Tooth Veneer Question

wegle

I have porcelain veneers on 8 of my upper teeth. These were done about 15 years ago.

Since then I've had one fall off a couple of years ago which was replaced and about a month ago another one fell off. My NHS dentist has said that he is happy to replace the missing one with a composite veneer at a cost of £214. However I'm keen to have this done privately so I can have a porcelain one and I was very happy with the dentist that replaced the previous one that fell out. This will cost around £500.

Now my question is how long can my tooth cope on its own without its veneer? I will need to save up the £500 to get the work done which is going to take a while. I'm not too worried about how it looks as unless you are really looking you can't really notice its not there, but I don't want the tooth to get damaged because it's veneer is missing and hence need further restorative work. It's not causing me any pain or discomfort at the moment at all.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

jugglebug

Impossible to answer without looking at you I am afraid.
In my eyes it would depend on how heavily the tooth was prepared for the original veneer, how your teeth come together (teeth can drift if they don't have the right contacts to keep them stable with their neighbours) If there are any other restorations in the tooth. The list goes on.
You need to be guided by the dentists who have examined you

wegle

Thanks Jugglebug.

I've got a check up appointment next week, so I'll ask the dentist then.

It may be that I have to go with the composite for now and then switch to the porcelain when I've saved up the money, just means paying out twice which is a bit of a bummer.