Peg Lateral Veneers, Gapped Teeth, and All-Ceramic Crown Retreatment

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

When patients who've had front-tooth esthetic treatment come in for retreatment,

they often confuse an all-ceramic crown with veneers.

Veneers are an esthetic method that removes very little tooth structure,

while an all-ceramic crown requires a fair amount of tooth reduction,

so at some clinics, even when a patient was treated with an all-ceramic crown,

it may have been explained to them as a veneer,

and since the word "veneer" has become almost synonymous with front-tooth treatment,

many people seem to assume that any front-tooth treatment must have been a veneer.

A veneer is a treatment that bonds a thin ceramic shell onto part of a tooth to make it look better,

while an all-ceramic crown is used when a tooth is fractured, has severe decay,

or when discoloration is so severe that the tooth's color needs to be fully covered.

As in the photos above, reducing only the front surface of the tooth

and bonding a thin ceramic shell onto just that surface is called a veneer,

while, as in the photo below, fully capping the entire tooth is called an all-ceramic crown.

Using these two methods appropriately,

treatment that corrects the shape, color, and alignment of the teeth together

can be called esthetic tooth reshaping.

The two front teeth had already been treated with all-ceramic crowns,

but over time a gap opened up between them,

and the teeth on either side were peg laterals.

While retreating the two crowns,

we decided to do veneers on the peg laterals at the same time,

so treatment began on these four teeth.

In a retreatment case like this, the most important thing

is the diagnostic process.

In particular, when a gap like this opens up, the teeth inevitably need to be made larger,

so how to distribute the added size

is worked out in advance in wax —

this wax-up precision diagnosis process is important.

Diagnosis proceeds using the same method shown in the link above.

After removing the all-ceramic crowns for retreatment,

this is how much reduction had already been done.

It was probably because of a fracture or severe decay

that this earlier treatment had been done, we suspect.

The peg laterals on both sides were treated with no-prep veneers.

We proceed with seating the all-ceramic crowns and veneers.

The space between the teeth closed naturally,

and the tooth size didn't need to increase very much.

As the peg laterals were effectively enlarged,

we were able to match their proportions with the front teeth.

The gums also rose back up naturally,

and the retreatment was completed with a result that blends well with the ceramic.

The shape of the teeth now matches natural teeth,

and the harmony of color and gums was finished naturally as well.

Since 2006, Dream Dental Clinic