Why You Get Temporary Veneers First (And Why It Matters So Much)

Every patient I treat goes through a temporary phase before the final veneers. The reason you have temporaries is so you are 100 percent confident in the final product before anything is bonded permanently.

The Dress in the Window

Here's how I describe it. You ever see a dress in the window? It looks great, but you don't really know until you put it on. So we fit you with the dress and let you look at it and make sure you're happy.

Your temporaries do exactly that. You wear them for about two weeks and live with the updated shape, size, and color. Then you can hold up the mirror and tell me: this is the direction we're headed, or actually, now that I've looked at it I want it a little wider, or I feel the teeth are too big and want them smaller. The point is we have the chance to pivot if needed, before anything is final.

The Next-Day Look

The day after I place the temporaries, I bring you back for a post-operative appointment. We look at the shape, size, and color and see how everything has settled. Right after the procedure, we don't really know yet. You're still a little numb, and I've been staring upside down at this for four and a half hours.

Every good artist walks away from the art project and looks at it again with a fresh set of eyes. So I'll see things the next day I didn't see, and I'll get your feedback too. We take all of it into consideration, make the necessary adjustments, and that finalizes our template for the porcelain veneers, which are the final restorations.

Why This Builds Confidence

Because of all these check-ins, patients tell me they feel confident the whole way through. By the time we get to the final veneers, you've already lived with the smile and approved it. There are no surprises left.