Why Do Dentists Not Recommend Veneers?
The hesitation is legitimate, and I share it. What it should change is the order of the decision, not the answer.
In short
Because enamel does not grow back and most veneers need some removed. The hesitation is right. It should change the order, not the answer.
Dentists do recommend veneers, when they are indicated. What makes a dentist hesitate is being asked to remove healthy enamel that does not need to go, because enamel does not grow back. That hesitation is correct, and I share it. The question is what a dentist does with it.
The reluctance is the right instinct
Most veneers require some enamel to be removed to make room for the ceramic, and what is removed does not grow back. Minimal-preparation approaches reduce how much, and there are cases where very little is taken at all, but they do not make the decision reversible in any practical sense. The restoration then has to be looked after, by you and by whoever is caring for you in thirty years, and it may eventually need repair or replacement. That is a long commitment to accept on behalf of a healthy tooth, and a dentist who feels nothing about it is the one I would worry about.
Then there is the chance of being asked for the wrong thing. You may arrive having already decided on veneers, when what you actually want could be reached by moving the teeth, by lightening them, by reshaping an edge, or by repairing what is already there. Declining to cut eight healthy teeth in that situation is good practice as I see it, not obstruction.
What the hesitation should change
In my own work it changes the order, not the answer. The diagnosis comes before the plan: what the teeth are doing, how they meet, whether anything is actively wrong. Then the least irreversible option that solves the real problem.
Sometimes that means no veneers. Sometimes two rather than ten. Sometimes it means a preview you can look at and live with for a few days before anything is touched, so that the decision is made with information rather than hope.
When they are the right answer
When the problem genuinely lies in the shape, proportion or surface of the teeth, and no more conservative route reaches it. When the bite is settled, or has been settled first. And when you understand clearly that you are exchanging a small amount of enamel for a result that will need looking after. Put that plainly, some people go ahead and some do not, and both are reasonable positions.
If a dentist has told you to think carefully about this, they have done you a service. Bring that caution with you rather than leaving it behind. The useful next step is a diagnosis, not a decision you have already made.