Can veneers be shaved down from the side? Front veneer is covering the tooth next to it making my tooth look way too big.(photo)

The best treatment is to remake the veneers. Bonding composite on after the porcelain is shaved down will not last very long at all, so when these get remade, have a diagnostic wax up created.  This allows the lab to design the case and let you see it before you start.  Not all labs are the same, so it may take some homework from your dentist to find a lab capable.You are right, these could be better.

I have no idea how your teeth looked prior to your veneers, so I can not say for certain that your dentist did a botched job.  I would say that you may want to get your veneers redone, considering they appear not match your other teeth enough.  I would not recommend shaving them; I would just replace them.  Good luck and I hope this helps. Follow me if you have more questions.Sarah Thompson, DMDSt. Louis, MO area (O'Fallon, IL)Real Self 100

While it is possible to re-contour
porcelain restorations once they are cemented, there is a certain risk of
damage to the porcelain occurring and even with great care this can potentially
result.  The use of high speed rotary diamond instruments can be used to
recontour porcelain and these in conjunction with various slow speed polishers can bring a
certain amount of the luster back, but it isn't truly the same as the glaze
covering the surface which you will be removing (that glaze is the final
addition when the porcelain restoration was fired in the oven at well over 1000
degrees Fahrenheit and so can't be replaced in the mouth).  Areas of porcelain that do not have
glaze, or which are not highly polished, will be more likely to pick up stain.

 

One of the risks is that the
porcelain restoration can potentially develop a crack or fracture, and in many
cases that would ultimately lead to it needing replacement, and with that the
challenges of remaking one restoration to match another (it is much easier when
multiple teeth are fabricated simultaneously).  Also, without being able to measure how thick the
restoration is in the area you are adjusting (and this really is not possible
once the restoration has been cemented unless you have access to the original
working models that the restorations were made from), there would be a greater risk of perforating the restoration if
a substantial change was being made (and so creating a hole in the porcelain in
which tooth or cement shows through).

 

From a practicality point of view, it
is very difficult, and then at some point not possible, to get these polishing
instruments in between the teeth as you approach the area where one tooth
touches the neighboring adjacent tooth (we call this area the facial
embrasure).  So there are limits to what can be done unless someone
willingly opens up space between the porcelain restoration and the adjacent
tooth which, as you alluded to, would then require adding some sort of
restorative material to the adjacent tooth if it is a natural tooth.

 

Ultimately the decision to be made by
you is whether the potential for improvement to the shape is worth taking on
the risk of damaging the restoration. 
Perhaps it is if you really are not happy.

 

I hope this information helps in your
decision-making.  Best of luck!  Dr. Geen