My beautiful daughter is being haunted by an ugly dark tooth. Here’s the deal. She plays sports and fell during practice several months ago. The tooth was cracked and required a root canal. Well, now the tooth is gray. The dentist said to get a porcelain veneer but I wanted to see if that is the best treatment for this kind of cosmetic issue. We live close enough to Pittsburgh which may give us more options than our small town. I just don’t want this to crush her self confidence. She is a gem and I don’t want her hiding her smile.
– Beth in Pennsylvania
Beth,
Of course you want the best for your beautiful daughter. A beautiful smile is one of the single most important factors in making a good first impression and in self confidence.
A larger city will likely provide you with a greater selection of qualified cosmetic dentists. That is the real issue. A general dentist is trained to fix some sort of functional problem versus a cosmetic dentist that is passionate about creating beauty. To be one of the best cosmetic dentists requires much advanced training beyond dental school. So be careful when searching for the right fit. Ask to see cases that are similar to your daughter’s discolored tooth and check out their credentials. Not just any dentist can do porcelain veneers well. Cosmetic dentistry is like an art. The right cosmetic dentist will truly understand that perspective.
The dentist that did the original root canal should have used certain materials to fill the tooth. So there is a strong possibility that the dentist was not a cosmetic dentist. Because an excellent cosmetic dentist would have known the process involved to slow down the discoloration. Bleaching the tooth and then placing a porcelain veneer or a porcelain crown is the ideal aesthetically-pleasing cosmetic solution. When this is done by an expert cosmetic dentist, it will blend in perfectly with the surrounding smile. And most importantly, your daughter will never have to hide her smile again.
This post is sponsored by York PA dentist Dr. Donald H. Currie, DMD