Sitting on the dentist’s chair, he was still numb from the anesthetic, looked in the mirror and felt sick with frustration. Instead of the healthy white teeth we entered with, I now had a mouth full of tiny, mutilated logs.
He literally felt like a nightmare. A horror movie. But not only was it real, it was my mistake.
Free from celebrities with perfect Hollywood smiles, I had decided that the only way to achieve my dream teeth was to get venerables. Sensitive porcelain covers will be cemented in my natural teeth, filling gaps while expanding and illuminating my smile. What could go wrong? Enough, as it turned out.
I was always unhappy with my teeth. In my childhood I had an overbite with protruding front teeth left so much that they were called “bugs bunny”. This left me extremely conscious and anxious. I rarely smiled and often felt bad.
In my first teenagers, I had terrible and painful train braces to straighten my teeth, but even after they came out of my teeth they still protruded. Unlike today, it was not normal for a holder to be offered (to prevent the teeth from returning to their old position) and as I hit my 30, I realized that my front teeth were moving forward, creating a gap on each side.
Looking back, I see the gaps were tiny and my teeth were nice, but for me they were injured by bullying, it looked huge.
In the photos, it was all I could focus. There was an exercise in the smile with my lips closed. It was obviously a kind of dental deformity.
Then, in 1999, my husband now suggested the thought of the images of marriage with what I thought of as my “stupid teeth” terrorized me.
My current veneers have been doing well, but at 61, Leah Hardy writes, I plan to be around for at least 20 years and the chance of my veneers to last long is small

In my first adolescents, I had scary and painful NHS train braces to straighten my teeth, but even after they got out of my teeth they still protruded
I decided it was time to solve them once and for all. I could not face the return to wearing giant metal straps and transparent Invisalign straps were not yet available in the UK.
So, I visited a smart London clinic and explained that I wanted straight teeth for the rest of my life. Without the slightest attempt to prevent me, and after a brief consultation, my dentist told me that I would need six veneers at a total cost of £ 4,000.
I was shocked I would need so many veneers, as only my two front teeth bothered me, but it insisted that it was necessary and I would like the result.
Basically, there was not much reason for what the process is involved. I certainly didn’t tell me my teeth and there was no attempt to understand the psychological issues that led my decision. Instead, during my first appointment a few days later, the dentist told me happy that she would need to “prepare” my teeth to allow the veneer to stick.
This sounded non -invasive, so I didn’t worry when I liked my mouth and started shining away, even if it seems to take a long time. But when I saw the bad logs I stayed with, I wanted to cry.
Things did not improve when their dentist covered them with a strip of plastic teeth known as “temporary” to wear while my porcelain veneers were done.
They looked like a joke from a Christmas cracker. All I was told was that my enamel would be “rough”, not that my teeth would be reduced to tiny clothespins.
For two weeks I was comforting myself that I would soon have the smile of my dreams. However, as soon as I got the permanent veneer, I realized that they were very small, very square, very thick, unrealistically opaque and nowhere as white as the teeth that had been replaced. I asked the dentist because, and said that I would like to be of course, so it fought the color to my lower teeth, which was yellow than my previous front teeth – without telling me!
In addition, there was a gap in the middle instead of gaps on the side of my front teeth. I should have complained, but I was very ashamed of my bad decision.
But the nightmare was not just a cosmetic. I did not warn my new “life” teeth would last as few as a decade (the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry says veneers usually last ten to 15 years).
Also, I had no idea that my veneers could hurt the rest of the teeth that look so bad that they could die, letting me need expensive implants or even dentures.
I am far away from all that is only drifting out of the perspective of a dazzling new smile.
Analysts say cosmetic dentistry is worth about £ 23 billion worldwide and is expected to increase to £ 48 billion by 2034.
Whether it is Love Island-Style “Makeup Smile” here or cheap flights to countries such as Turkey that offer price reduction treatment, Chris Dean, director of corporate relationship dental laws, believes that many procedures are simply unnecessary.
“The ‘new normal’ for perfectly straight, extremely white teeth leads to many young people who think there is something wrong with their teeth when they are perfectly beautiful and healthy.”
So why are the veneers so problematic? The hard surface of the teeth is enamel, up to 2.5 mm deep. Below it is bone dentin, and the core is a soft pulp containing roots, blood vessels and nerves. Before applying veneer, the dentist should be removed between 0.5 mm and 1mm of enamel.
Finally, the teeth “engraved” using an acid that injures the surface, opening tiny “pores”. The veneers are then connected to a dental cement that is attached to pores and harvested with special light.
“After that, even if you have good quality and minimal dental destruction, you can never take off your veneer and have your natural teeth,” says Dr. Jeremy Hill of the center of dental excellence in Hertfordshire. “You’re locked in a life of replacement and maintenance.”
But why did my teeth decrease in ruins?
“The venerables were invented to fill small surface imperfections and small gaps,” says Dr. Hill. “They were not intended to straighten the heterogeneous teeth. To do this, the teeth are deposited too far. When you take out so many enamel, the softer dentin is exposed. You can glue veneer to the dentin, but the bond is not so strong. ”
Dr. Hill says that the veneers that are applied as they are unlikely to last. “They break, break or fall,” he says.
“The younger you start, the more likely you will find yourself in the problem, because you have to replace them more often, putting your teeth again at risk.”
The pain is also economical, with veneers ranging from £ 600 to £ 2,000 per tooth.
By 2013 mine was still hanging, but was broken because of my habit and yellow grain due to the aging of the cement that stuck them to my teeth logs.
Fortunately I found a dentist I trusted to replace them. Professor Milvia di Gioia, a high -ranking dentist, supports the natural teeth and was shocked to have ever been given a veneer.
Looking into my mouth, he described my own as if it looks “almost green because of yellowing and completely opaque” because it was too thick to allow light to pass, as the natural teeth do.
It was even more terrified than the ruins of my teeth as soon as my old veneer was removed. I have learned since thick veneers are easier for inexperienced dentists to work, but it means, as in my case, much more teeth are destroyed.
Professor Di Gioia ordered to order, handmade veneers from Italy that would be more translucent, look more natural and rounded and better fit into my face. They were designed to enclose my teeth so they are more likely to stay in place. None of them were cheap. Each tiny veneer costs more than £ 1,000.
Even though I was happy with the result, I still feel sad that I ever got venerables in the first place.
My current veneers have been doing well, but at 61, I plan to be around for at least 20 years, and the chance of my veneers to last this long is small. The expense of £ 12,000 to replace them in my old age makes me feel sick.
I urge people not to follow my example and think about why they really want this and realize that veneers are even more irrevocable than tattoos. If I could go back to the time, I’ll just leave only.