Porcelain Veneers: Stories

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Look Great, Feels Not So Great

PC
updated 4 years ago

Not Worth It
Cost: $15,000
Charlotte, N.C.

I just had 11 porcelain veneers and I love the...

11 Jul 2008

I just had 11 porcelain veneers and I love the look but I am concerned about the feel. I am having a lot of pain, especially with the upper ones when I bite and sleep. I have been put in a mouth guard but still have pain and now headaches. I hope this is only temporary, that is what I have been told. I am taking tylenol or something every 5-6 hours. The sensitivity is bad now. I have had these for 3 weeks and it is a little better, but far from gone. Will the pain ever go away?
PC

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Comments (10)

jenson500 10 Aug 2012

Hi,

Just wanted to add that there is a lot more to claim that just the bad dental work. Below gives an idea.

Reclaim of the initial dental cost
The cost of any future work needed in order to repair the faulty treatment
Loss of earnings for attending the dentist (I am self employed)
Emotional trauma for the amount of times you have had to sit in the dentists chair
Emotional impact on personal/professional life (My work involves giving presentations on a weekly basis, sometimes involving up to 100, so you can imagine embarassment minus front teeth. )

All in all you are looking at 3/4 times what you originally paid if your claim is successful. And more than deserved in my opinion.

jenson500 9 Aug 2012

Hi,

Tina the treatment you received is almost unbelievable, your poor thing. I would have not got out the dentists chair and walked around with stubs. The dentist wants shooting, not only did they put you at risk of infection but also the possibibility of totally losing your teeth by leaving them so vunerable. I certaintly wouldn't have paid for any further dental treatment, the dentist would be paying out of their professional indemity insurance after I had sued them.

drnour 4 Dec 2009

Hi i found relief with ginger tea, not too hot. I like my tea sweet but sugar and sweeteners were too painful so i added a drop of vanilla extract,3 cups per day, 2 days later i was pain free. Now 3 months on i still take 2 cups a day, added bonus i am losing weight. My doctor recommended this but also informed me too much ginger is not good either, so try in moderation people.

Elle77 8 Sep 2009

I am having the same problems. I had no idea my natural teeth would be totally destroyed - I am SO UPSET. It has been 10 days since the permanents (the procedure was excruciating even with novacane)and I am in constant throbbing pain. Actually I have been in pain for a month since my teeth were ground down. I thought things would get better once the temps were exchanged for permanents but I was wrong. The sensitivity to everything (including air) is outrageous. I take painkillers all day long. I went to the dentist this morning and he told me he found the pain I described "hard to believe" and then told me the pain was my fault for not flossing enough (I told him I have been flossing but he said he found that "hard to believe" too)!! I had to leave his office before I started crying. He is family friend and I trusted him, I feel like a fool. I am convinced he ground my natural teeth down too much. Have any of you found any path to relief? Desensitizers? flouride treatments? ANYTHING? My veneers look great but I would do anything to have my old teeth back.

Columbia3331 28 Feb 2011

Just had my permanent veneers put on last Wed. Was uncomfortable all weekend with pain and sensitivity and had to take Motrin but just prayed it would resolve. Went back to dentist today and he applied a fluoride gel to the teeth and it is supposed to stay on until I brush my teeth tonight...I sure hope it helps. My friend did it and it helped her with the same issues I was having. I too didn't realize just how much tooth got removed in preparation for the veneers...should have investigated it more and I believe I would have chosen not to do it! Hope your issues have been resolved!

mayrita88 4 Mar 2013

I feel in the same way ,plus my venners looks terrible fake :'-( im in depression

LA woman 30 Jun 2009

Thank you very much for your post. At least I know I'm not the only one who has regrets about veneers, and who has this constant sensitivity and pain! I did not know about the teeth being whittled away so much either! I was told, "we have to sand the bottom so that it's smooth and the veneer sticks better. Otherwise if it's slightly jagged, it will come off." This made sense to me, but I thought it was a thin shave, not an all-around sawing-off of my teeth! Permanent! How do dentists get away with not telling us that we're going to have nubs for the rest of our life?!! There is no form to sign about all the permanent damage and side effects. And once you have them, you are stuck getting them replaced for the rest of your life! The dentist tells me this as I'm walking out the door, with the temporaries already in place! I, too, was under the impression that the veneers were permanent! Though no one told me that, I just assumed something so expensive would be permanent! They should not tell you as you're walking out the door AFTER the procedure!

