CAN VENEERS BREAK?

CAN VENEERS BREAK?

Yes, if you are able to break your own tooth, and teeth are made of the strongest material in our bodies, you can break a veneer. Veneers can break if you bite into something really hard for example edge of a fork, sunflower seeds or crab legs.

CAN VENEERS BREAK?

Yes, veneers can fracture or break. You can break or fracture your own teeth therefore, you can break a veneer

What are veneers made from?

In Simple terms a Dental veneer is a layer of material placed over a tooth. Veneers can improve the aesthetics of a smile and protect the tooth’s surface from damage. There are two types of material used to create a veneer: composite and dental porcelain. A composite veneer may be directly placed, or indirectly fabricated by a dental lab, and later bonded to the tooth. Usually used for treatment of adolescent patients who will require a more permanent design once they are fully grown. A composite veneer will last approximately 4 years. A porcelain veneer may only be indirectly fabricated. A Laminate veneer is a thin layer that covers only the surface of the tooth and generally is used for esthetic purposes. These typically have better performance, aesthetics,  and are less plaque retentive. Veneers can improve the aesthetics of a smile and protect the tooth’s surface from damage.

What can cause a veneer to Break?

Tooth injuries

Accidents can happen; it could be a sports injury, a car crash or a hard fall. These injuries could also damage your own teeth. Damage to the veneers from injuries and accidents can be easily corrected by replacing the veneers.

Alignment issues

Before placing dental veneers, the patient’s bite, tooth, jaw alignment and other orthodontic factors will be evaluated. If a previous alignment issue was not corrected before the veneer was applied, it might compromise the durability of the porcelain veneer. While the laminate itself may be resistant to discoloration and mask flaws, orthodontic issues of the teeth will eventually cause the veneers to fail.

Conservative tooth preparation

Before applying veneers, the cosmetic dentist may need to reshape your teeth and remove a thin layer of enamel to make the veneers bond to the tooth surface. Sometimes, the dentist may be conservative and may end up scraping too much or too little of the tooth’s structure. This could cause tooth sensitivity and eventual veneers failure.

Increase in Stress Levels

When life cause extra stress our muscles tend to get tighter and cause us to clench and grind our teeth. If you have veneers this extreme grinding habit can affect your veneers and cause cracks. Also stress can increase bad habits like nail biting that also can cause veneers to crack.

How to fix a broken veneer?

If it is a composite veneer then the repair is simple, just like when the veneer was made composite material can be placed in the area of the crack or chip. Then the composite veneer is polished to be smooth just like new. What should be considered, is that when one composite veneer is fixed, it will look newer/ different than the rest because composite veneers can be stained. Unlike porcelain veneers that do not stain, you may want to polish the older composite veneers to match the repaired veneer.

To repair chipped or broken porcelain veneer is difficult. It depends on the location of the chip. If the chip is at the edge, then a repair would only be temporary since the edge is where all of the pressure of your bite is focused. So the best course of action for you would be to replace the veneer with a new one. Sometimes the chip is small enough on the edge that can be polished – which is an easy fix.

If the chip does not include the edge, it can be fixed with a composite material. The chances are that the repair would be longer lasting since it is not on the edge of the tooth. However, the composite material used to repair the chip is different from porcelain, the repair could be noticeable.

Call Today to set up a consultation for your broken veneer problem. 212 725 2002