Are Porcelain Veneers Painful to Get Attached?

The placement of veneers should not be painful.

During the procedure, typically the patient is anesthetized and in some cases our patients request nitrous oxide. While the teeth are being prepared for veneers there should be no pain or discomfort at all.

Shortly after the procedure our patients are given a non-steroid anti-inflammatory (NSAID) such as Advil. This is all patients should need to prevent the breakthrough of any pain associated with the preparation of veneers.

The next part of the procedure involves the cementation of the veneers. Again the patient is anesthetized. The patient is anesthetized here because the temporaries are removed and the teeth may be sensitive due to the uncovering of the teeth after the removal of the temporaries.

After the veneers have been cemented, teeth are often sensitive due to the procedure. Again Advil or another NSAID is used to prevent the breakthrough of pain.

Veneers are a wonderful procedure if done properly. Plenty of water is needed to keep teeth cool. Teeth need to be properly disinfected to ensure longevity and health of the restorations.

Veneers will enable you to Smile Smile Smile...

If the process hurt or was painful, then perhaps something was amis. We are talking surgery, so there CAN be some minor discomfort, but most of the time patients remark about how uneventful the process was.

The key, as shared earlier, is experience. An experienced cosmetic dentist will have the training to make the process as comfortable as possible.

I think if we stop thinking from a "dentist's point of view"  for a moment ....which is hard and step back and look at it from a patient's perspective, the picture painted may be very different.  Dentists say they  never create pain and veneer placement is totally painless. We say that, after we inject anesthesia into the patient, which is not always pleasant.  If you are not reducing the tooth at all and using prepless veneers, then I would say no pain, but if there is tooth reduction and much of the tooth is reduced, the patient will experience pain after the procedure. That is why we tell them to take Motrin or Advil. So yes, there is pain involved and many patients go through the procedure with oral sedation and fair much better than ones that do not!  Patient do not see dental work like going to have their hair colored and styled. They look forward to this and I think we need to be honest with ourselves as well as our patients...pain often does occur!

Since you are numb during the procedure, both on preparation and delivery days, you should not feel any pain during your visits.  After each visit, you may have a little tenderness, depending on how much work is done at each visit.  Every person has a different pain tolerance so some patients feel absolutely nothing after a visit and others could be a little sore. It should never be so severe as to interfere with your every day life.  Even with extensive work, my patients usually feel great after a visit-it never ceases to amaze me!

Let's be honest here.  NOBODY likes having their teeth worked on, including dentists.  However, whether there is pain, discomfort, sensitivity or nothing depends on a lot of things.  Saying that, most dentists can place porcelain veneers extremely comfortably. 

If your really nervous, you could have oral sedation, taking some pills to really relax you and make the visit fly by, and afterwards you may have no, or little memory of the appointment. Oral sedation is very safe and not expensive.

Then, your dentist will also use local anesthetic (Novocain).  The local anesthetic will take away any pain that you might otherwise experience during the procedure.  However it is "how" your dentist gives you the local anesthetic that is also very important.  Topical anesthetics can be used to make "the shot" almost imperceptible.  However, the dentist has to use strong topical anesthetic, put it on the exact spot where he is going to give you the local anesthetic, and most importantly "wait", giving the topical anesthetic enough time to really work.  He can't just "put it on" and "give the shot".

Another important thing that dentists SHOULD DO is give you your local anesthetic VERY SLOWLY.  Giving it fast can certainly hurt.  Giving it slow will make all the difference in the world.

Now, about the drilling.  Veneers require some drilling on the teeth, but almost all the time the amount of drilling into the teeth is not as deep as a cavity on a back tooth.  And, if your situation is only to treat some discoloration, wear or slight overlapping, your cosmetic dentist might be able to use a "minimal preparation" technique which only requires some slight drilling off the outside enamel, and not into the dentin, or deeper layer of the teeth that has the nerve endings.

You ask if veneers hurt when attached, again usually not.  You would again get local anesthesia to make your teeth numb, and no drilling of the teeth are necessary when they are bonded into place.

However, saying all of that, one might expect some sensitivity or discomfort after the local anesthetic wears off.  For that reason many cosmetic dentists will have their patients take Advil every four to six hours for a couple days after the teeth are prepared, and then again after they are bonded into place.  A rare 3-5% will experience more post treatment sensitivity, which a stronger pain medication usually takes away very quickly.

So, as I started you answer, nobody likes having dentistry done on them, but in this day and age with good technique and genuine caring, your dentist can give you porcelain veneers in a very comfortable way.  The end result will be something well worth any temporary discomfort you might possibly encounter.

Most veneers are placed above the gum line and on the outer layer of tooth (enamel). Doing the procedure this way results in very little discomfort. If you are truly phobic about the procedure you can look into no-prep veneers or Lumineers. There are some limitations to the treatment, but these can often be done with no shots, no anesthetic and no drilling. Case selection is critical so be sure to speak to your dentist to find out if you are a good candidate.

Some dentists perform the procedure by grinding away a lot of healthy tooth structure. These was done many years ago when the ceramics were not as strong. The thinking was that if the porcelain is thicker then it will be stronger. Today the porcelain veneers can be made very strong and very thin, so grinding the teeth away is not typically required.

During a veneer procedure there should be no pain.  The use of a good topical anesthetic followed by good injection techniques should make the anesthesia portion of the procedure pain free.  The process of preparing the teeth as well as the process for seating the veneers should then also be very comfortable.  Post operative sensitivity can be controlled very effectively with over the counter medication like Advil or Motrin.  If the procedure was painful there may have been some other factors at work.

The vast majority of the time, no pain is experienced during the placement of veneers. Afterward, only mild discomfort should be experienced. A few people do react to any treatment in an usual way.

Anesthetic is used, once numb they are applied painlessly. Its a smooth process for the patient only gaining the better end of things, a great brand new smile.