I’ve been saving for Lumineers for ages. Now that I’ve finally got the money, my dentist doesn’t want to place them. He said Lumineers will make my smile look bulky. I picked those because he won’t have to grind my teeth down and now he wants to grind my teeth. Should I let him or go to a different dentist who’ll do what I want?
Marcy
Dear Marcy,
The thing Lumineers is best at is marketing. They’ve pushed their no-prep line so far that patients are afraid to have another brand of porcelain veneers. Truthfully, all Lumineers are is a brand. They’re not even the best brand.
While some patients look fine without any tooth preparation at all, most end up with a bulky looking smile. Some have described it as having horse teeth. That’s probably not the look you’re going for.
The type of tooth preparation needed for porcelain veneers doesn’t actually grind down your teeth. That’s only necessary for porcelain crowns. Because porcelain crowns cover your entire tooth, including the back and sides, a large amount of tooth structure has to be removed to make room for it.
Porcelain veneers are different. They are very thin and only go on the front of your tooth. For those who need tooth preparation, the dentist only needs to remove only about the depth of a fingernail. You can’t even tell that much has been removed.
Getting a Gorgeous Smile Makeover with Lumineers
Not many expert cosmetic dentists like the Lumineers brand. A lot of that has more to do with the company’s insistence that dentists use their lab. Their lab doesn’t have the best track record for creating gorgeous results.
You don’t want it to look like you’ve got veneers on. You want it to look like you have a naturally gorgeous smile. Because your dentist is warning you that you’ll end up with bulky results, I would say he’s trying to look out for you and give you the best smile possible.
You can insist he give you the Lumineers, sans tooth prep. He may relent and do it. But, I think you’ll regret that decision in the end.
Why don’t you try this? Tell him to go ahead with the brand of porcelain veneers he wants, but you want to see them on with a try-in paste before he permanently bonds them. If you don’t like them, then he has to do the brand you want.
He’ll probably be more willing to do that.
Also, remember, you don’t have to have them placed on your upper and lower arches. Make sure you just whiten the lower arch to match the color of the upper arch. That saves patients a ton of money.
This blog is brought to you by Drs. Kevin and Hillary Peck.