Q: I recently had porcelain veneers done. I loved the temporary ones that I had for three weeks, but I hate the permanent ones that were just put in; they don’t look like the temporaries at all!  What happened?!…..P.O’ed in Vero

A: I had this nutty dental professor in school 25 years ago named Dr. Woolhouse. He looked and acted like David Lederman; dry sense of humor and sounded just like him. He had a blue collar, French Canadian practice in Montrealand told us: “Don’t make the temporaries too nice; the patients won’t come back for their permanent work!”

“Oh contraire mones amis!” (check French spelling) Not the best advice.   The temporary crowns or veneers in aesthetic cases that are hand shaped by the artistic talent of the dentist must be approved by the patient before the permanent work is made. Patient should return to the office on a day when they are no longer numb from the anesthesia to evaluate the temporaries.  Once the temporaries look good, we take photos and moulds of the temporaries and send them to the lab to “copy” the design in the final porcelain work. This leads to the permanent veneers or crowns having the same shape as the temporaries that you had come to love.

For some photos of actual cases showing patients in their temporaries and their final permanent work, email us.

Dr. Mitchell Josephs practices Cosmetic, Implant and General Dentistry in Palm Beach and hosts “Tooth Talk” on WBZT AM1230 (www.radiotoothtalk.com) Dr. Josephs is a Faculty Advisory Board member at McGill University’s Faculty of Dentistry and completed his residency at Manhattan’s Beth Israel Medical Center and Mt. Sinai Hospital.

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drjosephs@palmbeachdentist.com
44 Cocoanut Row, Palm Beach, FL 33480
888-DRTOOTH (888-378-6684)
www.palmbeachdentist.com