Porcelain Veneers – Part 3 – Preparations – The Bond

A porcelain veneer is a wafer-thin, custom-made veneer of medical-grade ceramic that is permanently bonded over the front of a tooth. Here is what it looks like from the inside and the outside:

• The Inside (Back): The inner surface that touches your natural tooth is hollowed out and heavily textured or “etched”. This micro-roughened surface gives the dental cement a massive amount of grip, ensuring the veneer locks securely onto the tooth. Unlike a dental crown, the veneer does not wrap all the way around the tooth.
• The Outside (Front): This is the visible, glossy surface that faces out and masks the tooth. It is perfectly contoured, shaped, and colour-matched. It is smooth, stain-resistant, and features natural-looking translucency to mimic real tooth enamel.

When looking at a single unbonded veneer, it is translucent, ultra-thin contact lens with a slightly curved inner side that follows the contour of the tooth.

The Bonding

This process involves three elements.

 Try-in paste

Preparing the inside surface of the ceramic veneer ready to bond

Preparing the tooth itself for bonding

Try-in pastes

These allow you to check the fit and color of the veneer before final bonding. They wash out completely with water, leaving zero residue before cementation. The try-in paste comes in various colours: Translucent, A1/Light Yellow, A3/Yellow Opaque, White Opaque, and B0.5/White.

This enables the colour of the veneer to be modified with more warmth or coolness of shade; or none at all with the translucent shade.

This set up helps the patient and dentist preview the outcome. These water-soluble pastes are easy to remove, to make way for the final cement that mimics these shades.

Ceramic Primer is a silane coupling agent used to chemically enhance adhesion between porcelain, ceramic, composite, or metal surfaces and resin-based cements. It is primarily applied to the inner surfaces of restorations (e.g., veneers, crowns, onlays) prior to cementation to ensure a strong, durable, and water-resistant bond.

• The etchant is a mild acid that chemical micro roughness the tooth surface (Scotchbond Universal Adhesive). This ensures excellent adhesion to dentin and enamel.
• Accessories: Microbrushes, dispensing tips, and a shade guide.

General Workflow

1. Try-in: Use the Try-in Paste under the veneer to evaluate the final shade.
2. Clean: Rinse off the water-soluble paste and dry the veneer and tooth thoroughly.
3. Bond: Prime the ceramic using a silane coupling agent (Ceramic Primer or Scotchbond Universal).
4. Apply: Apply the selected shade of Veneer Cement to the veneer.
5. Seat & Light Cure: Seat the veneer with gentle pressure, spot-cure to tack it in place, and light-cure fully.

The veneer gains its strength and durability from the bond to the tooth itself. If we try to adjust the veneer before we bond it, then it will crack. Such is the strength of the bond to the tooth and to the veneer.