Veneers Case 3 · Cosmetic · Veneers · Crown Lengthening
The Teeth That Were There All Along
Her veneers kept failing. Her front teeth were short. The two problems turned out to be one.
She had composite-bonded veneers that had been redone more than once. They chipped, stained, and had never sat symmetrically. Her front teeth looked short, and she had come to find a solution that would last.
The veneers were the complaint. They were not the diagnosis.
Before and after
From the side
What she came in with
Composite veneers, replaced and replaced again. Discoloured at the margins, chipped at the edges, uneven from left to right.
And beneath them, teeth that looked too short for her face. That was the part she wanted fixed. It was also the part nobody had explained.
A gummy smile, not short teeth
On examination, the cause was a condition called altered passive eruption. Her teeth had never fully emerged from the gum. When she smiled, she showed more gum than tooth, and the tension in the smile came from that.
Her teeth were the right size and well formed. Most of each one was simply still covered.
Why longer veneers would have been wrong
The obvious answer was to make new veneers and extend them at the edges. That would have made the teeth look too big and the smile no less gummy.
The tooth that was already there had to be uncovered first. Only then would veneers have anything correct to sit on.
Two lips, two lines
The smile was planned from the neck of the tooth outward. The edges of the teeth were set to follow her lower lip. The new gum line was set to follow her upper lip.
The design was made in wax, then pressed onto her teeth as a mockup so she could see it before anything was done. The colour was chosen against the shade guide at the same visit. With the mockup in, the gum show had almost gone. The path was right.
The mockup and the shade
Crown lengthening to a guide
From the approved design, a surgical guide was made carrying the correct tooth length for her face and the rest of her teeth.
The gum was moved up to that line with delicate crown-lengthening surgery, and then left alone. Tissue takes two to three months to settle into its new position, and nothing final was made until it had.
The surgical guide
Made to a design she had already approved
Six ceramic veneers, on teeth now the length they were always meant to be. Shape, colour, and contour to the mockup she had worn months earlier.
The problem she had not noticed
The gummy smile is gone. The harmony is back, the edges follow the lip, and the smile is balanced from side to side.
The failing veneers were replaced. The reason they had never looked right was fixed. She came in for the veneers and left with the diagnosis.
Retracted
Before and after
The finished smile
Every case is planned around one person's anatomy. Individual results vary, and what was right for this patient may not be right for you.