Veneers and Lumineers: What You Need to Know About These Ways to Find the Perfect Smile

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

What problems does the installation of veneers or lumineers solve, how they differ from other methods of tooth restoration, are there any contraindications.

What are veneers and lumineers

Veneer - a thin plate (0, 2–0, 6 mm), which is fixed on the anterior surface of the tooth after its turning. Modern veneers require very little enamel grinding - 0.3–1 mm. Veneers are used if the teeth are very large or protrude strongly forward. Then they should not be increased even more due to overlays on top of the enamel, but it is better to grind them minimally.

Lumineer - it is also a very thin plate (0, 2–0, 3 mm), but is fixed on the anterior surface of the tooth without turning. Lumineers are sometimes called "laminates" because they are made very precisely and appear to adhere to the surface of the tooth. Such plates are used in the case of small teeth, in the presence of gaps between them. The teeth should not protrude too much. If so, your doctor will advise you to choose veneers.

You may have also come across the name "ultranirs", but they are not a separate type of such records. This is a marketing ploy that their manufacturer came up with at the time.

What veneers and lumineers are made of

At first, veneers were made from feldspar porcelain. They were quite thick, but not very durable, and now this material has practically disappeared from the stage, because it has been replaced by more advanced designs.

More than 40 years ago, the American company DenMat created a material like Cerinate. The plates from it became thinner, since they were stronger than feldspars, and when they were installed, significant tooth turning was no longer required. This is how Lumineers appeared. However, their strength was still not as high as we would like. In addition, this material did not allow creating transparency and a natural appearance of the tooth: it is denser and yellowish at the neck, more transparent and lighter at the edge. They tried to achieve this by coloring, but it turned out not enough natural.

The next step in the evolution of veneers was a material based on nickel disilicate - E-Max from the German company Ivoclar Vivadent. It is a porcelain reinforced with nickel, due to which it became possible to produce very thin plates that do not require turning. At the same time, it is twice as strong as Cerinate, allows you to completely recreate the structure of the tooth, its microrelief, transparent cutting edges, the transition from one shade to another, and so on.

Indications: what problems are solved by veneers and lumineers

Both veneers and lumineers solve two groups of problems: aesthetic and functional. Aesthetic includes:

• shape and height of teeth;
• unevenness of the enamel, its ugly color or pigmentation;
• the presence of old fillings that the patient wants to hide.

The functional include:

• tooth defects such as cracks and chips;
• increased interdental spaces;
• slight defects in the bite (for example, one tooth is shorter than all the others in the row).

Also, veneers and lumineers help fight age-related changes and create a rejuvenating effect. With age, teeth in all people wear out due to chewing loads and friction of the teeth on the cheeks, lips and tongue when talking. Firstly, because of this, the height of the smile is lost, and secondly, from under the worn out enamel dentin appears, in which there are pigments that give the tooth a yellowish or grayish color. The placement of veneers or lumineers helps to restore the height and beautiful color of the teeth and thus rejuvenates the smile.

Contraindications: for whom veneers and lumineers are not suitable

A relative contraindication is the age of up to 16 years. During this period, the bite, enamel and teeth are maturing, and therefore veneers are not placed so as not to disrupt the natural course of this process.

The only absolute contraindication for lumineers or veneers is very badly damaged teeth. This type of restoration is suitable for relatively intact teeth with some defects. For example, if the front teeth due to cervical caries were filled and restored several times with artistic restoration, then they can be closed with veneers or lumineers. This will avoid changing fillings, which have a limited lifespan, while veneers or lumineers will solve problems for years to come. But if the front teeth were broken or lost a large volume of the coronal part, then you will have to use all-ceramic crowns.

Disadvantages of obsolete veneers

Earlier, feldspar veneers had a significant drawback - the thickness, and the turning of the teeth was more significant than now: they removed up to 2 mm of enamel. Modern materials allow even with teeth turning to remove 0, 3–0, 5 mm, maximum - 1 mm. Why is it better? If you grind your teeth hard, then in fact all the enamel is grinded, dentin is exposed, and porcelain sticks to it worse. These veneers easily fly off the tooth. The smaller the turning, the better the fixation. Now turning is carried out in such a way as to preserve healthy enamel, and the veneers hold up very well.

Issue price and service life

Products made of E-Max material cost about 50-60 thousand rubles apiece. Lumineers and veneers from Cerinate (and this material can only be ordered in America) will cost from 50 to 64 thousand rubles per tooth. Plates made from these materials will last 15 or even 20 years. But the cost of products depends very much on the work of the technician: the more highly artistic, the higher the price.

Reconstruction of transparency, tooth microstructure, enamel microrelief, complex color rendering - these are the factors that determine the high prices for veneers or lumineers. You can make veneers for 25-30 thousand, but they will be monochrome - the color will be obtained by coloring, there will be no three-layer transition of shades into each other, that is, naturalness will be lost. But products made at a high artistic level, even with very white shades, look completely natural.

