Yes.  It is totally safe to use an electric toothbrush to clean your veneers.  Whether you have veneers or not, you should consider using an electric toothbrush for optimal hygiene, stain removal, and gum tissue health.  Having your teeth regularly cleaned by a dental hygienist familiar in caring for veneers can be even more crucial to maintaining the longevity of your veneers and overall oral hygiene.

Traditional porcelain veneers can be considered a permanent treatment.  Porcelain veneers should be expected to last 10-15 years and sometimes longer depending upon your individual circumstances.  The veneers do not fully replace your teeth, they only cover the part of them you can see when smiling.  Therefore, you will need to continue to practice good oral hygiene to make them last.  Tooth decay, heavy grinding, or traumatic injuries can cause veneers to break just like a natural tooth can chip or fracture.

When you look at the number of veneers placed versus how many de-bond, it is rare but they can come off.  They most frequently de-bond due to bite issues, clenching, grinding, or some other parafunction.  This is why it’s so important to see a doctor particularly trained in advanced physiology and occlusion (the way the teeth come together).

No.  Porcelain veneers do not change color unless the porcelain or underlying tooth has been damaged in some way.  If you’re wanting a whiter shade but not veneering all of the teeth that you see when smiling, this is why you’d want to whiten before the veneers are placed.

Dental veneers will not damage your teeth when treatments are done responsibly respecting the form and physiology of the teeth and mouth.  Prior to care, you should expect a thorough exam and x-rays to make sure there aren’t any underlying issues with the teeth.  We make every effort to preserve as much of the natural tooth structure when preparing your teeth for the veneers.  A thin portion of the outer enamel, often-time stained and chipped, will be removed in as conservative a manner as possible and replaced with the highly esthetic porcelain covering.  The porcelain veneer acts like a reinforced version of the enamel when bonded to the tooth.

At your final treatment visit, we’ll remove the temporaries and fit the veneers, making changes where appropriate.  The porcelain veneers are then placed on the teeth with an adhesive cement that bonds to both the tooth and the porcelain.  We use a special UV light to activate and harden the cement.  The bond between the natural tooth and the porcelain is formed within seconds of the light activation.

Porcelain veneers are often referred to as “instant orthodontics” because the procedure moves along rather quickly and can correct all sorts of issues like crowding and spacing.  Typical veneer treatment is completed in as little a 2-3 visits. Over the course of these visits, impressions are taken for records, the teeth are prepared, and then the porcelain veneers are individually bonded to the tooth surfaces.

The cost of porcelain veneer treatment really depends on the number of veneers placed.  A simple veneer case can start around $2,000.  A more complex case can cost between $15,000-$45,000, depending on whether there are missing teeth or additional treatment objectives.  Every case is different, so we’ve found that it’s supremely important to meet and discuss your treatment goals in detail.  This enables us to provide you with several options, and then you can select the decision that’s best for you.

If you have dental veneers, you should avoid biting your fingernails, chewing ice, and using your teeth to tear open packages.  All of this is pretty much common sense.  You really shouldn’t do this to your natural teeth either!

A dental veneer is a thin shell of custom-made porcelain that’s placed over your natural tooth.  Veneers can dramatically enhance the appearance of your smile by changing the shape, size, and shade of the teeth. They can also correct gaps, chips, crowding, and alignment issues.