Author: Ami Patel

One of the most common questions we get about veneers is, do you have to shave the teeth for veneers? And the short answer is that it depends. About one out of every three veneer cases we do is done with little to no shaving to the teeth. The other two out of three veneer cases that we do are done with minimal preparation or minimal shaving. If shaving is required, it is to make room for the veneers to go over the teeth so the final veneers do not look big or bulky. Traditionally for porcelain veneers, there is generally minimal teeth shaving required. For no prep porcelain veneers, there is no shaving required. And for prepless veneers, there is little shaping or contouring done prior to the porcelain veneer.

Teeth that are small and straighter could require little to no shaving. Teeth that have older dental work, teeth that are big, teeth that have lots of issues like being crooked or crowded would require more shaving to the teeth. The average thickness of a porcelain veneer is 0.3mm to 0.5mm on the front surface as well as on the edges of the teeth. So if a tooth has to be minimally shaved for veneers, this is the average amount of shaving that is needed. So nowadays you don’t always have to shave the teeth for veneers, however it depends on several factors.

How do you know if you qualify for no prep veneers? This is such a great question. One of the first things we want to make sure is that the teeth are healthy and that the gums are healthy. We also want to make sure that there’s no cavities or decay on the teeth that we’re considering doing no prep veneers on. We want the teeth to be relatively straight.

Teeth that are smaller, set back, or even have gaps between the teeth could be great candidates for no prep veneers. Additionally, people who feel like they have to struggle or strain to smile and show teeth could also benefit from the volume that’s added with no prep veneers. People with a narrow smile or who just wish that their smile was fuller could be great candidates as well. So teeth that need volume added to them on the edges, to the length, and to the front surface for added volume would qualify for no prep veneers.

There’s going to be another new Superman movie so let’s talk about the smile of our favourite actor who plays Superman and that is the actor Tom Welling. So let’s talk about his smile. In the before photo, you can see how his canines are longer and that his lateral incisors, the teeth right next to his front teeth, are shorter and very skinny.

In the after photo, you can see that things have changed. His smile got brighter, the lateral incisors are wider, and the canines are not assharp. It looks like he had veneers done to transform his smile. So again, what’s the difference
between Tom Wellings before and after smile? He had some veneers done to improve the symmetry, color, and balance of his smile.

One of the most common celebrities that people talk about when it comes to veneers is Miley Cyrus. So over the years, we can see how Miley Cyrus’s smile has changed from when she was younger to the more recent photo. And what we can see is that she originally has a gummy smile and that the teeth were not straight due to some shifting of the teeth. One thing that people don’t talk about that much is that she has what we call a high lip line which means that when she smiles her lip goes very high, which shows a lot of her gums and all of her teeth. Now this varies from person to person. Some people have a low lip line, which covers more of the hum and covers some of the teeth when they smile. So a lot of people when they talk about Miley Cyrus’s veneers feel like they are sticking out of her mouth, but I think part of it has to do with her having a high lip line.

So let’s talk about and break down another celebrity smile. Today we’re going to be talking about
Emma Stone. I love the pixie cut and how youthful she’s looking, but I also love the way her teeth are looking and her smile is looking. So when I look at the before photo, I can tell that there’s maybe some concern about her lateral incisors. Maybe there was some composite bonding done or some staining there. So over the years, I think she’s had veneers done and the way her veneers look today looks amazing. I love the color of her smile. I love the color of the teeth and how the whites of her eyes are very similar to the color of the teeth. I also love the size and proportions of the teeth. I love how the front two teeth are a little bit more prominent and the teeth kind of get smaller as we get further back. So we have a lot more of a symmetrical smile and a more balanced smile with her new smile.

So I just love the way the results of this smile look and I am so happy for the patient. She now has a beautiful confident smile. Her concerns when she came in were the discoloration of the teeth and how she felt like the teeth were getting shorter and smaller over time. You can see how the size of the teeth impact the overall facial aesthetics when we were able to improve the size to make them more proportionate. As well as improving the symmetry and color. All of those things tie into balancing facial aesthetics for our patients. And so it looks like we took years off her smile and gave her a more youthful and confident smile. We are just so happy for her and it looks so amazing.

I was just telling someone how this is one of our favorite smile makeovers that we’ve done. I love the result that we got because we’re able to address our patient’s concerns of having a narrow smile, which we improved, and also our patients want a little bit of a brighter smile. And lastly also the fullness, proportions, and symmetry of the smile. So we were able to improve all of those things with a smile makeover and I just really truly love the way that the smile makeover came out. And so, yeah, I just wanted to share that with you guys.

Working Five Days a Week as a Dentist

If you’re a dentist and you’re thinking about working five days a week, I would strongly recommend against that because I feel like dentistry is hard on the body. And I feel like, for longevity, working four days a week, health wise will give you the physical ability to relax. Or if you’re able to work even less, that’s even better. For the longest time as a dentist, I worked four days a week and then I went to three and a half days a week. Now I’m at three days a week.

When you look at someone’s smile have you ever wondered when the front teeth or the lateral incisors are a different size and they’re significantly smaller? Well we call that pegged laterals and our patient was concerned that she has pegged laterals. Pegged laterals are something that people are just born with and so she always had these small side teeth that worried her. She was also worried about the coloration of her teeth and the straightness of her teeth. We recommended porcelain veneers to her in order to improve her smile and I just love the way that the smile looks in the end. We were able to give her a fuller smile, a brighter smile, and a whiter smile all while improving the size and shape of those lateral teeth. The lateral teeth went from being a little hidden and discolored to now being forward-facing and brighter. Doing the veneers on the other teeth also completed the smile and gave her that amazing look.

Veneers not only address the issues that people have with their teeth and improve the way a smile looks, they also can actually affect the overall facial appearance of an individual. So in our case, our patient was concerned about the straightness of the teeth, the sizing, and chipping of the teeth. And you can see how in the veneers in the second photo, we were able to improve all those things. We gave him a straighter and fuller smile. But what you can also see is that in the second photo, his face looks brighter, smile looks fuller, and his jawline looks different. And you can see how in the first photo when the smile is narrow and constricted it affects the jawline and the overall facial appearance when the teeth are darker. And then once we brighten things up and also fill out the smile, it makes such a big impact on improving someone’s facial appearance.

I love how this smile turned out. Our patient was concerned about their teeth getting worn down over the years and just getting shorter and shorter. Also the teeth were discoloring over time as well and she was concerned about how the teeth wouldn’t show when she would be smiling or in photos. So the teeth had gotten so short they almost disappeared in her smile. Our goal was to restore some of that vertical length that she had lost and improve the size, proportion, symmetry and color of the teeth. We can tell when looking at the facial aesthetics, looking at the results of the smile, how much the teeth can improve the overall facial aesthetics and just improve the way someone can look more youthful. They can look more confident and they could just look happier with a new smile and we love how these veneers look.