Tina V. 2 Jul 2009

You know -- I really think you have legal recourse if they did not warn you that your own teeth were being destroyed in the process. I was very young when I got my first of 3 sets of veneers done, and was too passive to challenge my dentist much. But I would now. I do believe they have A DUTY to advise you of the permanent damage even if you didn't specifically question the possibility. There is no way a consumer can anticipate every possible issue involved, so the professional must have a duty to inform you. As I mentioned in my previous post, when I was seeking new dentists to repair the damage of the first one, whose work fell apart in the first year, some of the other dentists who were not interested in repairing my teeth unless I could pay in full in advance, did advise me to sue the guy. That's big. Dentists were telling me to sue another dentist because his work and treatment of me made them mad. Of course, it was not just because he didn't warn me of the permanent damage, but mainly because his expensive work was falling apart in my mouth day-by-day. You won't find many lawyers interested in making a case out of this because it's not worth a lot of money for their efforts considering the amount involved, but that doesn't mean you don't have one, and you could take him to Small Claims for the maximum amount they can award you there .... assuming you never want to go back to him! I wonder if you've even talked to the dentist about your displeasure with his lack of forthrightness about the permanent damage. Are you otherwise satisified with the quality of his work other than lack of info and pain? Sounds like maybe you're in Los Angeles like I was when I got my first set -- maybe we went to the same guy! Is he in the Valley? Good luck ... check out my other posts on my laser skin care treatments in Vancouver. I give up! It's cheaper and less frustrating to stay ugly! Sigh ...

LA woman 6 Jun 2009

I don't have a solution for you. I'm having the same exact problem. I've been eating mashed potatoes and other soft stuff as much as possible but it isn't really helping. Plus the dentist didn't tell me before hand about this "eating" change, nor the pain at night.

Tina V. 28 Jun 2009

I am on my third set of veneers and some have broken more often than that. I would never do it again, but now I'm stuck since I only have stubs underneath. But the pain and sensitivity does eventually go away, if that helps at all. May take a few months. Even after 4 years, I occasionally have some sensitivity but only in 2 of the 8 I had done and nothing severe. Having had 3 sets, I have a lot of experience. Three sets in about 20 years, that is. My first dentist also did not warn me that he was shaving my own teeth away, only that the prep would take awhile. No warning whatsoever of the damage to my own teeth. I was shocked to see what he had done, but it was too late. I hadn't even made preparations to be out of public view or anything for the 2 weeks it took to get my new teeth and had to go to work and everywhere with nubs for teeth. No temporaries were provided as my current dentist does when I need veneer repair. With my original set of 8, almost all of them broke or came completely off within the first year. Just disappeared into the food I was eating no matter how soft. He told me he was Dentist to the Stars in Hollywood, too, and trained other dentists in veneers, but something went horribly wrong. I paid in full to repair the first tooth but had no dental insurance and could not pay cash to repair all the others that were breaking, and the dentist would not help me out at all, not even with a payment plan. His office manager wouldn't even put me through to him on the phone to talk about it. I went to other dentists for advice and help, and one told me to sue the original guy. I didn't. Just wanted my mouth fixed. I finally did find a dentist who was also a kind gentleman who fixed my broken teeth/veneers and let me pay on a payment plan. (That was years ago so maybe things/the products used and techniques are much better now. My latest dentist is definitely well-versed, compassionate and helpful. And he sends his patients to the lab where the veneers will be made to select a color, which none of the others did. Very professional. I would recommend him.) At the time the second nicer-than-the-first dentist was removing my original veneers, he told me that the originals just crumbled off which was a sign that they were defective to begin with, and they were only about a year old or so. But the pain does go away! And I bet your teeth look better than before. I would never do it again because of the expense involved in replacing them as often as I have had to because I thought they were forever, and I also did not know that my own original teeth would be wittled away like they were. I never would have agreed to that had I known. Sometimes I wonder if it's payback for my vanity or something because I had really bad luck with my complexion laser treatments, too! Veneers and one package of laser treatments are all "the work" I've ever had done, and both went horribly wrong and cost me thousands. Ripped off both times. Bad karma? With my laser treatments, I did do research and shop around but was fooled; but for my teeth, I just went with the first dentist I saw and thought the fact that he was located in a part of Los Angeles with money and had celebrity clients meant something. I didn't have a celebrity bank account, tho!