I need advice. At this point, I have lost all faith in my dentist. He told me I needed porcelain veneers to fix the appearance of my teeth. In all honesty, they were pretty bad. Quite a few were chipped and they were uneven in size (mostly because of my teeth grinding habit), and of course, at my age (which I will not disclose) they were pretty yellow. I agreed to the veneers and was actually pretty excited about it, but it has been a complete disaster. He ground my teeth down to little nubs and put the veneers on. While they do look better than my natural teeth did, they keep popping off. I have one or two fall off every couple of days, leaving me with that little nub visible. My dentist does always put it back in, but this is a complete hassle going into the office every couple of days. Not to mention the embarrassment of that nub until I can get in. He keeps blaming my teeth grinding for them coming off, but I do wear a mouthguard. Is there a way to keep them in permanently?

Desiree

Dear Desiree,

First, the good news. There is a way to keep these in permanently. You just need to go to a dentist that actually knows how to bond these on. It is not normal for them to be coming off like this. In fact, most dentists go their entire careers without even one coming off. Your dentist obviously doesn’t know how to bond them. I would go to another dentist for this repair, AND insist your dentist pay for the appointment too. You’ve wasted enough time and money on this.

Now for the bad news. Your dentist did not actually give you porcelain veneers. I believe he gave you porcelain crowns.

Porcelain veneers are tiny wafers made of porcelain that hug the front of your teeth (see image above). Hardly any tooth preparation is necessary. As I mentioned before, I think your dentist provided you with porcelain crowns. These do require the type of aggressive tooth preparation you described. That is to make room for them. Instead of just bonding to the front of your teeth the way porcelain veneers do, they cover the entirety of your tooth: front, sides, and back. If he misrepresented what he was placing, you can actually get a full refund.

I’m sorry this happened to you.

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I need some advice. My son is on a college hockey team and recently lost a tooth in a game. We’ve never had this happen before. College seems much rougher than high school teams. I wanted to give him the best replacement so I want to provide him with a dental implant. However, his teammates think that is a bad idea because he’s likely to get hit in the mouth again. What do you recommend I do?

Elise

Dear Elise,

 

I imagine it is a tad frightening being the mother of a hockey player. Even with a mouthguard, which I recommend no matter what the sport, there is a greater risk of damage to the tooth. Thinking about what your son’s teammates said, it makes sense. If there is a permanent replacement and the tooth is injured again, it could very likely rip bone out with it. So, how can you give your son the best tooth replacement, while protecting him from even worse damage?

First, I will say your choice of a dental implant is fantastic. That is what I would want to recommend to anyone who has to replace a tooth. However, his situation requires some creative planning. What I would suggest is that you go ahead and have the prosthetic root form of the dental implant placed, but hold off on the crown restoration. Once his hockey career is done, then you can have a porcelain crown bonded onto his implant.

In the meantime, he still needs a tooth unless he enjoys looking like a hillbilly from a 1930s sitcom. My suggestion would be something temporary, that cannot cause any damage if he is hit forcefully in his mouth again. An inexpensive one is a dental flipper. He can have an attractive, normal-looking smile.

Best of luck to your son in his hockey career and I hope you won’t feel too stressed in the meantime.

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