I want to get Lumineers. I saw an advertisement I liked and they had good images. I went to see two dentists in my area who place Lumineers. As a precaution, that I learned about from a friend, I asked to see before and after images of cases they did themselves, but all of them looked bulky or chalky, or both. How do I find someone who does beautiful Lumineers?
Kelly
Dear Kelly,
You are up against three things here. First, cosmetic dentistry is not a recognized specialty. Any general dentist can do it regardless of the amount of training they received (or even the lack thereof). The second issue is that Lumineers are actively marketed to inexperienced cosmetic dentists as being easy to place. The truth is while they may be easy to bond, they are not easy to design beautifully, which is what you’ve seen in the dentists you have met with so far.
The third issue you will face is the lab. The DenMat company owns the Lumineers brand. They insist that dentists use their lab for the work, which does bring the company more money. Unfortunately, their lab is not known for their beautiful results.
I want to shift the way you are going about this. Instead of looking for a dentist who can do a certain brand well, I suggest you look for an expert cosmetic dentist and let them decide which brand will be the best to achieve the results you are looking for.
Lumineers is simply one brand of porcelain veneers. A skilled and artistic cosmetic dentist will know the pros and cons of each brand. They will also have a ceramist they prefer to to work with because they like the results they get.
A couple of things to bear in mind as you move forward. The number of porcelain veneers you get matters. Look in the mirror and smile. How many of your upper teeth are visible?
As an example, let’s pretend you have ten teeth visible when you smile. You will either need to get that many porcelain veneers, or you will need to whiten your teeth before getting your porcelain veneers so there is not a color difference between your veneered and non-veneered teeth.
So, how do you go about finding this expert cosmetic dentists? My suggestion would be to have an AACD Accredited Dentist do your porcelain veneers. These are the best cosmetic dentists in the world.
This blog is brought to you by Salem, MA Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Randall Burba.