- 28 Narborough Rd, Leicester LE3 0BQ
Porcelain (also called ceramic) veneers are thin layers of ceramic which are designed and constructed bespoke to your smile, and bonded to the front surfaces of your teeth. Porcelain veneers are useful when you want to change the size, shape, and colour of your teeth.
At Leicestershire Dental Studio, patients are carefully selected for treatment depending on their suitability for veneers, as veneers are a long term solution requiring motivated patients with excellent oral hygiene.
Porcelain veneers are generally used when we are trying to achieve a more pronounced and bigger improvement to a patients’ smile. They have light reflecting properties that mimic that of natural teeth and can be made thin and translucent to mirror the characteristics of tooth enamel to give a more natural look.
Porcelain veneers are highly aesthetic and are a restorative treatment of choice for bigger smile design changes, or to restore broken down teeth, as they are strong, biologically compatible, do not stain and last a very long time.
Our team at Leicestershire Dental Studio specialise in smile makeovers which can range from single tooth porcelain veneers to more comprehensive cases requiring multiple veneers and crowns. Our main priority is giving you the smile of your dreams whilst ensuring we maintain good long term dental health and we will always opt for the most minimally invasive approach.
Porcelain veneers are indicated in situations where a change is required in the size, shape, colour, and sometimes position of the tooth.
At Leicestershire Dental Studio, we complete a thorough and detailed clinical and aesthetic assessment of your oral health and your smile prior to discussing any options.
Once we have an in-depth overview of your teeth and smile, we will be able to listen to your goals and concerns, and be able to provide you with elective treatment options, which may include veneers.
This Dental Practice is by far the best one I have been to in years! I’ve always been a little scared of visiting the dentist but these guys always make me feel at ease.
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Always a positive experience. Staff and the environment excellent.
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At this appointment you’ll have an opportunity to meet our cosmetic dentists who have the ability to transform your smile. You’ll be able to discuss in detail what your goals and desires are with your smile, and they’ll have the opportunity to examine you in detail. They’ll then be able to provide you with a number of treatment options bespoke to your situation, including veneers, for you to consider.
Whilst we ensure your oral health is stable, for example by making sure you’ve seen the hygienist and if you need any urgent dental work then making sure this is stabilised, your cosmetic dentist will be able to plan your smile-design using the latest in digital and dental technology. We often also use this stage to whiten your teeth so that we have them as clean and white as possible prior to treatment. In some cases we may even suggest a short course of orthodontics (e.g. invisalign) to ensure your teeth are in the best possible position prior to your veneer plan.
We’ll be using digital technology and handmade wax-up designs to show you our shared vision of your new smile. This will allow us to work together in order to provide you with a bespoke natural smile which is designed to fit with your features, your personality and your face. In most cases we’ll also be able to do a ‘mock-up’ which allows us to use temporary material to give you an immediate idea of how your teeth will look, in your own mouth. We can tweak and adjust this until we are happy with the look of the teeth.
Once we know what final look we’re aiming for, we’ll then be able to ensure the teeth are prepared appropriately to receive the porcelain veneers. This appointment is usually carried out under local anaesthetic, and involves polishing and shaping the underlying teeth to ensure no sharp corners or edges, and enough space for the super thin porcelain veneers to sit. You will leave this appointment with temporary versions of your new smile, while we work with our lab over the next couple of weeks to create the final porcelain restorations. You’ll be able to trial your new smile at home for a couple of weeks, and we still have the option to make further tweaks in case we need to. During this phase you will have to maintain a careful and soft diet, with excellent oral hygiene.
At the next visit, your porcelain veneers will be ready to try in and fit. Once we’ve removed the temporary restorations and cleaned your teeth, we’ll be able to try in your new porcelain veneers. We’ll check that they fit well, and look great, and then we’ll be able to bond these individually and directly to your teeth. This is a very careful and precise process which requires a lot of experience and skill and can take up to 1-2 hours depending on how many teeth there are being treated. Once this appointment is finished, you’ll be given personalised aftercare instructions and will go home with your new porcelain veneers.
It will take a period of 1-2 weeks for the gums and soft tissue architecture to fully heal, although you will be able to return to work and normal life immediately after the appointment. Once the gums heal and the dental architecture settles, your veneers will become a natural part of your smile and their beauty will really shine through. You will need to look after your veneers as you would your normal teeth with excellent oral hygiene.
The fees for your porcelain veneer treatment really depend on the complexity of your case and the results we are trying to achieve. We have outlined some guide fees for porcelain veneers (per tooth) in our online fee guide, however for a more bespoke and accurate quotation please contact our team and book in for your smile consultation.
No! This is a common misconception about porcelain veneers, mainly fueled by media coverage of celebrities like Katie Price who have travelled overseas for dental treatment. Porcelain veneers are ultra-thin and aesthetic so need very little space to work. In many cases we don’t require any preparation of the underlying tooth structure, and if any tooth reshaping is needed this is usually kept extremely minimal.
The porcelain veneer and smile makeover process is something we have got down to a fine art, and we have a very organised and logical order to our process. Assuming you have finished any required orthodontics and your plan is confirmed, then you will usually have the entire process completed in around a month. However every case is different and a time frame specific to you will be discussed at your consultation.