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I had porcelain veneers placed. Everything seemed fine. Then I had my teeth cleaned. They used a magnetostrictive ultrasonic cleaner. Within a few days, I had two porcelain veneers fracture. Both were lateral incisors, if that makes a difference. Is this a common problem? Are certain ones worse for porcelain veneers than others? This isn’t the office that did my porcelain veneers, they are my regular practice that does my general work. I’m wondering if that was a mistake.
Jon
Dear Jon,
I’m glad you liked your porcelain veneers. Let’s see if we can get your smile back where you are pleased with it. There are two types of ultrasonic scalers. Your dental office used the magnetostrictive. Their scaler is called a Cavitron. It’s been around for decades. While it can be more gentle than the other type of scaler (the piezoelectric scaler), it is much more technique sensitive. If the hygienist knows what he or she is doing, there should be no harm to your porcelain veneers. However, when not handled well it does have the potential to damage both your teeth and your dental work.
Generally, the danger is in having the scaler chip the margins of the porcelain veneers. However, yours were fractured. The only way to do that is to use the tip of the scaler on the surface of the porcelain veneer. That would be something that should never be done. I feel your dental office bears the responsibility in repairing this. By that I mean to cover the cost of you getting them replaced by the original dentist.
It is important that the upkeep of your porcelain veneers are maintained by an office that understands cosmetic work. There are plenty of things that an uneducated hygienist can do to destroy your cosmetic work, such as using a power prophy jet or acidulated fluoride. Both of these would damage the protective glazing on your veneers and they would soon pick up stains.
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