Archives for April 2023

I need some help. I went to my dentist and told him that I wanted to get a smile makeover with porcelain veneers. He told me I was a great candidate for 360 veneers, which means they cover your whole tooth and not just the front. He said they’re more secure than regular veneers. I did ask if that meant they’d have to remove a lot of my tooth structure and he assured me they would not. Since getting the 360 veneers, I’ve had several fall off. Two things about this bothers me. First, when they did come off, the teeth were little nubs, which is not what we discussed. Second, they keep falling off even though I am chopping up my food very small and not eating anything hard, as I was instructed. I feel more insecure now about my smile than I did before because I am never sure if the teeth are going to fall out or not. Is this normal? Will it stop?

Kary

Dear Kary,

I am so sorry this has happened to you. The first thing I am going to say is that you need to ask for a refund on these and then see another dentist to have this done correctly. To be quite blunt, your dentist lied to you. In fact, he lied several times. First, there is no such thing as 360 veneers. What he gave you were dental crowns. Some dentists, who have not invested in much smile makeover training, don’t know how to do proper porcelain veneers. So, they steer their patients toward dental crowns, which is taught in general dental school. Unfortunately, he does not even seem to know how to do those right, which is something we’ll get into in a moment.

The second thing he lied about was the amount of tooth structure he would have to remove. Any dentist knows the difference between porcelain veneer prep and dental crown prep. Below, I have a picture of both.

As you can see, there is a dramatic difference in the way that teeth are prepped for porcelain veneers versus porcelain crowns. Any first year dental student should know the difference.

I mentioned that this dentist does not even know how to do a dental crown properly. These should not be falling out. Most dentists go their entire careers without a single crown falling out. You seem to have multiple that fall out. Additionally, they should be secure enough that you would not have to chop up your food into little bits or avoid certain foods.

As I mentioned at the beginning. I think you should get a full refund. If he has a problem with that, you can bring up the issues I have here. I’m sure you’d have a great malpractice case if you wanted to go that route. However, I think once you mention that to him, he’ll be glad to refund you. Then you can have this done by a skilled cosmetic dentist. Your safest option will be to go to a dentist who is AACD accredited. They have passed stringent exams and had to demonstrate their artistry on a large number of cases.

This blog is brought to you by Lexington, KY Dentist Dr. Fred Arnold.