I have a daughter in college who had six porcelain veneers placed as a high school graduation gift. A year ago, one of them chipped. The doctor shaved the tooth to get rid of the chip and did the same to the next so they would match. Now, she’s noticing a bluish color in one of the veneers that were sanded. She is absolutely terrified that this will fall off. Do you think this will be okay until she gets home? If it falls off, can she superglue it? Did his repair cause this?
Patricia
Dear Patricia,
I wish I knew more about where this bluish color was showing up. However, based on just the information I have here, my best guess is she has a leaky porcelain veneer where the bond is failing between the tooth and the veneer. I don’t think your dentist’s repair caused this. The vibrations would not have damaged the bonding. It’s more likely this has been an issue from the beginning and is just now showing up.
The bad news is that this porcelain veneer probably will fall off at some point. It is best to let it fall off on its own. If that happens when she’s home from school, that’s pretty easy. She can just see her current dentist and he can do the repair. If it falls off when she is at school, please don’t have her superglue it. That will cause massive problems and she is unlikely to get it not perfectly, which can lead to open margins.
If you give me her area, I can give you the number of a solid cosmetic dentist who can see her for an aesthetic emergency and rebond it rather quickly. All that being said, if the tooth gets much darker, she may need to be seen to find out if there is something more serious going on like a dead tooth. You did mention there was some trauma to the tooth, which makes this a possibility.
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