How do I Make Porcelain Tooth Veneer?

Dental veneering is a cosmetic dentistry procedure in which a ceramic material is placed over a tooth to improve the tooth's appearance. This material, which is typically made of porcelain, can hide flaws in the tooth such as wearing, chips, or cracks. Veneers can also be used to improve the appearance of discolored or unevenly spaced teeth. Porcelain dental veneers are produced by creating a cast of the patient's teeth and etching the veneer from a block of porcelain using hydrofluoric acid.

Things You'll Need

• Dental shaving tool
• Impression putty
• Resin cement

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Instructions

• 1

  Apply novocaine to the tooth that is to be veneered, if so desired by the patient.

• 2

  Trim the tooth back in preparation for the veneer. The side of the tooth that is to be veneered should be trimmed by the same amount as the thickness of the veneer. This ensures that the dimensions of the tooth are essentially the same once the veneer is applied. Typically the tooth will be trimmed by 0.5 to 0.7 millimeters.

• 3

  Create an impression of the tooth using impression putty.

• 4

  Send the impression to a dental laboratory. The laboratory will use hydrofluoric acid to etch a veneer out of a solid block of dental ceramic or dental porcelain that meets your patient's dental specifications.

• 5

  Affix the porcelain veneer to the tooth using a resin cement. The bonding agent will keep the veneer in place for a long period of time; in many cases the veneer is affixed permanently.