A Look at the Minimal-Prep Veneer Treatment Process

Hello, I'm Park Jonguk, DDS, MS, director of Dream Dental Clinic.

Treatment that makes teeth beautiful is called tooth reshaping.

Tooth reshaping doesn't mean doing minimal-prep veneers or an all-ceramic crown on just one or two teeth,

but rather treating several teeth together at once,

so that not only the shape and color of the teeth, but also their alignment,

the degree of protrusion, or, in cases of protruding or inward-angled teeth,

even those angles can be changed to some degree.

Since this is treatment done for cosmetic purposes,

minimizing the sacrifice of tooth structure is extremely important.

Most side effects of veneers

originate from excessive tooth reduction,

so the less reduction there is, the safer the veneer treatment becomes.

No-prep veneers would be ideal,

but since the cases where that's possible are quite limited,

some degree of reduction usually ends up being necessary.

The current condition of the teeth, the amount to be reduced, and the expected result all

need to be checked before proceeding with treatment — this is very important.

If you look at the link above,

you can see the precise diagnostic process.

The edges of the teeth were chipped in a jagged, sawtooth pattern.

Since the alignment of the teeth was slightly off,

there was a somewhat awkward look to it.

Both the shape and the alignment of the teeth needed improvement.

Since the teeth shouldn't get any larger and actually needed to become smaller,

if this had been done with no tooth reduction,

the result would actually have ended up looking worse — that's the kind of case this was.

Taking all these various factors into account,

we work out the treatment plan for the teeth.

Everything is considered, from the amount of reduction for each individual tooth to what the final result will look like.

We create the expected result in wax

and discuss it with the patient before beginning treatment.

Tooth reduction is carried out as planned,

and the minimal-prep veneers are then fabricated in ceramic.

Without an advance plan,

or with a sloppy one,

more tooth structure ends up being reduced than is actually necessary.

This can lead to side effects,

which is why advance planning is so important.

When reducing the tooth,

we use a microscope.

It's usually magnified about 10 times,

and since reduction for a veneer is on the order of 0.1 to 0.5mm,

that's not an amount that can be reliably confirmed with the naked eye.

At 10x magnification, 0.5mm effectively becomes 5mm,

which makes far more precise reduction possible.

The reason my minimal-prep veneers cause so little irritation to the gums

is precisely because tooth reduction is done using a microscope like this,

which makes it possible to fabricate a precise veneer.

Not only the shape and color of the teeth, but also the alignment, were finished evenly.

Achieving the best possible result with the least amount of reduction

is the advantage of Dream Dental Clinic's minimal-prep veneers.

The result is finished with a clear, genuine feel of natural teeth.

From any angle, you can see beautiful-looking teeth.

The gums are also adapting cleanly.

Since 2006, Dream Dental Clinic