Another case of a porcelain veneer falling off

Dr. Hall,
I had 5 porcelain veneers put on my front teeth 4 months ago. The one canine fell off in one piece after chewing on a piece of bread a week after it was permanently bonded. The tooth was extremely sensitive to air & I couldn’t tolerate the pain. The dentist said it fell off because my bite was off so he needed to shorten the veneer & the bottom tooth that slightly touched it. His defense was he didn’t see the issue before placing the veneer. He also said I didn’t need to be numb & proceeded onto rebonding it. The chemicals applied hurt so much I felt like dying, so I asked to be numbed before he could continue (same pain was experienced for bonding all other veneers.)

Today it has been 4 months later & that same veneer fell off while chewing a pancake. I felt the same intolerable sensitivity again. I asked the dentist why this happened when he said it would last 10 years? He replied because your bite is off so now we need to make it a full porcelain crown. I really don’t want to ruin my healthy natural tooth. Is it normal for the underlying tooth to be extremely painful w/the veneer falls off & should I be concerned about proceeding to a crown? He claims to have 1 year training in a cosmetic dentistry course & has 5 years experience in general dentistry. Please help I’m so stressed & afraid to bite w/the other front teeth.
– Kelly from Texas

(Note – I asked Kelly to tell me the name of her dentist so I could do a little research on him, but I won’t mention the name here.)

Kelly,
I think you should find another dentist—an expert cosmetic dentist—to put this veneer on right.
Your dentist claims to have a one-year training course in cosmetic dentistry. I think what he must be referring to is his General Practice Residency. It’s a stretch to call that training in cosmetic dentistry. Yes, it’s advanced training, but it’s in general dentistry.

He says that the veneer came off because your bite was off on that tooth. Now I can’t tell you anything about your bite from here, but the explanation doesn’t fully cut it, especially since it came off a second time after he adjusted your bite.

A properly bonded porcelain veneer will chip or crack before it will pop off. So there had to be something not quite right with the bonding. And then re-bonding a porcelain veneer is advanced cosmetic dentistry and I’m skeptical, after researching his credentials, that your dentist has the training to do that.

If you have the veneer, it should be a fairly straightforward and quick procedure for a dentist who knows what he or she is doing to rebond it. I can recommend someone close to you who can do this for you. Don’t let him turn this into a porcelain crown—that is way more aggressive than you need.

On the sensitivity, that doesn’t surprise me. Your dentist may have prepared your tooth deeper than usual, which leaves you with exposed dentin when your porcelain veneer falls off, which would make it quite sensitive. But even a tooth with a shallow veneer preparation can in some patients be quite sensitive.

Good luck,
Dr. Hall

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