Why I Recommend Resin Veneers More Than Laminate Veneers for Peg Laterals

These days, because it’s vacation season, many people come in for consultations

to solve concerns about their front teeth.

Among people with a wide range of concerns,

today I’d like to talk about peg laterals.

After orthodontic treatment, I often see people who were stressed because of “peg laterals”

and then became very concerned at the final stage.

Once the teeth are aligned, details that were not noticeable before

start to stand out.

For example, when a few front teeth are especially small and look spaced out like a jar,

or their proportions seem slightly off.

So this is the kind of concern people have.

Should I get laminate veneers?

Or should I get crowns?

Quite a few people also come to our clinic for a consultation

while nearing the end of orthodontic treatment.

👇🏻 A case finished with resin for peg laterals while wrapping up orthodontics 👇🏻

Orthodontics cannot make small teeth bigger.

251203

A peg lateral is not a problem of tooth position,

but a problem of tooth size and shape. Orthodontics is treatment that changes position, so it cannot make small teeth larger.

251203

So even after treatment is finished, the peg laterals remain the same.

At this point, many people hear this:

“Get laminate veneers on 6 to 8 front teeth.” To be honest, that advice also contains a degree of convenience

from the dentist’s perspective.

251203 / 251203

As in the photo above, when peg laterals are located

on both sides of the smaller front teeth,

matching those two teeth exactly to the adjacent natural teeth is

very difficult.

On the other hand, if several front teeth are covered with laminate veneers,

they can be unified into an opaque, single shade,

and color matching becomes much easier.

Treatment becomes easier. But this is where you need to pause

and think for a moment.

If you need laminate veneers after orthodontics..

why did you do orthodontics in the first place?

251120

Let me put it a bit bluntly.

If you’re going to cover 6 to 8 front teeth with laminate veneers,

you can create the appearance you want even if the tooth alignment isn’t perfect.

In other words, the same kind of result could have been achieved

even without orthodontic treatment.

That’s why I think recommending full laminate veneers to someone who already had orthodontics

may be a choice that reduces the value of orthodontic treatment itself.

The value of orthodontics is not simply about making teeth look straight

or whiter.

Its essence is to correct the position and proportions of natural teeth,

creating a state where unnecessary removal can be minimized.

251120 / 251120

If you have already built it to that stage,

I believe the next choice should not be a treatment that covers the teeth,

but one that can be done with resin restoration without removal.

That is why I think finishing with resin for peg laterals is

a more appropriate choice.

If orthodontics has already been done, the position and angulation of the teeth

are already well established.

250827

At that point, I think the most suitable finishing touch is to complement only the smaller areas

with resin for peg laterals so that they blend with the adjacent natural teeth.

It also makes sense in terms of preserving the teeth.^^

Color, gradient, and translucent layers all have to be matched one by one

based on the neighboring teeth, so from a dentist’s perspective,

it is honestly more difficult and takes more time haha.

250827

Still, it is a way to preserve the natural alignment that has been created

while removing very little tooth structure.

250827 / 250827

That is why I say, “After orthodontics, think about resin for peg laterals before laminate veneers.”

There’s no need to cover up orthodontics that you have already worked on carefully for years.

For that reason, I think there is no need to go through more complicated treatment that removes tooth structure.

When talking with patients,

many come in having heard too easily, “This should be done with laminate veneers to look clean.”

250718

That statement is not wrong. Laminate veneers are

a method that makes outcomes easier to predict and allows the dentist to achieve completion more quickly.

But the important question comes next.

Does that method suit this tooth? If the tooth position, the flow of the alignment,

and the smile line are already well established,

is it really a good choice to place an opaque restoration over it?

250718

Rather than making all the teeth the same color

and the same texture, resin treatment for peg laterals

works by matching the existing natural teeth. If that is possible, I don’t think there is a reason to choose a larger treatment

unnecessarily.^^

250718

However, if the overall alignment or tooth shape after orthodontics

does not feel satisfactory,

a different treatment such as laminate veneers may be more appropriate

than resin for peg laterals.

The important thing is to identify what your concern is,

have a thorough consultation with the medical team,

and then choose the treatment that fits your current condition.

If I were only thinking about treatment convenience,

I might have recommended laminate veneers too.

But what I believe is the mission of a dentist

is to protect the value of the natural teeth that the patient has carefully preserved

to the very end.

There is no need to remove carefully orthodontically treated teeth

just to cover them.

Even if it takes a little more time and requires more work from me,

I can help preserve the translucency and vitality

that your original teeth have by using resin.

With the hope that the treatment process,

rather than the treatment result, does not become a wound for the patient,

today too I choose the slightly more difficult path: “resin.”

If you’re wondering whether your teeth can also be treated with resin without removal,

please feel free to contact us.^^

This was Director Sohyunsoo of Jaejulgood Dental Clinic.

Thank you for reading this long post!

👇🏻 Quick reservation 👇🏻

👇Articles worth reading together! 👇