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Maybe you don’t need braces

If you have a tooth or two which is a bit wonky, you may feel self-conscious about your smile. Perhaps you find it hard to be spontaneous and smiley when every time you are about to show your teeth all you can think about is those couple of teeth are a bit twisted, or not quite in alignment with the rest.

Those wonky teeth are affecting your life, but do you really have to go for months in braces to get this tiny problem fixed? Maybe not. You may be able to cover them over with veneers instead. It’s a trick we dentists use quite often, because it saves time and money.

In fact, veneers are a really useful tool for covering up all sorts of dental imperfections, from chips and cracks to discolouration. At Parbold Dental, here in Ormskirk, veneers can resize teeth that are gappy so that they form a good row, nicely abutting each other.

We use dental porcelain to make veneers. This kind of porcelain lasts for a long time, and, if you look after your veneers, it can be more than a decade before they need to be replaced.

How can I get veneers?

Typically, you will need to have two dental appointments for veneers. During the first, we explain how the treatment works, and take impressions of the teeth. That done, we colour match the teeth using a card with all the different shades of porcelain available. You can choose to have a lighter shade of porcelain so that you can also have your teeth whitened. This is because teeth whitening gel does not work on porcelain teeth.

The veneers are hand-crafted in a lab by experienced technicians, which takes about two weeks. When we fit them, we will remove a thin layer of tooth enamel from the front of the teeth being veneered. This gives a rough surface for the fixative to bond to, and also ensures that the veneers lie flush with neighbouring teeth.

You must remember to take good care of your veneers, with regular brushing, flossing and check-ups, to make sure they last.