A few months ago I had four porcelain veneers placed on my front teeth. Since then, the gums have been inflamed on all the teeth with veneers as well as the gums on the two adjacent teeth. I spoke with the hygienist about it who looked at the gums and blamed the way I was brushing. That really irritated me. I am 52 years old and know how to brush my teeth. I was getting nowhere with her and just had to wait until my follow-up appointment with the dentist. When that finally arrived, he removed some excess cement which is said was normal and shaved down some of the rough spots in the back. While that did ease things some, it did not solve the problem. I honestly don’t know what to do. No one at the office is taking me seriously. Have you seen this occur before?
Agnes
Dear Agnes,
It is both infuriating and disheartening when a medical professional falsely blames the problem on the patient. In this case, the problem is likely the dentist. I have found that almost 100% of the time, after a patient gets a smile makeover, they take better care of their teeth because they want the beauty to last.
From what you described, it sounds like the inflammation you are experiencing looks something like what you see above, on the lateral incisors. My guess is your dentist is not an AACD accredited dentist. One of the things the examination board looks at is the health of the gums. If they saw something like in the case above, this dentist would not pass accreditation.
One thing I noticed right off the bat that your dentist did wrong is not to remove all the excess cement when he placed the porcelain veneers. Dentists who do a lot of cosmetic work will have a system to make sure this gets done efficiently. First, they will tack on the veneer by curing the cement in the middle of the tooth. This allows them to clean off all the excess cement while it is still soft. All of this should be done on the day of your procedure. He obviously didn’t know that or he would not have been removing it at your follow up appointment.
There are a few other possible issues that are causing your inflammation. There could be unevenness between where the veneer meets the tooth, called the margins. Another issue could be that the veneers are going too far under the gum. Finally, though rare, you could be having an allergic reaction to the materials. My suggestion is that you get a second opinion from another dentist, with two qualifications. First, it needs to be a blind second opinion. That means the dentist doesn’t know who did the work. You just show him your veneers and the inflammation and let him decide what is causing it without knowing anything else. Second, it needs to be an expert cosmetic dentist. Without that expertise, he or she will likely be just as clueless as the dentist who did your work. The best cosmetic dentists are AACD accredited dentists. I would look for one in your area or even one or two cities over.
This blog is brought to you by Lexington, KY Dentist Dr. Fred Arnold.