Large gap between front teeth

[J12]

Hi, i have a large gap between my two front teeth could this be closed with veneers if so how, thanks

[Dr Pav Khaira]

It is very unlikely that a large space can be closed with 2 veneers. If this was done it would result in very wide looking teeth and would not look natural at all.

I have yet to meet a client who has had 2 veneers placed to close a large gap and have been happy with the result

There are a number of options available ranging from bracework to multiple veneers to achieve a beautiful smile

Hope this helps

[toothfairy]

You should be able to get at the very least an improvement to the gap with veneers if you want to go down that route. A much cheaper alternative to give you an idea of what can be achieved is to use composite material. This is less hard wearing than veneers and is likely to stain over time (like white fillings). However, it can be easily replaced, has little impact on the tooth structure and these days is fairly robust. When you have veneers made the tooth is usually shortened and reduced at the front (if you don't want to end up looking horsey). This is not usually necessary with composite. Also bear in mind that with veneers you cannot bite your nails and have to be careful with food such as apples or spare ribs (the veneers could pop off at the most inconvenient moment - it's a bit like false fingernails). If you're just adding composite to the corners of your tooth you still have the strength of the natural tooth when you bite. If the composite chips it's easy and cheap to fix and you don't end up with a reduced tooth exposed during a romantic meal (which is what happened to someone I know!). You can always have veneers later if you want.

[toothfairy]

But once you go down the veneer route you cannot then change your mind and say you want your natural teeth as they were. It's irreversible and the natural bite will have gone forever.

[Dr Pav Khaira]

So is composite when done well. Feldspathic veneers when bonded to tooth structure actually enhance the stregnth of the teeth assuming preparation is kept within enamel and a correct bonding protocol is used (Magne et al, Deitschi et al).

If the gap is large, simply restoring the the two teeth in the centre will probably give square unnatural looking teeth. If you wanted a preview of the final outcome, this can easily be done with no preparation to the tooth at all. Don't get me wrong, composite will work for the right circumstances but from what I have read this gap is likely to be too large