If you've heard of dental veneers, you probably already know that they can give you a brighter, whiter, straighter set of teeth. However, if your teeth are overcrowded, you might wonder if they will work for you. The good news is, veneers can indeed help with the appearance of overcrowded teeth. Here's how.

How Veneers are Made

Veneers are custom-made for every single patient based on their dental records and their corrective needs. These custom designs include the overall shape of the veneers and their thickness.

The thickness is what's extremely important for people with overcrowded teeth. If your teeth are overcrowded, chances are some of them are pushed back, while others are pushed forward as the teeth collide and overlap each other.

Custom veneers take this situation into consideration. A thicker veneer is mounted over teeth that have fallen back, and thinner veneers are used on any that are sticking too far forward or that still maintain their proper alignment. This ensures that your teeth look even with each other regardless of where the teeth actually are in your mouth.

Spacing

Another question you might have is how veneers can be mounted evenly if teeth have become overlapped or pushed backward.

Veneers take this into consideration, too. The front of your veneer will have the appearance of a perfect, healthy tooth, and will be set over your teeth to ensure that they're well-aligned with each other. However, this doesn't always mean that a veneer will be placed over every tooth. If you have severe alignment problems, your veneers may be positioned off-center on individual teeth in order to get the look you want. While they may not perfectly line up with your real teeth, they will give the appearance of a straight smile.

What to Expect

Getting veneers is a fairly easy process. Your first step is to go to your dentist for veneers. Your dentist will ensure that your dental health is up to par. If your teeth are healthy enough, your dentist will take the necessary scans of your teeth to start planning your veneers. After your dentist works out how they want your new smile to look, they'll order your custom veneers.

After the veneers arrive, your dentist will set up an appointment with you to put them on. Since veneers are applied with dental adhesive, there's no numbing agents or drilling required. You can expect your veneers to be applied in a single dentist visit. From there, you're all set and ready to show off your new smile.

Dental veneers are perfect for correcting the appearance of a smile without going through long-term corrective methods like braces. If you're tired of how your smile looks, talk to a dentist, such as Aaron G Birch, DDS PC, to get the ball rolling.