Veneer is a thin shell bonded to the front of a tooth to change how it looks.

In kid words

A veneer is a thin, tooth-shaped shell that some grown-ups get bonded onto the front of a tooth to change its color or shape, kind of like a thin cover that fits right over the front.

It's mostly a grown-up thing, not something most kids ever need. If one of your teeth ever needs help, your pediatric dentist has other ways to make it look and feel good again.

The parent version

Veneer is the mainstream dental term for a thin shell, usually porcelain or a composite resin, bonded to the front surface of a tooth to change its color, shape or length. It is a cosmetic dentistry option, used almost entirely in adult and cosmetic dental care rather than in the everyday dentistry growing children need.

Cosmetic shells like this are not typically part of a child's dental plan, since baby teeth and young permanent teeth are still developing and changing shape on their own. If a cosmetic question ever comes up about your child's smile, that is a conversation to have directly with your pediatric dentist.

Where you might hear it at our office

You are unlikely to hear this particular word inside one of our exam rooms. Veneers sit on the cosmetic side of adult dentistry, apart from the everyday repairs most children actually need. When a young child chips or damages a front tooth, the more typical fix is bonding, a smaller tooth-colored repair shaped directly onto the tooth rather than a separate shell placed over it.

That kind of repair is part of the ladder covered on our restorative dentistry page. Other unfamiliar words from a visit are waiting in the rest of the dictionary.

Related words

Bonding. Composite. Crown.