One Porcelain Veneer Is Too Opaque

Question:

I have 6 porcelain veneers.  I had to have one of the front porcelain veneers replaced because of a chip on it.  The new porcelain veneer is more opaque than the others. (I couldn't tell this at the dentist's office.)  What, if anything, can be done to make all 6 porcelain veneers match in opacity??
—Lee Ann in Tennessee
 

Lee Ann,

After it's on, nothing can be done to affect the opacity of your porcelain veneer other than re-doing it.

An expert cosmetic dentist should be able to match the color and opacity of the new porcelain veneer to the old. And a true cosmetic dentist will be working with a dental lab that specializes in porcelain veneers and also understands color and opacity. This is the area where non-expert general dentists get tripped up the most—in the area of color, translucency, and opacity. A trained cosmetic dentist will have thorough training in all the many facets of color-matching, opaques, blocking out undesirable colors, translucency, the effect of various light sources on color, etc. Porcelain veneers are quite thin, and they require special expertise to do them right.

Yours,
Dr. David Hall

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