Can I do veneers and braces concurrently?

It is not a good idea to do braces on teeth with veneers. Veneers are usually beautifully glazed (coated with a thin layer of glass) if they are made of porcelain to give a stain-resistant uniform surface. If the veneer is made of composite, the surface will have been carefully polished to give a beautiful shine. Whenever something needs to be glued on to a surface (a tooth surface or a veneer surface), the surface needs to be roughened.

This means that the glaze needs to be removed or the polished surface needs to be roughened (the shine is removed). Porcelain veneers nowadays are made without internal layers for colour but are surface tinted.

The process of surface roughening can also remove the surface tint, permanently changing the colour of the veneer. Once the orthodontic treatment is completed and the braces are removed, no amount of polishing can restore the original lustre of the porcelain glaze.

So unless the patient was planning on redoing the veneers afterwards, orthodontics should always come first. There are challenges with maintaining retention (keeping the teeth fixed in position) in between the braces coming off and the veneers going on. After the veneers are completed, retainers should be prescribed to maintain the alignment of the teeth and veneers.

You have to do the braces first, because if not if your veneer surface is glazed -- it’s covered with a layer of glass so it’s like the smoothest, most perfect surface known to man, but once I want to stick something to it I have to destroy that layer and then it’s going to be rough. And then we remove the braces at the end, even though you polish it’s never going to be a pristine surface anymore. So I have no problems doing it, but it’s just doing treatment in the wrong order.

I mean you can, of course, do other treatments and then go back to doing your ortho treatment or braces. It can be done, however, that also means you may be paying double because we will need to redo that treatment that you did first once your orthodontic treatment is over. Having this discussion with your dentist in your initial consult is always an important thing. So that you spend the money and time wisely.