If you find yourself asking where is PART ONE to this post, CLICK HERE.
*Save this contact info pic for your reference.
The last step to this process is the veneers... DEEP BREATHS everyone!
After you have reached your goal shade of white and picked your shade, it's time to take final "photos". These x-ray "photo"s are very important as they will make a "mock" set a.k.a. "temporaries" of what your future porcelain veneers will looks like.
A week will go by and it's time to prep the teeth, and try on these temporaries. For everyone the preparation of your teeth can be different. Imagine putting on fake nails. You need to buff the area and size down the natural surface. Well, they shave a bit of the top layer off the tooth, so when you have the new set of teeth in, it will still match the thickness of your original teeth. Any doctor that doesn't do this, has done you a disservice as your smile could appear bulky and uncomfortable. They then take a mold of your mouth with your freshly shaved teeth, pictures, and then attach the temporaries. Shortly after attaching the "temps", Dr. Garcia began to size, shave, polish the temps to the closest thing the porcelain veneers will be like. I decided to do not just have veneers of my laterals, but my two front teeth as well. My original front teeth had curved in sides, and no matter how straight they would get, it would not be as uniformed if I had only gotten the two small laterals fixed.
TIP: (Preparation)
* If you have sensitive teeth, as in hot and cold can be uncomfortable. I recommend that you have your dentist numb your mouth. As much asI hate needles, I'm so happy I did, because it made my experience much more comfortable.
Here's what got me a little nervous (and possibly you), after getting the temporaries. I already saw a major improvement with my smile, but they were thicker, and felt bulky in the mouth. More than I thought was natural, BUT they will NOT be the thickness of the porcelain. You have to trust your doctor when he says that they will be and feel more natural looking when you get the final set. You also have to be honest with the doctor. If you feel there is something you want less or more of, now is the time to speak! You need to really give the doctor what your ultimate goal is when you smile. He's there to help you! Lastly before you leave, and feeling like you've reached the desired teeth you will take another set of pictures to send to the lab... you could wait anywhere from a week to two weeks.
*Below is a comparison of original teeth and temporaries.
TIP: (Temp Teeth)
* Stay away from sipping drinks directly from the cup. Use a straw. i.e. coffee, wine, tea (rinse with water after if you do). Eat soft foods. Cut your food, as they cannot be used to bite directly into a dish. i.e. pizza, cookies, etc( don't worry you can with your final set of veneers). Stay away from hard candy (you shouldn't be eating that sh*t anyway).
A week and change later, these babies were here. Right away though, my doctor notice that one of the lateral teeth were maybe a smidgen smaller. He said we should send it back to the lab and have them remake this lateral bigger and completely mirror the other one. I was bummed, but at the end of the day do you really want to rush a good thing on something so minor? I'm glad Dr. Garcia was honest and told me right away before looking settling with what was already prepared. To be honest, you wouldn't be able to tell unless someone pointed it out. So he put the temps back, and a week went by as I waited for that one tooth to be remade... The day had finally come and I was, to say the least, really nervous and excited. An hour later my smooth and beautiful porcelain teeth had become one with my original and I for the first time felt like a million bucks!
* Here you see on the top left; pre gum surgery, bottom left; post surgery, and on the right; porcelain veneers.
They felt natural, they were thinner like my natural teeth, and I couldn't stop smiling. I don't think I've stopped smiling, who am I? You want to know what the cherry on top at the end all of this was? The following week I booked/filmed a commercial, and they, nor did I, shy away from close ups!
CHEERS!!!
Caro
P.S. Oh and for the first time ever, I'm actually getting food stuck in my teeth!!!!
Latest headshot by: Lynn Parks Photography
* Shout out to my SnapChat fam for following me to every dental office over MIAMI for the last five months!
