Natural-Looking Veneer Retreatment

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

Veneer fabrication methods

fall into two categories.

These days, most dental clinics design and produce veneers

using computer-aided methods.

The problem with this approach

is that it's essentially impossible to reproduce a natural-looking tooth.

Since preferences vary from person to person,

some people may actually prefer teeth that look

white and opaque, almost like a stick of xylitol gum stuck on the tooth,

so veneer treatment ends up tailored to individual taste.

The problem is that clinics doing veneer treatment

the way we do, aiming for a natural tooth feel, are rare.

Since both the treatment and the veneer fabrication are demanding processes,

most everyone tries to simplify it with computers.

Let's look at a few cases where veneers that finished looking unnatural

were changed to have a more natural feel.

Case 1

This veneer was done a long time ago.

At the time it probably wasn't made

by computer, but by hand.

Even with the hand-made method,

depending on the skill of the dental technician making it,

the result can end up looking just as unnatural

as a computer-made one, quite often.

There's no three-dimensionality, the whole tooth is a single flat color,

and there's no sense of translucency.

One of the features of a natural-looking tooth

is that sense of translucency.

We gave the teeth an overall sense of translucency

and brought out the three-dimensionality to express a natural look.

Translucency is a feature of young teeth,

so it matters a great deal for looking youthful too.

While shifting to a brighter shade,

we added three-dimensionality, varied expression, and translucency,

and finished the veneer retreatment

with a result that keeps the feel of a natural tooth.

Case 2

This is a typical one-day veneer.

Designed by computer

and milled by machine,

this method easily produces teeth that feel flat and artificial, far from natural.

In particular, it struggles to express varied color and translucency,

so if you want a natural result,

you need veneer treatment made by hand by a skilled dental technician.

Even though the treatment wasn't done long ago,

we carried out a retreatment to make it look natural.

You can see that each individual tooth has varied expression built into it.

Variety is what matters for a natural look.

It shouldn't be too uniform, and needs varied expression,

while also being neither too regular nor too irregular.

Case 3

Since it's an old photo,

the white balance isn't great.

The patient came in to have an unnatural-looking veneer redone.

This photo is from 7 years ago.

We carried out a retreatment to give teeth that were brighter and better suited to the face shape.

This photo was taken right after the retreatment was finished.

Unfortunately, the patient didn't come back in for 7 years after this photo.

Aftercare is quite important once veneer treatment is done.

Then, after 7 years, the patient came in again

and we took a follow-up photo.

Fortunately, there was nothing wrong with the veneers.

The gums, too, had been fairly well maintained for this length of time.

The teeth still kept their natural, varied expression intact,

and the patient said she hadn't come back because she was satisfied.

When veneer treatment is done well,

patients can go on just like this, with no issues at all, as if with natural teeth.

Natural beauty

Since 2006, Dream Dental Clinic