Northern Virginia Health & Life Magazine: November 2009
"Picture Perfect"

Admit it: From time to time, you’ve found yourself staring at the magazine covergirl or the Hollywood A-lister, and you’ve wondered how they all get their smiles so seemingly perfect—every tooth in line, sleekly shaped, and proportionately sized. These stellar smiles are being well cared for, to be sure, and good luck and good genes sometimes play a role, too. But behind every celebrity smile, you’ll likely find a dentist who has stirred up some magic.

ADHESIVE DENTISTRY, in which a light-cured bonding solution is used to affix one material to another, is utilized extensively in dentistry today, for everything from caps and crowns to inlays and fillings—and most certainly for veneers, which can transform a so-so smile into something spectacular.

“Bonding is used to adhere a restoration to a tooth,” explains Steven Fuchs, DDS, of Dental Associates of Northern Virginia. “We’re able to take something and have it stick to the surface, rather than drilling a hole in the surface and weakening the tooth. It’s a conservative way to treat the tooth because we don’t have to remove as much of the tooth structure; plus, the bonding material helps to strengthen the tooth.”

VENEERS, custom-designed shells of tooth-like porcelain material, are well-suited for patients who have discolored or stained teeth, or for people with worn, chipped, uneven, irregularly shaped, or gapped teeth. “People finally see teeth as an important part of the whole picture,” says Fuchs. “They don’t want to see jagged teeth, discolored teeth, or dark teeth. They want light, bright, beautiful smiles. Veneers can do that! They are used for cosmetic purposes to change a tooth’s color or shape. They can also be used if somebody fractures a front tooth, but doesn’t need a crown.”

Before any veneer is permanently cemented to your tooth, your dentist will determine its exact fit and color. Each tooth receiving a veneer will be cleaned, polished, and etched to improve the bonding process. Then the fixative cement—or bonding—is applied to the tooth and veneer, and the veneer is put in position. It is set (“cured”) with a special light, which allows the bonding to harden quickly.

LUMINEERS, one of the most popular kinds of veneers today, are noted for being especially thin and require very little or no tooth preparation at all. Most people do not even require local anesthesia. One of the many advantages of Lumineers or any other veneer is that oral care remains the same. “You brush, floss, and use a fluoride treatment as you would with any teeth,” says Fuchs. He does urge a few precautions, however: “I tell patients not to bite their nails, and not to use their teeth as scissors. You never want to use teeth for things they’re not intended for.” But with such a beautiful smile to show off, who would want to?