Are you thinking of getting porcelain veneers for your teeth? Perhaps you have been wondering if you need to do any preparation for your teeth, such as having them straightened, beforehand. Use this guide to understand how veneers work and whether you ought to get your teeth straightened.
What are veneers?
Porcelain veneers are thin slivers of porcelain that are applied to the front of some of your teeth: usually the most visible teeth. As they are super white, these veneers will help you to achieve a whiter smile. In addition, veneers can be carefully shaped to give your teeth an even appearance. Usually, your teeth will need to be ground a little with a special tool and ‘prepped’ to shape them and to create a slightly roughened surface that the veneer can cling to. But, do you need to have totally straight teeth for veneers to be applied?
Is it essential to have my teeth straightened before veneers are applied?
Veneers can be applied to teeth that are crooked, or teeth that are otherwise uneven or differently shaped to each other. Overbites and underbites are no problem either: veneers can still be applied. In sum, you do not need a perfectly straight and even bite before veneers are applied. What may cause you problems, though, is if your teeth overlap each other. It is difficult for dentists to apply a veneer to the surface of a tooth if it is partly or wholly obscured by another tooth. If your front teeth overlap each other a lot, it is probably best to have those teeth straightened so that your veneers can be applied to the whole surface of each relevant tooth.
Options for getting teeth straightened
If you want to get your teeth straightened, you could always opt for traditional metal braces. With these it will take you an average of 6 weeks to straighten your teeth (though it could be as little as two weeks or as many as 10 depending on how much your teeth overlap each other). If you do not like the look of metal braces, there are other options for you. Another is Invisalign braces, which do all of the same jobs that traditional metal braces do, but which are totally transparent and pretty much invisible unless somebody is standing right up close to you and looking right at your teeth (and why would they do that, unless they were actually your dentist?).