How is the installation of veneers and lumineers going?

It all starts with a consultation with a doctor, during which you choose with his help which plates you want to install, on how many teeth and what shade. The doctor uses fitting rooms, "phantom" lumineers, tries on your teeth. So you will immediately understand what a smile will look like if the teeth are increased by the thickness of the lumineers, whether it suits you or not from the point of view of aesthetics.

Also, during the aesthetic consultation, computer design is used: you are photographed and a suitable option is modeled on the computer - with veneers or lumineers.

If you have chosen veneers with turning, then the doctor grinds the teeth, installs temporary veneers on them, and sends a pre-made impression to the laboratory, where permanent plates will be made from it. If your choice is lumineers or veneers without turning, then everything is limited to taking an impression.

You will need to wait 2-3 weeks and then come back for your second appointment. The doctor will remove the temporary veneers, if you are wearing them, and try on your teeth what they got in the laboratory. For this, water-based glue is used. If you like everything, then you will be sent to brush your teeth, and then the plates will be installed on fluoride cement.

When working with lumineers, microscopic techniques are used for maximum precision in the manufacture and installation of the plates, and the doctor wears glasses that magnify several times.

Care for veneers and lumineers

They do not require any special care. Just like natural teeth, you need to clean them twice a day, in the morning and in the evening, and once every six months, undergo an examination and professional cleaning at the dentist. No special toothpastes or brushes are needed. You can use floss (dental floss to clean the interdental spaces) and an irrigator (a device that cleans the teeth and the spaces between them with a stream of water). If veneers are made of feldspar porcelain or Cerinate, avoid chewing on hard and tough foods (nuts, crackers, etc.).

Differences from other types of dental restoration

Of course, veneers and Lumineers are not the only way to get a beautiful smile. The first thing that comes to mind is whitening … However, it does not affect the shape of the tooth in any way, and the resulting color inevitably loses its whiteness over time, it must be regularly maintained. Moreover, all fillings and crowns are not subject to bleaching. So there is a risk of getting multi-colored teeth: the enamel will lighten, and the filling or crown will remain the same color. They will have to be changed. Veneers and Lumineers can be matched to match, plus they fit easily on the filled teeth.

The second type of smile correction is artistic restoration … The doctor applies composite material to the tooth in layers, forming a beautiful surface and color. However, this is long, and if necessary, processing six teeth in each row will take a lot of time. In addition, the teeth after such restoration require regular examination and periodic correction - polishing in the doctor's office at least once a year.

The third kind - installation of crowns … Not a single crown can be installed on a tooth without turning - neither metal-ceramic, nor all-ceramic. Although their service life is not inferior to veneers and lumineers, and the crowns themselves reliably protect teeth, it is still not worth using this method of restoration in the presence of healthy or slightly decayed teeth.

Veneers and pregnancy

If we are talking about installing veneers with turning during pregnancy, then this can be done, but, as with any intervention during childbearing, it is better to do this in the second trimester. In the first three months, important organs and tissues of the baby are laid, and in order to exclude the slightest influence on these processes, it is better to postpone aesthetic procedures to a later time.

If you want to place lumineers or veneers without turning, then this is possible at any time, since there is no grinding, pain and anesthesia. In fact, this is the gluing of porcelain plates on the teeth, which does not in any way affect the condition of the pregnant woman.

If the veneers are already there, and the woman becomes pregnant, then this will not affect either the pregnancy or the teeth: the veneers have stood and will remain standing.

Veneers and sports

This applies not only to veneers, but also to natural teeth: for boxers, hockey players, people involved in martial arts, doctors create individual protective sports mouth guards. They are made of special silicone, and even if the blow falls on the area of the teeth and veneers, this mouth guard protects them from damage. Otherwise, sports do not affect the wearing of veneers or lumineers in any way.

What to look for when choosing

The first is the price. It is important to remember: only modern, high-quality products can have a high price.

The second point is the choice between veneers with or without turning. Here you cannot do without consulting a doctor: situations are possible when turning is necessary.

Finally, it is necessary to carefully approach the choice of clinic and doctor. Patients should evaluate three aspects:

1. How long has the doctor been installing veneers and lumineers? Doctors who have been working for a long time have a lot of experience and can demonstrate their work.
2. What techniques does the doctor own? It is important that he works with both veneers and lumineers, since the technology of work is different. When installing a lumineer, a different method of fixation on the tooth is used, otherwise there is a choice of material transparency, a choice of color, and so on. In addition, it is always better to do without teeth turning, since this is an irreversible process - it is no longer possible to return the polished enamel.
3. Recommendations of friends and acquaintances who have already done such procedures with this doctor.