AACD accredited dentists Archives - Dr. Duane Delaune's Blog

Is teeth grinding breaking my porcelain veneers?

Posted on October 15, 2021 by AllSmiles.

In July, my dentist replaced four old crowns on my front teeth and the two beside them. She recommended veneers on four more teeth – two on each side of the crowns because my teeth were worn. Within two weeks of getting the work completed, two of the veneer teeth started to hurt. I returned to the dentist, and she said that I grind my teeth so much that one veneer is loose. She made a mouth guard for me to wear at night. But the pain did not stop, and one veneer fell off. My dentist offered to replace the veneers with crowns, with I declined. So far, I have returned to her office twice to bond the veneers back on. I do not want her to grind down any more of my teeth for crowns. Neither do I want to keep going back to the dental office to bond veneers back on. Are crowns the only solution for this issue? I never had so many problems before the veneers. – Thank you. Robert M. from KY

Robert,

Thank you for your question.

porcelain veneer being held up by dental tool

Well-bonded porcelain veneers should not loosen

Well-bonded porcelain veneers do not fall off. If you have a problem with teeth grinding and your bite, your dentist should have identified it before placing your crowns and veneers. Her response makes us wonder whether some aspect of your treatment is too complex for her.

Can You Wear Porcelain Veneers If You Grind Your Teeth?

Generally, you can wear porcelain veneers if you grind your teeth. A dentist should bond the veneers so well that they do not loosen. But you must wear a mouth guard while you sleep to minimize the impact of grinding on your veneers. However, some cases of teeth trading are so severe that the veneers weaken anyway.

Preparing teeth for veneers takes skill and much post-graduate training in cosmetic dentistry. Many dentists provide cosmetic dentistry without getting enough training, and the results show it.

Get a Porcelain Veneers Second Opinion

We recommend that you find a dentist in your area with post-graduate training in cosmetic dentistry. Replacing porcelain veneers with crowns is aggressive treatment that you do not want unless it is necessary. Look for affiliation and training from the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry or the American Academy of Esthetic Dentistry. Look for a few cosmetic dentists’ websites for information about their post-graduate training in cosmetic dentistry.

Duane Delaune, DDS, of Metairie, Louisiana, sponsors this post.

Dentist Placed a Dental Implant Knowing it Would Fail

Posted on December 3, 2020 by writeradmin.

I need some advice. I went to see a dentist who said he’s placed a lot of dental implants. I trusted him and now feel like I’ve been taken advantage of. When he “finished” my implant surgery, he told me that he realized I didn’t have enough bone structure and now he wants to know if I would like him to take out the dental implant and give me a dental bridge. Why would he place the implant knowing I didn’t have enough bone for it to work? Can he do this?

Andrew

Dear Andrew,

I’m not sure how your dentist thinks he can get away with this. It is negligence at best. Let’s say that he didn’t know you didn’t have enough bone support before he started the surgery. Why didn’t he? Did he not do the appropriate diagnostics? Did you have a CT scan? If he did, does he not know how to interpret the diagnostics? Or worse, he knew and did the surgery anyway.

You can easily get a refund for this. He knew the procedure would fail and didn’t inform you. Instead, he placed a doomed dental implant. However, now you still have a missing tooth that needs to be replaced.

If you still want a dental implant for your tooth replacement that is possible. However, you will have to deal with the bone issue. There is a bone grafting procedure you can have done that will build back up the missing bone. Once you have healed from that you can move forward with the implant procedure.

Obviously, you will want a better implant dentist. I want you to look at Dr. Delaune’s bio to get an idea of the type of training you want your dentist to have. I’m not talking about his dental school. Instead, look at all his post-doctoral training. This is important. Dental implants are an advanced procedure that isn’t adequately taught in dental school. It requires significant post-doctoral training to really know what you’re doing.

Then, there is the cosmetic factor. You didn’t mention where the tooth was located that you are replacing. Is it a front tooth? If so, you will want an expert cosmetic dentist as well. This way it will perfectly match the adjacent teeth. With a back tooth that will not matter as much, so you could focus on the implant training alone.

For a front tooth, you’ll want implant and cosmetic training. For the latter, I’d look for an AACD dentist. These are the top cosmetic dentists in the country.

This blog is brought to you by New Orleans Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Duane Deluane.

matching teeth to eyeballs?

Posted on January 4, 2020 by writeradmin.

I wanted to know if it is possible to use teeth whitening to match my teeth to my eyeballs?

Luke

Dear Luke,

I want to give you points for the most unique question I have received. There are two factors in answering this question.

First, a lot of the answers will depend on one how white your eyeballs are. While teeth can be bleached exceptionally white, there are limits to its whitening ability.

The second factor is that teeth whitening results vary quite a bit. This is why when someone is getting a complete smile makeover we have them bleach their teeth first. You get much more accurate results when you are matching porcelain veneers to a color, than when you are using teeth whitening.

If it is just a color you are going for, then you can attempt to do it with teeth whitening and see if it gives you the color you want. It is the least expensive way to give yourself a mini makeover.

However, if there was more you wanted to change about your teeth, such as their shape or size, in addition to the color, then the way to go is with porcelain veneers.

As I mentioned above, they can be made to any color you desire. But that isn’t all. A great cosmetic dentist can lengthen and widen your teeth, completely changing the character of your smile. Depending on how the dentist shapes your teeth, he can change the appearance of your smile to look youthful, sporty, authoritative…whatever you want.

However, it does require some expertise and will be more expensive. Unlike teeth whitening, which any dentist can do equally well, to do truly beautiful smile makeovers takes advanced technical and artistic ability.

This is only developed after extensive post-doctoral training. Doing smile makeovers isn’t taught in dental school. In your place, I’d look for an AACD accredited dentist. They are in the top 1% of cosmetic dentists in the country. Any smile they create for you will be absolutely stunning.

This blog is brought to you by New Orleans Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Duane Delaune.