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Re: Veneers

Posted by cs on 7/28/2009, 12:56 pm, in reply to "Veneers"

Hi, Nina . . . I can't tell you what you should do, but I can tell you what I did. Like you, I also had a root canal one one of my front teeth, but when it was done (many years ago), crowning of front teeth was optional. Because my parents didn't realize how serious my problem was, neither of them accompanied me to the dental office, and as a result, the dentist just took care of the problem, without discussing it with them or me. The tooth survived without a crown or discoloration for about 20 years, before an unfortunate accident suddenly caused the tooth to fracture, at which point it was rescued with a post and crown. That, too, managed to survive for 25 years, until due to bone loss around the site, my gum could no longer support the post and crown. At that point, the only options were a bridge or implant, and I chose the latter. Since that incident was totally unexpected and described by one dentist I had consulted as "an emergency," I made a lot of decisions without taking the time to do all the research I otherwise might have. Among those was the decision to crown all four top, front teeth, as recommended by my new implant dentist. In my case, however, each of the adjacent teeth looked like it was heading toward major dental work, and ironically, an old crown on the third adjacent tooth (a lateral incisor two spaces over) had just broken off during the same critical period of time. Like yours, my dentist offered several recommendations — all basically for the same reason as yours did (i.e., for the best possible match). In my case, the options included one implant crown (on #9); one regular crown (on #7); and either two crowns or two veneers for the intermediate teeth (#8 and #10). The reasoning made sense to me, and I chose crowns for all four teeth — mainly because: (1) I already had several crowns in my mouth that had all held up well . . . (2) I was totally unfamiliar with veneers, so had less faith in them . . . and (c) because I was under the impression that the "emergency" nature of the problem required quick action. Although I have never had any regrets at all regarding my decision, I did learn later that veneers on those last two teeth probably not only would have worked just as well, but also would have required the removal of less tooth structure. I've also heard claims that an experienced dentist can make even a single crown or veneer match neighboring teeth perfectly. While I suppose it's possible, personally I'm skeptical about that.

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Responses: Re: Veneers - Nina 7/28/2009, 3:37 pm Re: Veneers - Q 7/28/2009, 8:34 pm Re: Veneers - Nina 7/29/2009, 3:32 pm « Back to thread

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