-Sarah in Minneapolis

Crest White Strips and their imitators are the only over the counter products that might work.  The strips hold the peroxide onto the teeth and because they are on for a while they allow the gel to penetrate the teeth. Most other kids of whiteners are not on your teeth long enough to make any difference.

There are some whiteners that can do damage to your teeth because in order to whiten your teeth they weaken the enamel and then bleach the tooth. The results from that kind of “bleaching” don’t last more than a few days and then teeth often look worse, because the enamel has been weakened and it absorbs more stains.

The Whitestrips might be difficult to use on your back teeth because they are made to be placed on the front teeth, where you have veneers. Because they are sold over-the-counter the peroxide is not very strong and the whitening goes very slowly. They can also be expensive.  You should consider having them professionally whitened by a dentist. He can target the teeth you need and the dentist uses a much more powerful kind of peroxide. You would probably be much happier with the results. Many dentists offer bleaching specials. Normally don’t price shop for dental work but bleaching is a very simple procedure.

The bleach won’t harm your porcelain veneers and they won’t change color.

Read about teeth whitening from Dr. Kaake at Miller Hill Dental.

Gordon,

Once your decayed tooth is removed the surrounding teeth will begin to move into the space in just a few weeks. This is the natural way our teeth make sure they touch each other and match up when we bite. If you put off treatment too long, serious and costly problems with your bite, headaches, or  TMJ  may develop.

A dental implant is a great choice to replace your tooth. If you have decided on a dental implant , you should begin the process once any infection from the decayed tooth is gone and the socket has healed. Your dentist may have you wear a temporary tooth to hold the space while the implant is integrating with the bone.  After everything is healed your dentist will place the permanent tooth.

Vivian,
Yes, you can have your beautiful smile back. However, I worry that you will just price-shop for dentists and then have this done by the cheapest one, which is a recipe for disaster.
 
Not many dentists have the artistic ability to create a beautiful smile, and the ones that can are not  the cheapest ones. The continuing education required for training in cosmetic dentistry takes money, time, travel and resources. The dental laboratories that create beautiful porcelain veneers are expensive, and the materials they use are also expensive.
 
However, just because someone is expensive doesn’t mean they will do a great job. There is a range of costs of cosmetic dentistry, and some great cosmetic dentists are less expensive than others.  Duluth dentist  Dr. Gregory Kaake is a great example of this. He is able to offer the same high quality services as big city dentists, but his fees are considerably lower. He is the mynewsmile network recommended dentist in Duluth. The dentists on our mynewsmile network have been carefully screened and have all been able to produce photos of their beautiful work. To start your search, look at our list of Florida and surrounding-area cosmetic dentists. Give them a call  and ask over the phone if they are willing to tell you their fee per tooth for porcelain veneers. Once you know what costs you are looking at, save up your money until you have enough to get it done right the first time by one of these artistic cosmetic dentists. The price probably ranges from $1000 to $2500 per tooth. Please don’t try to have it be cheaper than that or you’ll end up having to spend more because you’ll want to re-do it as soon as it’s done. Good luck!

Related links: Read about Dr. Kaake’s pricing on porcelain veneers.

Toomer,
If Lumineers are placed the way they are often advertised, they could interfere with playing an instrument. Often they are just bonded onto the top of the tooth, making the tooth thicker and about 2 mm longer. This can interfere with speech or playing an instrument.

The way we usually do porcelain veneers, however, it wouldn’t affect playing an instrument. We usually shave a little (0.5 mm – about the thickness of a fingernail) from the front of the tooth before bonding the porcelain veneer on. This helps preserve the natural contours of the teeth and keeps them to a normal length. If there does need to be a change in the length of the teeth, we try the change with temporary veneers first to make sure that they don’t interfere with speech or playing an instrument, if that’s what you do.

Mae from Washington, DC

Mae,

It’s not true that your dental work wouldn’t get done “right” at a dental school. While the students are learning, they know enough to do your fillings and other basic dental work properly, and there is a certain assurance that you have because they always work under the supervision of a faculty member.

However, when you get into appearance-related dentistry, a dental school is the last place you would want to go. And it’s not a matter of lack of ability, but the mind-set that exists at dental schools. They are teaching basic dentistry to students, and they feel they don’t have time to get into cosmetic dentistry, and there is even a pervasive attitude that appearance-related dentistry is trivial, and that it involves pandering to the patient. Very few dentists are artistic, but it is even rarer to find a dental school faculty member that has any artistic appreciation for good cosmetic dentistry.

My advice is that if you’re short of money and have the time to spend (because of inherent inefficiency, the lack of dental assisting personnel, the slow pace at which students work, and the waiting for “checks” from the instructor, getting treated at a dental school requires many times the amount of time as treatment by a private practice dentist) go ahead and get your basic dental repair done at the dental school. But if you don’t have the money for the porcelain veneers from a good cosmetic dentist, just put that off until you do. Why pay even a discounted rate for cosmetic dentistry that simply doesn’t look good? What’s the point?

Related links:
Read about Duluth zoom whitening, and read what Dr. Kaake has to say about Lumineers.

Please help,
Erin from California

Erin,
Some of these people with ideas about what is compatible in their mouth and what isn’t just have certain ideas that they have heard, and they have a limited number of people they trust. You kind of have to find out who they trust and what those people say about these materials. They may not respond if you just reason with them.

Here’s the reasoning, if they will trust it: Of course zirconia is metal free. When materials have metal salts and metal oxides, they aren’t metals. Your bones contain magnesium, but they aren’t metals. Your blood contains iron, but it isn’t a metal. When we eat whole grains we consume zinc, which is very healthy for the body. Is that a metal? Potassium, sodium, calcium, and many other atoms that are considered metals are present in our bodies and are required for them to function, but they’re not in a metallic state.

Zirconia is very biocompatible. These people with these ideas about sensitivities that they may have generally trust Clifford’s Tests. If this patient is so concerned about every material placed in her body, I would encourage her to just have those Clifford’s Tests done and then hopefully she will feel she can rely on that.

And Cerec is not a material – it’s a technique, and different ceramics are used with Cerec machines. Many Cerec ceramics have aluminum in them; some have zirconia in them, just like other porcelain and ceramic materials.

Read about Dr. Kaake’s Cerec crowns that he offers for patients
Dr. Greg Kaake, Duluth cosmetic dentist