The Origins of Porcelain Veneers
If you are one of those who enjoy watching old classic films from the 1930s and 40s, chances are you’ve seen porcelain veneers. They are in fact the earliest form of modern cosmetic dentistry, and if it weren’t for the movie industry, they might never have been invented.
The year was 1937.That year, the California State Dental Association met in San Jose, where Charles L. Pincus DDS presented a paper entitled “Building Mouth Personality.” The paper was aptly titled, for the entire purpose of those early porcelain veneers was to help movie stars who suffered from crooked and/or discolored teeth to achieve that perfect, gleaming smile for close-up shots. In fact, studio execs approached Pincus for just this reason. Thus, Dr. Pincus became the first “dentist to the stars.”
Unlike today’s porcelain veneers however, early ones veneers were not meant to last more than the duration of a day’s shooting. In those days, such veneers were considered to be part of the actor’s makeup to be applied prior to going on camera - little more.
It was not until the 1980s that porcelain veneers finally became a practical, long-term solution for the repair and restoration of damaged and discolored teeth. In the March 1983 issue of Journal of Dental Research, two dentists published an article on the subject of “Tensile Bond Strengths of Etched Porcelain.” The authors of the article had found that by using hydrofluoric acid to create like scars in the surface of the porcelain and replacing regular dental adhesive with a special type of composite resin, the bond between the veneer and the enamel of the tooth could be greatly strengthened and made more permanent. See Porcelain Veneers Explained
Today, such veneers last much longer - a good quality set done by an experienced dentist can last as long as fifteen years - and their usefulness go far beyond cosmetics. Veneers are used today in order to restore teeth that have become worn or chipped (but are otherwise healthy); they are also used for orthodontic purposes in the correction of misaligned and crooked teeth, sometimes in conjunction with braces or retainers.
