Need Help Choosing Dental Veneers?

Dental veneers have been a staple of our cosmetic dentistry toolkit for a long time, and for good reason.  Veneers are a popular method to enhance your smile and significantly boost your appearance.  Veneers are great for patients who have chipped, broke, misshapen, discoloured or otherwise damaged teeth as well as those who simply want to take their smile up a few notches.

Generally, veneers are placed over the upper front facing teeth, the ones that are most visible when you speak or smile.  The other teeth aren’t as important as they are usually hidden and out of sight so there isn’t much use in adding veneers to them in most cases.

Dental veneers can be a great option if you have:

• Chipped or broken teeth
• Misshapen or misaligned teeth
• Discoloured or stained teeth
• Gapped teeth
• Small teeth
• Worn teeth

What you need to know about choosing dental veneers

Dental veneers are typically made out of porcelain or some sort of composite resin, with the porcelain variety being the most popular.  In most cases, porcelain will provide the most vibrant and natural appearance but only if you choose correctly.  That means choosing the right style, shape and colour to suit your face.  We never recommend getting veneers that will drastically change the way you look, rather choose an option that augments your style and doesn’t shout too loudly when you open your mouth.  That’s because you don’t want everyone to take one look at your smile and immediately know you’ve had veneers installed.  Not that veneers are a bad thing – they most definitely aren’t – it’s just that we believe natural looking is the best way to go when it comes to your teeth and smile.

To help you choose the best veneers for your face shape and style, we provide consultations with out dentists that will help provide options and narrow down your choices, so you end up with amazing looking teeth that you’ll love to show off.

Here’s what you need to keep in mind when it comes time to choose your dental veneers:

Choose the right shade of white for your smile

It’s not as easy as you’d think to choose the correct colour veneers because they can be made in any shade of white you can imagine.  You can’t simply say you want “white” veneers, because believe it or not, there are hundreds of shades to pick from.  Your dentist will show you a chart of popular shades and ones that they feel will look best on your smile.  The general rule of thumb is to choose a veneer shade that best resembles, bright, healthy and most importantly, natural teeth.

This is how you choose the right veneer shade:

• Make sure your teeth aren’t whiter than the whites of your eyes.
• For patients with fair skin, choose a whiter option as you don’t need to worry about high contrast as much.
• For those with a darker complexion, consider toning down the shade a couple levels and avoid bleached options for a natural and beautiful look.
• Ask about a layered veneer option that, just as it sounds, layers the colour of the veneer to increase the natural look.

You can see some of the many veneer colour options below:

What about the shape of veneers?

After you’ve decided on the shade you want your veneers to be, it’s time to determine the right shape to match your face.

Here are a few tips for your consideration:

Look at the shape of your face and choose your veneers accordingly.  Same as with the shade, veneers shape should compliment your face and not look unnatural.  Patients with rounder faces should usually opt for longer and thinner veneers, while those with a longer, slimmer face should consider wider, shorter options. 

It has also been mentioned that squarish shaped veneers can provide a more masculine smile while rounder and softer edged veneers help achieve a more feminine smile.

As we age, our teeth become worn and get shorter.  This is one of the main reasons many patients come to us for veneers as they help restore teeth to full length and give a youthful appearance.

Adding larger veneers can also help reduce wrinkles around the mouth and cheeks while giving fuller looking lips as the larger teeth prop up the skin of the face.

Take a quick look at this pic for some of the most popular veneer shape options:

If you’re interested in seeing if veneers are an option for your smile, then contact our office nearest you and we’ll be happy to help you choose the perfect shade, shape and style of veneer for you.