After Veneers My Teeth are Multicolored

I need some advice. I had four different porcelain veneers placed on my front teeth. They look okay. However, my regular teeth are darker than the veneers so my teeth are two different colors. Now, one of the two front veneers turned gray. Now my teeth are three different colors. My dentist said the darker tooth had some extra discoloration and she can make that tooth’s veneer a little thicker. I’m worried about that. What if it sticks out in an obvious way? Have you encountered this before? I want to have a pretty smile and I feel like this made everything worse.

Kaitlyn

Dear Kaitlyn,

I am sorry this happened to you. It sounds like you went to a family dentist that didn’t understand much about cosmetic dentistry. It is unfortunate that doing smile makeovers are not taught in dental school, nor is cosmetic dentistry a recognized specialty. This means any dentist can do cosmetic work regardless of their post-doctoral training. Believe me when I tell you that doing it well requires a significant amount of training. Your dentist has made several fundamental mistakes.

Let’s start with how your teeth ended up two different colors. Any cosmetic dentist knows if you are going to have porcelain veneers done, you either have to place enough veneers to cover each tooth visible when you smile or provide a way for them to look close to the same color. Most smiles are wider than four teeth. They are between eight and ten teeth wide. When you cannot afford to get that many, which is okay, then your dentist is supposed to suggest you have your teeth whitened. When you do that, it makes the non-veneered teeth match very closely, giving you a uniform smile. Then they can do the veneers.

Now, as to having the tooth that turned that turned gray made thicker, I do not recommend it. In fact, I don’t think any previous discoloration is the problem at all. You said this tooth TURNED gray. If this was due to a pre-existing condition, then it would have been gray from the beginning. Granted, I have not examined your case, but if it turned gray than that sounds like it was not properly bonded on and food and other bacteria are getting trapped between your tooth and your porcelain veneer. This has to be replaced because if it is left that way the tooth structure will begin to decay.

In a way this is good news. Under normal circumstances, you can’t get a refund just because you do not like the way they look. However, because they are defective, you have a right to get that refund and get these replaced. Then, you can get them done right by someone who has invested in the training. My suggestion is that you look for a dentist on the mynewsmile.com website. Anyone listed there will be able to give you a stunning smile.

This blog is brought to you by West Seneca Dentist Dr. Warren Krutchick.