I should start off saying that I’m a recovering bulimic. I feel like I have finally moved past that painful part of my life. But I have many negative health implications from the disease. One of them is my oral health. My smile took a beating. I had a lot of teeth that were literally worn away. I hid my smile in pictures and I was so embarrassed about the way my teeth looked. When I talked to my dentist about everything, he recommended porcelain veneers. I was ecstatic because I thought my smile truly was a lost cause. I loved my new veneers. That is, at first I did. But now after only a couple weeks they keep popping off. I get them redone and then after a couple days they fall off again. Is this going to keep happening? I don’t want false hope. Please give it to me straight.
– Laura in Texas
Laura,
Thank you for your honesty. Sharing your story is a powerful form of healing and can help others learn from your experience. Congratulations on beating the disease.
Bulimia can be devastating to oral health, as you have experienced. There are many reasons why your porcelain veneers may be popping off. Do you grind your teeth? Many people grind their teeth during sleep without realizing it. If not, there may be a problem with the bonding. The bonding process requires that the material bond directly to the tooth enamel. As you are well aware, bulimia destroys enamel. This is most visible on the back teeth of bulimics due to the repetitive vomiting. Often the enamel will be eroded away and the dentin is exposed. For porcelain veneers to be done successfully, the bond needs to seal the edges of the tooth. So if the sides of the teeth were damaged, this may be a contributing factor to them coming off.
If is also possible that you were not a porcelain veneers candidate. In order to be successful with porcelain veneers on a bulimic requires advanced experience in cosmetic dentistry. Not just any dentist does beautiful work with porcelain veneers. Beautiful, natural-looking veneers require an artistic eye and extensive knowledge beyond dental school. But because your case is unique, you definitely need to make sure you move forward with an expert cosmetic dentist. It could be that porcelain crowns or maybe some combination of veneers, crowns, or even porcelain inlays or onlays that may work better for you. It is probably worth your while to have a discussion with your current dentist about the crowns. But if he or she keeps reapplying them and they keep falling off, it may be time to find a different cosmetic dentist.
Hopefully this provides you with some insight into what is happening and why the porcelain veneers continue to fail. Good luck! Again, thank you for sharing your story.
This post is sponsored by Barrington cosmetic dentist James T. Gavrilos, DDS.