I’ve got an agenesis of upper lateral incisors

Q. Dear Dr. Caplan, I’ve got an agenesis of upper lateral incisors. I am almost at the end of my orthodontic treatment that closed the gaps between my teeth. I currently have old composite veneers on my canines that make them look like incisors. After I finish my ortho treatment I will need those veneers replaced. I’m pretty sure I’d like to go for ceramic veneers and because one of the options is CEREC, I would appreciate your opinion on my questions and concerns. I have seen lots of “CEREC smiles”, but the people on the pictures I have seen had a set of veneers on all front teeth. I can’t remember to see anybody with just two veneers, so I’m a bit concerned whether they would look natural between my own teeth. I’ve read on the Sirona website that the veneer is milled from a block of ceramics and that made me concerned about the contrast between the CEREC veneers made from single color block and my natural teeth consisting of several layers of various colors, translucency etc. (you know better than me :-)). I don’t want veneers on all my front teeth, because my other teeth are both healthy and well-shaped. 1. Is CEREC the best choice in this case or would be the laboratory made veneers better, more natural looking? 2. Are the CEREC veneers just bonded to the teeth and that’s it or are they somehow “coloured” to match the other teeth? I understand that the color of the block is choosed to perfectly match the color of my teeth, but now I’m talking about the slight color variations within a single tooth. Just to complete my list of preferences – the most importantant (apart from keeping the other teeth as they are) is the final result. I don’t care that much about the length of the procedure, the number of visits needed etc. Thank you very much for your time and opinion.

A. Cerec blocks are available that are multilayered with differnet shades – warm around the neck to more translucent at the tip of the tooth.  That combined with staining and glazing techniques within the surgery make cerec the treatment of choice when I am dealing with a single veneer surrounded by natural teeth.  One proviso I make with my patients is that if on makng one veneer the result is not correct then the more conventional laboratory technique might have to be used.  If this is the case it can take multiple veneers and multiple visits before a correct colour is found.  As yet all the single cerec veneers I have made have fullfilled the patients expectations.  Please visit my web site to contact me if you wish for me to carry out this procedure for you.  We provide an initial free consutlation to assess your problem and to se if you are a suitable candidate. 

Dr Julian Caplan – Director on the board of the BACD View My Profile Dr Caplan

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