Today we are presenting the case of a young man who came to us because his teeth looked shorter and darker and he wanted to change his smile. After studying his case, the doctors found that the patient had severe tooth wear.
Specifically, the patient’s teeth had been wearing down because of the way he bit: edge to edge. That means the upper teeth do not overlap the lower ones, so they meet directly against each other.
That way of biting had caused progressive wear of our patient’s teeth, damaging the enamel and costing them both length and thickness. As a result, his smile had come to look increasingly aged and dark, as well as suffering fractures and tooth sensitivity.
TREATMENT:
Porcelain veneers
DURATION:
One month
The treatment plan for severe tooth wear
To restore cases like this we cannot focus solely on the front teeth, the ones that show and that worry the patient.
We have to carry out a full rehabilitation starting with the back teeth, the premolars and molars, since they are what will stabilize the new tooth height and what will protect our restorations at the front.
The loss of tooth height happens to every tooth in the mouth, not only the ones that show, and in cases like these restoring the back sections first is essential if our rehabilitation is to last.
In this patient’s case, Dr. Marta Peydro restored all the back teeth with composite. It is a technique in which we add the lost anatomy and height back onto the occlusal surfaces (the ones we bite with) using composite. This material absorbs the forces of chewing and grinding.
Once we had created the new shape and height for the 8 premolars and 8 molars, we went on to make porcelain veneers for the 6 upper and lower front teeth, restoring the shape, the color and the look of the smile.
The result is a rehabilitation that delivers chewing function and protection for the teeth as well as maximum esthetics with latest-generation porcelain veneers.
