a cosmetic procedure, so if your tooth issues are significant enough that you’re having trouble biting and chewing, then a crown may be the better option.

Dental Veneers vs. Implants

A dental implant is a procedure designed to replace a tooth that is totally missing or so beyond repair that it must be extracted. The implant is fused to the jawbone, giving the replacement tooth a lot of strength. 

Dental veneers can only be placed on existing teeth, so unless you have enough of your tooth left to receive one, then dental implants may be the better option for you.

The Dental Veneer Procedure

If you’ve opted to receive dental veneers, then you’re probably wondering what the procedure is going to entail. It’s fairly simple and fairly fast, but there are a few things you’ll want to prepare for. To help you do that, we’ve detailed the dental veneer procedure below.

Consultation

Before committing to any procedures, you’re going to want to sit down with your dentist and determine whether you’re a good candidate for dental veneers in the first place. 

Most people who are simply looking to improve the appearance of their front-facing teeth should qualify for this procedure, provided they have good oral health, they have enough tooth enamel, and their teeth are at least moderately straight.

Preparation

Once you’ve determined that you’re a good candidate, you’ll need to have your teeth reshaped in order to receive the veneers. Your dentist will numb your mouth and then file your teeth down just enough so that the veneers will fit comfortably. 

Then, if you’re receiving porcelain veneers, the dentist will take a mold and send it out to a lab for them to be custom-made. In the meantime, you’ll wear temporary veneers.

Bonding

Once the veneers are complete, you’ll return to your dentist to have them permanently bonded to your teeth. They will do this using special cement and a UV light to speed up the drying process. 

After that, excess cement will be removed, and any necessary adjustments will be made. Sometimes your dentist will request that you return within the next few weeks in order to ensure that the procedure was successful.

Aside from specializing in mini dental implants, we offer porcelain veneers and composite dental veneers for patients in Scottsdale, Mesa, Tempe, Phoenix, and throughout the State of Arizona.