Porcelain Options in Plano, TX
What Porcelains do we use?
Often patients ask me what porcelain veneers I use at my cosmetic dentistry practice in Plano, TX. They may have read about Empress or "Cerinate Luminisent Veneers", or Procera crowns. There is no perfect porcelain that can be used for all situations, no matter what you read. Each material has specific physical properties, best suited for specific situations. The answer is always the same, it depends on the patients needs. At the comprehensive examination I look at the structural, biological, functional and esthetic requirements to give the patient the best esthetic, functional and long lasting result.
Bonded Porcelain (the easiest to create heavy translucency in veneers or crowns) The selection is based on the requirements of a patients smile. If a patient does not clench or grind, does not need a lot of change in color and wants a very natural colored smile with lots of translucency pure feldspathic porcelain is ideal, as it allows the natural color of the tooth to show through. Feldspathic porcelain has the maximum translucency of all the porcelains but is the weakest of all the porcelains so it not best suited for heavy clenchers and grinders when we are lengthening teeth. (photo of b/f smile with feldspathis porcelain).
Empress Porcelain is another bondable porcelain with good translucency and better strength than the feldspathic porcelain. It is a pressed ceramic that is the that is the most used for veneers due to its increased strength to allow tooth lengthening. Our ceramist James is a master of layering the fedispathic porcelain over the pressed empress to get the beauty of fedispathic porcelain and the strength of Empress pressed porcelain. This layering technique is very labor intensive and requires a high level of artistic skill, but James is a master.
Cerinate Lumineers are a new veneer material which is strong enough to keep as thin as a contact lense and is designed for patients who want no or very little natural tooth structure removed. In certain situations where the porcelain veneer dentistry team is not trying to alter the color or shape, but only to fill in gaps, it can be very successful.
Cementable Porcelain Crowns
Procera is a cementable all porcelain material where the strong milled core is made in Sweden and the outer coating of Porcelain is added by James. This is excellent for masking out dark root canal teeth , or for someone who has badly broken down teeth or heavy clenching and grinding nocturnal habits. Inceram is a similar material but not quite as strong and the core is made locally. Finally Lava is the newest competitor in this category. It has a Zercona milled core, and greater strength than any but sense it is new we are still evaluating it’s esthetic qualities so we only use it in the back of the mouth until we can evaluate its long term esthetic qualities of translucency and vitality. All of these material allow great change in color, are very strong, can mask dark colors and are routinely used when replacing old unsightly crowns. There disadvantage is they are more difficult to create extreme ranges of translucency, and are crowns only requiring more tooth reduction.
Each patients smile, functional and structural needs are evaluated and after consultation with the patient a porcelain is selected. No two people or smiles are alike.
Porcelain Veneers-a thin shell of porcelain bonded properly to your tooth with the same strength that a tooth is bonded to itself to change the color and shape of a tooth. Used frequently in porcelain veneer smile makeovers at my Dallas practice.
Direct Bonding- a thin shell like porcelain veneers is applied directly by the Dallas veneers dentist but made of bonding material (composite) resulting in a new smile in one appointment. Here the artistry is up to the dentists’ skills rather than the ceramist. Here is an example of my dental work.
Tissue Resculpting- This is where we alter the gum shape, or heights to achieve a harmonious contour and shape of teeth in your smile. The lips are the frame, the gums the matting and the teeth are the subject. We want symmetrical harmonious matting around our matting. Sometimes it involves simple reshaping, sometimes we need to add gum (connective tissue grafts) and sometimes we need to take some away (gummy smile).
Dental Implants- A highly successful way to replace a lost tooth. They are more successful than a bridge long term and does not require preparing the adjacent teeth for crowns. With the "immediate load technique" they are highly esthetic as well.
Full Month Restorations- For people who have a lot of damage to their teeth from extreme clenching and grinding or severe decay , etc. With a full mouth restoration all the teeth are treated by giving the dentist full range to correct the bite, shape and color of the patient’s teeth.
