Porcelain Veneers – Erie, PA
Creating the Picture-Perfect Smile of Your Dreams
Cosmetic dentistry has gained in popularity in recent years, and in order to accommodate the growing number of people who are interested in transforming their smiles, we’ve started to incorporate a wider array of cosmetic dental treatment options in our dental office, including porcelain veneers. At Summit Family Dentistry, our team of experienced professionals create personalized treatment plans that will deliver the desired results while fitting into your schedule and budget. When you’re ready to get started with porcelain veneers treatment or any other smile-enhancing treatment option, give our team a call to schedule a cosmetic dentistry consultation. We can’t wait to partner with you to create your dream smile.
What are Porcelain Veneers?
Veneers are a cosmetic dentistry solution that uses thin sheaths of dental grade porcelain to conceal flaws and irregularities in the appearance of your smile. The porcelain veneers are affixed to the front surfaces of teeth, creating a flawless appearance for even the most discolored, misshapen, or unevenly spaced smiles.
How are Porcelain Veneers Placed?
Porcelain veneers need to be placed over the course of two appointments in our dental office. The first visit is for preparation and design. We will need to remove a small amount of tooth enamel to allow the veneer to fit seamlessly into the natural smile line. Then, we’ll capture impressions that we use to design your veneers and our dental lab will use our design and these bite impressions to craft your restoration. Before you leave this first visit, we’ll place temporary veneers to protect your prepared teeth and allow you to get used to the look and feel of a veneer. When our dental lab returns the custom veneers to our dental office, we’ll call you to schedule your follow up visit. This second appointment is shorter and less complicated. We simply remove your temporary and replace it with the custom crafted, high quality porcelain veneers, leaving you with a gorgeous smile that will last for years to come.
How do I Care for My Newly Repaired Smile?
Once your veneers are in place, they are designed to blend seamlessly into your smile line, and they can be cared for just like you would healthy, natural teeth. Additionally, the high quality porcelain is stain resistant, so your smile will look gorgeous and bright white for years. There are some simple steps you can take to limit wear and reduce risk for unintentional damage to your veneers, including:
- Use a soft toothbrush and minimally abrasive toothpaste
- Use waxed floss to avoid tugging around the edges of your veneers
- Wear protective mouthguards during athletic competitions and to avoid damage from teeth grinding and clenching
- Don’t use teeth to open packages or crack nuts
- Don’t chew on ice, fingernails, and other hard objects
- Visit our team twice a year for dental exams and teeth cleanings
Understanding the Cost of Veneers
Perhaps you'd really like to get porcelain veneers. After all, these special shells could make your smile look better than ever! That said, you might worry about the cost of veneers. Depending on its amount, a different service may be a more budget-friendly option. Well, Summit Friendly Dentistry has you covered: below is a summary of our cosmetic procedures and their various features. Reading it over can help you see if veneers are right for you. Otherwise, feel free to contact us for other details.
Cost vs. Cosmetic Dentistry: What’s Right for Me?
Besides porcelain veneers, our practice offers several other cosmetic dental treatments. However, each of these procedures has a different price and varying results. Therefore, you may want to compare them before making a final commitment. To that end, they are as follows:
- Cosmetic Dental Bonding – The quickest and cheapest option, dental bonding uses tooth-colored resin to hide minor tooth stains, cracks, and such. Its effects, unfortunately, aren’t long-lasting and need touchups every few years.
- Gum Recontouring – If you have a “gummy” smile, you might benefit from gum recontouring. This service relies on a soft tissue laser to trim your excess gum tissue. Consequently, it cheaply and permanently exposes more of your teeth for a well-balanced smile.
- Teeth Whitening – Per its name, teeth whitening lightens your tooth enamel with a special gel. In doing so, it removes minor to moderate staining. The process is also relatively fast and inexpensive.
- Metal-Free Restorations – With a metal-free dental crown made of ceramic or porcelain, you can both protect your tooth and enhance its looks. Just keep in mind that the prosthetic isn’t cheap.
- Porcelain Veneers – Put simply, veneers are shells placed on the fronts of teeth. Since they use high-quality porcelain, they transform tooth color, shape, and position. These advanced features, however, set the price high compared to other options.
How to Make Veneers Affordable
In most cases, dental insurance won’t cover veneers. It doesn’t see the shells as “medically necessary” since cosmetic dentistry is elective. Still, there are occasional exceptions – a plan may cover veneers if they correct and protect a damaged tooth. Given that fact, talk to your insurance provider to confirm your benefits beforehand.
Even without insurance, though, other ways exist to make veneers affordable. Consider us at Summit Friendly Dentistry, for instance. We provide flexible financing through CareCredit, which lets you pay for veneers over time in low-interest installments. That way, you could gradually cover the cost instead of all at once.
To learn more about veneers and their financing, go ahead and book a visit to our office. The Summit Friendly Dentistry team would love to give you a pretty smile that fits your budget!
Veneers FAQs
As excited as you might be to finally achieve the smile of your dreams with veneers, we understand if you have some questions about the treatment process and what to expect. For your convenience, we’ve included the answers to a handful of commonly asked veneers questions below. However, if the answer to your question isn’t on this page, feel free to give us a call!
Is It Painful to Get Veneers?
Before the preparation and the placement of your veneers, we’ll most likely administer a local anesthetic to numb the area of your mouth we’ll be working on. That way, you shouldn’t feel pain during the procedure itself. However, you may feel some minor sensitivity or soreness for a day or two afterward. This is more common if you receive a large number of veneers rather than one or two. During this recovery process, you can take an over-the-counter pain reliever, like ibuprofen, to help with soreness.
What Happens to the Teeth Under Veneers?
The veneers themselves will not harm your teeth. Only a minimal amount of enamel (about as thin as a contact lens) will be removed from the affected teeth, and the material used to bond the veneer to your tooth is perfectly safe. Your risk of getting cavities will stay the same, as the enamel will be covered by the veneer. As such, you will need to brush and floss every day to prevent bacteria from building up and causing problems. If a tooth becomes too weak or decayed, it might no longer be able to support a veneer.
Is There Anything I Can’t Eat with Veneers?
During the few weeks that you’re wearing the temporary veneers, you’ll need to be wary of certain items. Extremely hard foods (ice, hard candy, raw fruits and vegetables, etc.) could break the restorations, while sticky foods could pull them off of your teeth. Temporary veneers also stain more easily than permanent ones, so limit darkly colored foods and beverages.
Once your cosmetic dentist has cemented your final veneers into place, you can eat and drink virtually anything you want. If your teeth are sensitive following the placement of your veneers, stay away from hot and cold items for a while. Another thing to note is that alcohol can weaken the bonding material that holds your veneers in place, so you should drink it sparingly.
Do Veneers Feel Like Real Teeth?
After the veneers treatment process is complete, most patients report that their veneers feel completely natural, to the point that they forget they even have veneers! Each of your veneers is meticulously crafted to fit precisely on your teeth based on impressions that we take. Additionally, dental porcelain is remarkably smooth and doesn’t irritate the tissues in your mouth.