I had a full smile makeover done with 10 porcelain veneers. The temporaries that he put on felt great and I didn’t seem to have any problems. However, since he’s put on the permanent ones, I have had trouble speaking properly and my tongue seems to feel out of place, like it doesn’t fit in my mouth anymore. Is this normal? If so, will I adjust to them and be able to speak normally?
Alicia
Dear Alicia,
To answer your first question, no, this is not normal. It would be hard to tell you exactly what is going wrong without examining you, but I can give you some guidelines. One thing I am concerned about is whether your dentist actually gave you porcelain veneers or if he instead gave you porcelain crowns and called them porcelain veneers. Some unethical dentists do this. The reason I am concerned about this is that veneers just sit on the front of your teeth. Without them being done crazy wrong, they should not affect your speech. Dental crowns, however, go around your entire tooth. If they are not done correctly it will definitely affect your speech pattern.
Another thing that is odd here is your temporaries felt okay and you didn’t have any problems, but the permanent ones are an issue. That means your dentist didn’t send the model to the ceramist and maybe only sent images, or your dentist’s ceramist did not follow directions.
In some cases, people adjust to the position and are able to speak normally again. If you give it a month or so and your speech is still affected, I would insist on a refund so you can get this done right elsewhere. You could give your dentist a chance to do it right, but if he’s dishonest I’m not sure how skilled he is.
Smile makeovers are not taught in dental school. Dentists have to invest in post-doctoral training to know how to do them both properly and beautifully. If you decide to go to another dentist to get this repaired, I would look for an AACD accredited dentist. These dentists are the best cosmetic dentists in the country. To get accredited, they had to pass stringent exams as well as have a large number of their cosmetic cases evaluated for its technical correctness and artistry by a board of examiners. You can feel confident you will not only get a beautiful smile, but a functional one as well.
This blog is brought to you by Philadelphia Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Michael Weiss.