A Veneer Case That Effectively Closed Black Triangles
When the triangular-shaped gaps between the front teeth look empty and appear dark, this is called a black triangle.
Because the space between the front teeth looks dark, it brings a fairly serious aesthetic problem.
This refers to the dark-looking area shown here.
There are various reasons why black triangles like this form.
The most common reason is gum changes due to aging — as we get older, the gum bone recedes and space opens up. Besides that, black triangles caused by orthodontic treatment also appear quite often, and in the photo above, while it is partly due to age-related change, the teeth are also naturally quite triangular in shape, so a black triangle was bound to appear even with healthy gums.
One way to address this kind of black triangle is to bond resin directly onto the teeth, but because resin is a material that discolors over time, it inevitably causes problems in the long run.
In the end, veneers become the best solution.
What matters here is the shape of the teeth, the position and shape of the bone, and the distance between the teeth.
You need to take various measurements of the bone position and the distance between the teeth to check how the shape of the veneer should be designed so that it does not put strain on the gums while effectively preventing black triangles. If veneers are placed without this care, the black triangles may not be effectively closed, or they may be closed too aggressively, causing gum inflammation.
In a case like this tooth situation, improving the shape of the teeth becomes the most important part. In addition, a large portion of the teeth had worn down toward the gum line, but on the x-ray, the height and shape of the bone and the distance between the teeth were not significant problems.
We proceeded with minimal-reduction veneers.
What I always consider important is natural-looking teeth.
If you look closely at the teeth, you can see that the natural tooth feel — the shape, the contours, and even the translucency at the tooth edges — has been preserved as much as possible,
resulting in bright, beautiful teeth.
Protecting the natural teeth while shaping them to look natural is a very important and difficult process.
This article is a clinical note written by Dr. Park Jonguk of Dream Dental Clinic, Gangnam; the original was published on his blog. The photographs shown are real cases he treated. Results vary with each patient’s condition, and every procedure carries the possibility of individual variation and side effects.
