Is Your Smile Ready for Veneers?

You might be a pro in the oral health and dental practices department, but the shape of your smile is still something you can't control. One-third of people in the US are not pleased with how their teeth look, a situation that paints a disheartening picture. If you have misshapen or slightly misaligned teeth and tick a few required boxes, trained dentists can ease all your troubles by giving you customized veneers in Whittier, NC.

Veneers 101

Veneers are shell-like prostheses placed over your teeth to mask imperfections that might give you a hard time, such as chips or cracks, strange shapes, or yellowish shades. Your dentist will have to carefully remove layers of your natural pearly whites before shaping and placing your new veneers, giving you a smile that will be a source of confidence and comfort.

With proper oral habits and regular dentist visits, veneers have a lifespan of up to ten years, so dental professionals deem them a permanent solution to wrongly-shaped and incomplete teeth. However, dentists must assess if you are eligible for such a cosmetic dentistry procedure by looking at your mouth and habits.

How to Know If You're a Good Candidate for Veneers

You Have Enough Tooth Enamel

Teeth are exposed to dangerous substances every day, so they need their protective coat of calcified enamel to fight bacteria and acids. If you lead a healthy life and clean your mouth correctly when you start and finish your day, you most likely have the necessary enamel to get veneers. However, conditions such as age, genetics, hard-bristle toothbrushes, or eating too much sugar can leave you with less enamel than average. If there's insufficient enamel to support your veneers, you won't be a fit candidate for the procedure.

You Have Healthy Gums

If you have enough tooth enamel for your dentist to work with, you also need to have healthy, pink gums. Periodontal disease is one of the leading dental problems in the US, resulting from poor dental habits that let plaque and tartar accumulate around your gums. Gum disease causes gums to bleed, recede, and swell, so placing veneers over ill gum tissue will only worsen your condition.

Your dentist must deal with the effects of gum disease first before deciding if veneers will help or hinder you. 

You Don't Grind Your Teeth

If your teeth hurt after waking up or having a nervous breakdown, you might be suffering from bruxism. Some people push their upper and lower jaw together in certain situations, harming their teeth enamel and increasing their chances of fractures and cracks. Constantly smashing your teeth against each other puts too much pressure on them. Therefore, covering your smile with veneers will only end up in broken or loosened prostheses, which won't make your misshapen problem disappear.

You Don't Smoke

Even if veneers are made of stain-resistant porcelain, they might meet their match in nicotine and tar. Since cigarette substances can stick to your natural and artificial teeth and turn them yellow, dentists advise smokers against getting veneers and tell them to seek other cosmetic procedures to restore their smiles.

Looking for Top-Quality Veneers in Whittier, NC?

Veneers can be ideal for patients with proper oral health and habits. At Cataloochee Dental Group, we can help you decide on the best path toward a show-stopping smile, so give us a call and schedule a visit!