No-Prep Veneer Treatment for Black Triangles

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

When the gum recedes between the front teeth, a black triangle appears.

This is what's called a black triangle.

It's just the English term for a black triangle, really,

but since most textbooks use the term "black triangle,"

it's also widely used as the professional term.

It happens most often after orthodontic treatment,

but it also arises frequently from changes that come with age.

As you get older and the gum bone recedes,

a black triangle like this forms between the front teeth.

It can also happen when a tooth's own shape is overly triangular.

When a black triangle is caused by worsening gum health,

gum treatment needs to be carried out first.

A black triangle that appears after orthodontic treatment, as in the case above,

should be treated quickly for esthetic reasons.

Treatment options include partially filling it in with resin,

or treating it by covering the entire tooth with a veneer.

If there's no major issue with the tooth's color or shape, filling in just the gap with resin

is the most economical and quickest option.

Its downside, though, is that it discolors over time.

In the case above,

excessive tooth movement from orthodontics

had also left the teeth retroclined, so we decided to treat both the black triangle and the retroclined bite at the same time.

The key question here is how much of the tooth needs to be reduced.

By the textbook, veneer treatment for a black triangle

generally requires a fairly substantial amount of reduction to be possible.

But depending on the case, no-prep treatment is possible too.

In fact, no-prep veneer treatment for a black triangle

can be considered a result unique to Dream Dental Clinic, made possible by our advanced ceramic fabrication technique.

We make a ceramic "wing" at around the 0.1mm level

and slip it precisely into the black-triangle area,

and being able to fabricate ceramic this thin requires a great deal of experience and know-how in no-prep black-triangle veneer treatment.

By having extremely thin ceramic go into the black-triangle area like this,

the space gets filled in.

This makes it possible without any tooth reduction at all.

That thin ceramic wraps around the entire tooth,

and since it causes almost no irritation to the gums,

it's a method that achieves both gum health and esthetics.

The retroclined bite was also resolved at the same time.

It's finished with a shape this natural.

Even though the ceramic is extremely thin,

it still captures everything, from the translucency at the tip of the tooth to its natural shape.

In particular, the retroclined bite was resolved and the tooth color was brightened as well.

Seen from the side, you can feel the texture of the tooth's surface —

it isn't a perfectly smooth, flat surface,

and this was a case of no-prep black-triangle veneer treatment that captured all the varied contours of a natural tooth.

Since 2006, Dream Dental Clinic