First off, do not even consider dentures at your young age. (unless you have some underlying situation where your teeth and gums are not healthy)Dentures only restore 15-20% of your chewing ability as compared to natural teeth. If most of your teeth are stable and somewhat healthy, it would be better to try to keep them. Veneers alone are not going to solve all of your problems. It appears you have great looking teeth, they are just crowded. That is why I feel it would be a great idea for you to call an orthodontist and let them discuss with you all of your options.If you want the long term solution of straight, healthy teeth that look great and feel great, braces (or perhaps invisalign) would really be a great choice at your age. Perhaps a few extractions would help in opening up space for you to have braces put on and straighten your remaining teeth. Braces seem like they take a long time, but it really is such a short time frame for a lifetime solution to your situation.In short, I would advise against dentures at this point.
I've spent time at the Hunter's Ball in London. Awesome community and friendly people all around.You seem very "informed" or your condition and potential outcomes of treatment vs. non-treatment outcomes. If you decide to spend a lot of time, effort and money on trying to save your tooth, will your tooth still be endodontically and structurally compromised? If so, you may want to look at just extracting the tooth and placing an implant. If time and money is a factor in the implant, you can have the tooth extracted and have a socket preservation bone-graft placed at the time of extraction. That will set up a beautiful site to eventually place an implant.You seem to know about teeth "drifting" if there is no adjacent or opposing tooth. This usually doesn't happen overnight so you could have time to spread things out over time. How long? No one knows........ but you and your dentist can monitor things along the way to ensure a great outcome.Hope this helps!
It is VERY IMPORTANT that you find a very experienced dentist for your particular situation.You may get many different opinions about what path you should follow. Ask your friends and family which dentist they trust enough to go to. First and foremost, you must have x-rays taken to check the extent of your cavities AND the health of your gums and the underlying bone.Extensive cavities completely around the gumline of your teeth could be A LOT more work than just fillings. Also if you have lost bone support and your teeth truly are getting loose, you would need to visit a periodontist for a complete work-up.Without actually seeing you chairside it would not be fair to offer an opinion on which treatment path you should follow, but i will OFFER THE FOLLOWING ADVICE: Think of the long-term outcome of what you want to be able to do with your mouth. Quick-fix "patchwork" dentistry is quicker and less expensive BUT is not a LONG-TERM solution. Discuss with your dentist where you want to be 5, 10, 20 or more years down the road in terms of your dental health and condition of your teeth. Best wishes in finding a dentist that you feel comfortable with and trust!
From what I can see on your photo, it appears you have teeth that are in good condition. As you stated, your main goal seems to be closing your gap and there are a few ways to do this. First off, there is no realistic way that just wearing a retainer would actually work in your situation.You can't (or shouldn't) really just have work done to only the front two teeth and expect to have an acceptable aesthetic result. If you only work on the 2 front teeth, they will look VERY large in relation to the other teeth. To balance everything out, you would have to have bonding or veneers on a minimum of 6 but more realistically, 8 or 10 teeth to make things look even and pleasing to the eye. This can be done VERY easily by veneers and will only take you a few visits to have your space closed and a beautiful new smile. I know you mentioned that you don't really want to wear braces BUT........ you can be very conservative with your teeth and have an orthodontist place braces on and just move your teeth into proper alignment. This will result in a great looking smile and no new restorations on your teeth that you will have to maintain for the rest of your life.It really depends how fast you want your new smile. Veneers = fastest, but most agressive. Braces = longer treatment time, but less actual treatment on each of your teeth and less expensive.As with any work you decide to do, you MUST know that your teeth and gums are healthy and you do not have any underlying periodontal issues before proceeding with treatment.
From your statement, it sounds like the dentist tried to bond to an existing veneer instead of replacing it with a new veneer. In "some" instances bonding to an existing veneer may work. Having a new veneer placed may be the best choice from an aesthetic standpoint instead of trying to place a bonding to the existing porcelain veneer.As far a the crack goes, it really depends on the location, size and depth of the fracture. A crack is always a result of stress or structural weakness of the tooth. Or how else does it get there?There are many new porcelain options available today that will allow the dentist to place a full crown on that tooth to help stabilize it while still being conservative and saving as much tooth structure as possible.Will a crown ALWAYS stop the progression of the crack? NO. But it is far better to be proactive and do everything possible to limit the amount of damage/cracking to a tooth at an early stage. Because if the crack does extend, nobody knows where, how deep, or how far it will go. If into the nerve, then you are looking at a root canal. If it goes under the gum, the tooth may need further surgery or perhaps even to be extracted. As I always say, "It depends on how many times you want to work on a tooth!" Patch and fill does not last as long and will require more visits, more time, and more money over the long haul!Best of luck!
