During the tooth preparation visit, which usually lasts for 1 to 2 hours, your teeth are lightly buffed to allow for the small added thickness of the veneer. Usually, about a half a millimeter of the tooth is removed, which may require a local anesthetic.
On the same visit, a mold is taken of your teeth and sent to the laboratory for the fabrication of the veneers.
During the final "bonding" visit, also about 1 or 2 hours, the veneers are placed on the tooth surface with water or glycerin on your teeth to check their fit and get a sense of the shade or color. While the veneers are resting on your teeth, they can be adjusted with various shades of bonding to match the color of your teeth.
To apply the veneer, the tooth is cleansed with specific chemicals to achieve a bond. Once the special bonding is sandwiched between the veneer and tooth, a visible light beam, or laser, causes a catalyst to be released, hardening the cement.
Porcelain veneers are reasonable facsimiles of natural teeth, not perfect replacements. It is not uncommon to see slight variations in the color of porcelain veneers upon close inspection, as this occurs even in natural teeth.
For certain patients, no preparation of the teeth may be necessary.