Broken Veneer Fear! How a Skilled Cosmetic Dentist Can Help You Repair Your Broken Veneer
Have you broken or chipped one of your veneers? If so, you can be forgiven if you are now stuck in panic mode. After all, a single veneer can cost from a few hundred to a couple of thousand dollars. Breaking one then, can leaving you mourning your soon-to-be-depleted bank balance. Fortunately, you don't necessarily have to replace your broken or chipped veneer. A good cosmetic dentist can repair it for you.
Even the most skilfully prepared and placed veneers are not immune to accidents. Wear and tear does eventually take its toll, too. In fact, a study conducted in 2004 found that while 92% porcelain veneers were in good shape after 5 years, just 64% were still in good condition after 10 years. Broken, however, does not mean lost. There are several creative ways to restore a veneer that has seen better days.
Snapped Veneers Can Be Bonded Back Together
Though a snapped veneer may look bad, a cosmetic dentist can glue the pieces back together using composite resin. This kind of repair can see you get another few years out of your veneer. However, one caveat of this type of repair is that because bonding stains more easily than veneers, a stain may eventually form along the fracture line.
Of course, if you lost one half of the veneer in your accident, gluing the pieces back together is out of the question. It is possible to replace a piece of broken veneer with composite bonding, but keep in mind that bonding is weaker than porcelain, so this is likely only a temporary measure.
Chipped Veneers Can Be Evened Out
If you chipped a veneer while eating or in a fall, a cosmetic dentist can buff the damaged area, smoothing it out so that it matches the rest of the veneer, provided the chip isn't too large. However, doing this means that any adjacent veneers will also need to be adjusted. The larger the chip then, the more veneer needs to be removed and polished.
Displaced Veneers Can Be Re-bonded
Veneers that have been knocked off the surface of a tooth can easily be bonded back onto a tooth. However, make sure you get to your dentist as soon as possible, as your tooth will be more susceptible to tooth decay without the protective layer of porcelain covering it.
A broken veneer does not mean another costly investment. Provided you get to your dentist quickly, your dentist can restore the veneer before any more damage is done.