The night of the Grammy Awards 2024 has been marked by female talent. The big stars and winners of the night were Taylor Swift, who broke the record as the person who has won the award for ‘Best Album of the Year’ for Midnights. It’s her fourth in the category, beating Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder; Karol G won ‘Best Urban Music Album’ and Miley Cyrus won her first two Grammys. But one thing that stood out on the night was that all the award winners were wearing porcelain veneers. We spoke to Dr Fernando Soria, master of restorative and cosmetic dentistry, who has become an expert in this trend after more than 25 years of experience.
HIGHXTAR (H) – Analysing the smiles of the 2024 Grammy winners, we realise that they all have a perfect smile. Why is that? Do they all have porcelain veneers?
Dr. Fernando Soria (DR.) – Yes, indeed, they all have their mouths aesthetically restored with dental veneers.
(H) – What do porcelain veneers add to our smile?
(DR.) – For many years we have been aware of the beauty canon of the 10 smile. We know that it is a state of balance and harmony between lips, gums and teeth. We also know that the gums are a fundamental part of the smile and once these are in a state of health and balance in their forms, we address the white aesthetics itself, i.e. the teeth.
A perfect smile is characterised by teeth that present a correct three-dimensional alignment, a correct proportion between height and width, adequate anatomical shapes, a size in accordance with the face and lips and finally a colour that gives luminosity to the face. When it comes to colour, there are two well-defined lines. Those smiles that have a very white colour or those smiles that have a more natural look.
A perfect smile has no separation between the teeth (diastemas) or crowding of the teeth. Patients who lack this canon, we can restore it with dental veneers, (extra-thin ceramic laminates that are attached to the front surface of the tooth) as in the case of these celebrities. Ceramic veneers allow us to modify the shape, size, proportion and colour of the teeth in a definitive way, as well as to close diastemas or a minor dental overcrowding.
(H) – Explain how the porcelain veneers treatment is (how long it takes from the moment you enter the clinic until you leave with a new smile):
(DR.) – I always tell my patients that designing a smile is like designing a house. I mean that we must listen to the patient’s expectations and wishes so that we can then take that personal and individual interpretation of each person to our design and final restoration, always within an ethical and clinical medical framework.
There are two common protocols, traditional and advanced, plus a third option called ONE DAY TEETH which is done in a single day. The traditional protocol requires 3 sessions: The duration of this entire procedure is one week.
- A first session of clinical data collection, photos, videos and digital scanning of the mouth in 3D. We work with a whole digital process. With all this information we will make the ideal digital design of our patient’s smile.
- In the second session, we will make a mock-up in the patient’s mouth of our study and design of their smile and show them so that they can observe and make decisions as to whether our proposal meets their aesthetic expectations. If the patient likes the proposal for their future smile, we immediately begin with the dental micropreparation and digital moulds of their teeth. We finish this session with the placement of temporary veneers. In this protocol, the patient has the possibility to see these provisional veneers at home, to evaluate and validate the shape, size, proportion and colour that we have chosen or if any modification is necessary.
- In the third session, the patient returns to the clinic where we dismantle the temporary veneers and proceed to discuss the definitive veneers, which will be an exact replica of the temporary ones.
Two sessions are required for advanced and accelerated veneer treatment:
- Session one is the same as in the traditional protocol: we take video photos and scan the mouth to design the perfect smile.
- In the second session, we start in the morning, in an hour and a half period of time, we do the dental micropreparation, we take the digital moulds. In the meantime, the patient can leave and we start with the laboratory to make the ceramic veneers. The patient will return in the afternoon of the same day, when we already have the ceramic veneers made, to comment on them definitively. The last option is called ONE DAY TEETH: Here we are able to transform the smile in just one day! And it is ideal for patients with little time available, it is focused on patients coming from abroad or those who are very afraid of the dentist.
(H) – How important is the technique in this treatment for a natural looking smile?
(DR.) – As mentioned above, there are two types of aesthetics. White aesthetics, with a much easier technique for the ceramist, and natural or biomimetic aesthetics, which require greater artistic skill and a more complex technique on the part of the prosthetist. We have to identify each particular case in order to know which type of ceramic is suitable for the patient, based on its hardness, resistance and optical and aesthetic properties. There are lithium disilicate ceramics and feldspar ceramics. Each of them has its precise indication, depending on each clinical case.
(H) – How long do porcelain veneers last?
(DR.) – It’s a treatment that in a mouth that maintains proper hygiene and is supervised annually by the dental clinic, with its corresponding maintenance, which is key, can last between 15-20 years.
(H) – Can everyone have this treatment?
(DR.) – Aesthetics is an individual and subjective perception, with very personal and particular nuances. Based on this premise, the indication of an aesthetic dental treatment of dental veneers would be suitable for those who lack a 10 smile, after having evaluated their lips, gums, shape, size, proportion, three-dimensional alignment and colour of their teeth.
(H) – There is a lot of talk about composite veneers, but can we get such a perfect smile? What is the difference with ceramic veneers?
(DR.) – We can achieve a very satisfactory aesthetic result with composite veneers. It is a treatment that has remarkable benefits for patients. The key is to know how to select the type of patient profile that is a candidate or not for this type of treatment. We must know that the composite changes colour over time, so it must be subjected to an annual polishing treatment. This colour change is increased in patients who smoke, have poor oral hygiene, consume a lot of coffee, tea, cola drinks or red wine. For these patients, ceramic veneers are recommended. Ceramics are inert materials, i.e. they do not interact with their environment and therefore do not change colour.
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