Dr. Hall,
I just got 6 porcelain veneers on my front teeth,this was the second time in about 3 weeks. The dentist made them the first time and they looked awful. The second time he sent them to the dental lab. I was allowed to tell the lab man how I wanted them. I picked a very white shade, when my dentist went to put them on, the teeth were yellowish,especially the 2 front teeth.The lab man said the dentist told him to add a little color. The dentist would not say anything about them. the lab man said they could polish some yellow out, but the dentist would not do it and said the porcelain would come off. Is there any kind of whitener i could use to bring the stain off? it looks like a coffee stain . what about super smile toothpaste or teeth bleaching gel?
Thank-you,
– Jane from Ohio
Jane,
I wish I had a better answer for you. Teeth bleaching or whitening toothpaste won’t work. It sounds like the yellow was put on a superficial stain, which means an expert cosmetic dentist could polish the color out or grind it out, and re-polish the porcelain veneer so that it would look good. (Don’t ask your dentist to do this.) But that has to be done carefully.
Here’s the problem – your dentist may be a great guy, honest, and careful, but he isn’t an artist. And in dental school they teach dentists to be somewhat condescending toward patients on appearance-related issues. The dentist knows best, and the fact that you want these bright white, unnatural-looking teeth is evidence of that. They just don’t get it.
I think you’re well within your rights to ask that this be done a third time. You’re the one who has paid for a new smile, and the dentist going over your head to overrule you on the color of your smile, and then to bond these porcelain veneers on without your getting a good look at them–that could well be considered malpractice. What it violates is the doctrine of informed consent, a fundamental principle of malpractice law. He put yellow porcelain veneers in your mouth without your consent. I think a judge and a jury would stand behind you in that.
Your best option would be to get a refund from this dentist and go to a true artist/dentist to get this smile makeover done–the kind of cosmetic dentist we recommend on our website. That way you would not only get the color you want, but you would get an absolutely gorgeous smile in every respect. But better than nothing would be to get this dentist to do these porcelain veneers a third time.
I would go back to your dentist and tell him that you believe he violated your right of informed consent by putting on these yellow porcelain veneers when you gave explicit instructions about the color you wanted. Explaining it in this way should have a strong effect on him, because it will sound like something important he learned in his dental law class. So tell him you either want a refund, or you want him to take them off, have new ones made, and this time you insist on getting a good, long look at the new veneers on your teeth before they’re bonded on. Bring in a friend or a family member to help you look at them before they’re bonded on. And then, when you’re satisfied with the color, make him promise that he’s going to bond them on with clear bonding resin and not do anything sneaky like add tints to the bonding resin.
Good cosmetic dentists will go to great lengths to make absolutely certain that you love your new smile before they bond it on. So if you have any friends who want porcelain veneers, tell them to go to a mynewsmile.com recommended cosmetic dentist, so that this doesn’t happen to them.
– Dr. Hall
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About David A. Hall
Dr. David A. Hall was one of the first 40 accredited cosmetic dentists in the world. He practiced cosmetic dentistry in Iowa, and in 1990 earned his accreditation with the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. He is now president of Infinity Dental Web, a company in Mesa, Arizona that does advanced internet marketing for dentists.
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