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Lumineers - The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Lumineers are a brand of porcelain veneer that are made by Den-Mat. We all have seen the marketing campaign advertising the benefits of Lumineers. BUT, are they the solution for every patient? Of course not, Lumineers or other types of thin porcelain veneers work well for some patients but can have significant drawbacks for others. Only an experienced cosmetic dentist can evaluate your personal situation and determine if you would benefit from Lumineers.

The Good:
Lumineers are very strong, very thin, and sometimes can be placed over your teeth without drilling on them at all. Who would not prefer a cosmetic procedure that did not require drilling or anesthesia? That, of course, is the marketing campaign.

The Bad:
Cosmetic dentistry is not a slam-dunk. Looking good is only half the equation. Your teeth need to function properly and the gum tissue has to be healthy around your teeth. Imagine this: You go to the shoe store and want to buy these new sneakers that everybody wants. So, instead of taking off your old shoes you pick a size of sneakers that fits over your old shoes so that you do not have to remove your current ones. What would that feel like? What would that look like? This is often the scenario with Lumineers. Unless you have very small teeth with lots of spaces around them, you are essentially making the tooth larger than it was supposed to be. That just is not natural. The gum tissue gets irritated, the teeth become fatter, and cleaning your teeth becomes much more difficult. If you have to drill on the teeth to make Lumineers fit, then you are essentially placing what we call a conservative veneer, which can be made out of numerous types of materials.

The Ugly:
Cosmetic dentistry is supposed to make you look and feel good. How many people like the look of teeth that are too fat, too opaque, and overall just unnatural looking? I do not know very many myself. Just like the shoe example above, which also would look very strange, putting anything on top of natural looking teeth will look fat and fake. If your tooth is very dark, and the veneer/laminate is very thin, then it will essentially have to be extremely opaque to block out the dark color – like white out. That does not look natural! It is my personal opinion, and that of many other advanced cosmetic dentists, that to achieve a natural looking beautiful smile you have to design the smile so that the teeth are the ideal proportions to your face and fit on your teeth as if you were born with them. That is mostly impossible with Lumineers.

Do Lumineers have a place in cosmetic dentistry? They most certainly do. The idea behind Lumineers is wonderful, and when used appropriately they can be a great service to the patient. Unfortunately very few patients actually fit that narrow critera. Here at The Center for Ideal Dentistry we place many types of veneers, each designed to give you the best possible smile in the most conservative way. Properly designed veneers are inherently conservative, often only about half a millimeter thick. That is very thin, about the thickness of you finger nail. To achieve the most esthetic and healthy result it is necessary to adjust the tooth minimally so that the outcome looks great, feels great, and last a very long time. How does the dentist know what type of veneer to use? How does the dentist know how much tooth needs to be removed and where? How does the dentist know when he/she can use Lumineers? All these questions are a matter of experience and education! Nobody in Louisville has more experience or credentials for cosmetic dentistry than Dr. Vittitow and Dr. Hahn.

If you want to know if you are a candidate for Lumineers or other highly conservative types of veneers, please call The Center for Ideal Dentistry and let us show you what advanced cosmetic dentistry can do for you without negatively affecting your smile or health.