How Close Should Temporary Veneers Look Like the Permament Ones?

A sign of a well trained and experienced cosmetic dentist is how well the temporary veneers look like the final porcelain veneers. In MY office, I have a wax blueprint created of the final smile, BEFORE I begin. This allows the pt to preview the final outcome.

If a dentist skips this step, it doesn't mean the final result will be poor, but it will be less predictable and there is a risk the pt won't be happy and it will be too late.

Thanks for your question. Porcelain veneers start with a planning phase where we take impressions and photographs and we get a mockup from the lab where we can create a trial smile. You can actually see in our mouth what your smile with veneers would look like. Then after your teeth are prepared you wear temporaries for a few weeks and come in for your final restorations to be cemented permanently. These temporaries are an integral part of the smile design process. Your final restorations should look extremely close to what the temporaries look like. We often take impressions and photographs of the temporaries for the lab to use as a guideline. The temporaries are a great opportunity for you as a the patient to let your dentist know what you do and don't like about the aesthetics of your new smile and see how you feel when you function (chew and speak). Good luck! 

The temporary veneers are an essential part of the design process for the permanent veneers. These are often made from an initial design prepared from a diagnostic wax up prior to the process beginning. The shaping and refining of the temporary veneers gives the patient and the dentist a better idea of the look, and feel, of the new restorations and modifications can be more easily made to the temporary veneers that can be translated into the permanent veneers by the dental ceramist.

If made with enough precision and detail, temporary veneers should look very closely like the permanent veneers.  The shade of temporary veneers should also be the right match as the permanent ones. One of the purposes of temporary veneers is for the patient to get an idea of what to expect of the permanent veneers in terms of shape, size, and shade, and also the bite if the bite is to be altered.  Best, Dr. Elizabeth Jahanian   

Temporary veneers should look and feel just the way that you want the final veneers to look and feel.  In fact, we no longer use the term temporaries, but rather they are called prototypes.  This an important distinction because the purpose of these prototypes is to guide the laboratory in fabricating your final veneers.  The protypes should be tweeked until you are truly satisfied with the look, feel, and phonetics.  Once this is accomplished, impressions and photos of the prototypes should be sent to the lab so that they can be used as a blueprint.

Hope that this was helpful....Dr C