In our Asheville dental office, Dr. Douglas Phillips and Dr. Donald Schmitt utilize one of our nation’s premier dental labs to create porcelain veneers based on using extremely modern technology and materials. Because of the advancements in dentistry over the years, veneers can last a decade or more.

But sometimes, no matter how hard we try, accidents happen and your veneer might break or fall off. Staying calm is important. We’ll show you right now all of the things you’ll need to do.

Caring for Your Broken Veneer

If you’ve had a porcelain veneer that’s broken into several pieces, it’s important to make sure you get all of the pieces out of your mouth to avoid swallowing or biting them. If your veneer falls off in one piece, do your best to keep it safe until you can see your dentist in Asheville to have it rebonded to your tooth. If it broke into larger pieces, hold on to them too. The dentist will probably want to take a look at them along with your tooth to determine how or why the veneer came loose or broke. Keep the rest of your mouth safe too if you have sharp edges still attached to your damaged tooth. They can cut or scrape your mouth. You can purchase some dental wax to place on the surface until you see the dentist.

Understand Your Repair Options

Call us as soon as you can to get an appointment so we can fix your veneer. Once you come to the office, your dentist will be able to assess your situation. Together, you can decide how to proceed with treatment.

There are a few ways to fix a broken veneer:

• Easy Rebonding – The dentist can easily rebond a veneer that slid off in one piece. If you’re unfortunate enough to lose a veneer, this is probably the best outcome you could have hoped for.
• Repair Options – Minor damage to a veneer is fixable in a few ways such as with dental bonding as a short-term solution. Dentists are sometimes able to smooth over the damage using a buffering tool. But this solution does run the risk of having the veneer lose some of its shine and natural appearance.
• Veneer Replacement – Usually when a dental veneer is damaged, it’s going to be best if your dentist replaces it entirely. We’ll make sure there are no remnants of the damaged veneer still left on your tooth before bonding a brand new veneer.

If you find that you continue to experience problems with a dental veneer or multiple veneers, you might want to talk to your dentist about having a custom mouthguard created for your smile. This is something you wear while you sleep to prevent your teeth from touching if you grind your teeth at night and don’t even know it. The mouthguard can create a non-bulky, comfortable barrier between your upper and lower teeth so that you can avoid chips to your veneer or run the risk of having it come loose and fall off again.

Please don’t hesitate to call Phillips & Schmitt DDS at our Asheville dental office if you have a broken veneer. We can find a way to fix your issue and ensure you’re free from trouble in the future.