On April 4, 2006 we originally aired an article entitled "Are LUMINEERS the Right Porcelain Veneers for You?" (http://www.locateadoc.com/articles.cfm/34/1411). In response to that article, Michael Kovach, spokesperson for the LUMINEERS company sent in a response to the article offering some additional views. Here are his responses to some of the claims made in the article.

1.   “Lumineers aren't really any different from regular porcelain veneers; they're made in the same way using the same material.”

While it is true that all porcelain veneers are made of porcelain, all porcelains are not the same. LUMINEERS are made of patented Cerinate porcelain, which is much stronger than other veneer porcelains on the market.  Continuous improvement to Cerinate porcelain has been made for over 20 years, with the introduction of Cerinate LUMINEERS in January 2004.

2.   Dr. Debra King stated that, “unless you have very specific circumstances like lots of gaps, or teeth that flair in toward your tongue and need to be built outward you usually end up with bulky, fake-looking teeth. With regular porcelain veneers you may remove as little as half a millimeter from the existing tooth and replace it with porcelain so it looks natural.”

While Dr. King is prominent in the dental community, she has placed only one LUMINEERS case, back in 2003, and seems unfamiliar with the technological advancements Den-Mat has made over the course of three years.  Dr. King also states that you must remove a minimum of 0.5mm of natural, sensitive, healthy tooth structure to adequately make room for traditional veneers; while LUMINEERS are only 0.3mm thick, and can be directly placed over your natural teeth with no reduction of sensitive tooth structure. 

For some older patients, LUMINEERS have even been made thicker to reestablish the initial, youthful appearance of the smile.  It has been proven that over time enamel naturally wears down, and that by increasing the volume of the tooth to it’s original enamel thickness will bring the smile back to it’s appropriate golden proportions. LUMINEERS do not give a bulky appearance with proper finishing, and adjustment to the occlusion has been appropriately corrected. 

Preserving what is left of the remaining enamel should be a top priority as well, grinding down naturally healthy tooth enamel down to the dentin increases the risk of nerve damage and the frequency of root canals.  

3.   Dr. Ramin Tabib states that, "Aesthetically [LUMINEERS] can look very bulky and opaque.”

Since we already touched on the ‘bulkiness’ issue, I will address the opaqueness concern. Unless a dentist specifically requests opaque LUMINEERS, these very thin LUMINEERS are quite translucent. Keep in mind that most patients, today, want much lighter shades than their natural teeth. For that reason, many dentists ask for the LUMINEERS to be made at least partially opaque. Another option is to request translucent LUMINEERS and bond them using an opaque luting material.

4.   Dr. Nicholas Davis then claims that, "Bonding works best when you have surface preparation on the tooth.  So if the teeth are just slightly roughed, you know, break the glaze off of the tooth, but not tooth reduction, any veneer is going to stick better. So by saying 'no-prep' you might be compromising a little bit in the adhesion process."

First of all, yes, any veneer is going to adhere better when there is no tooth reduction (as Dr. Davis states).  This is why patients should choose LUMINEERS.  It is a contridictory statement to claim that by saying ‘no-prep’ comprimises a bit of the adhesion process, when the sentence before says that any veneer is going to stick better when there is no tooth reduction.  In most cases LUMINEERS do not require any tooth reduction, instead an etchant is used to break the glaze of the tooth surface prior to bonding; thus giving LUMINEERS the best bond possible -according to Dr. Davis. 

5.   “If you're adding thickness to the front of our teeth (even-contact lens thickness) it could stick out too far and even create a lip at the top of your tooth by gum line that can cause cleaning problems.”

It should be obvious that when placing LUMINEERS on teeth that have not been formally prepped, there will be the need to perform finishing and shaping once the veneers are bonded into place. Fine pointed finishing diamonds are used to thin out the porcelain margins to a fine feathered edge. 

A report of a 14 year study by Yu, et al.(JDRes.1998, 77, 2583) which compared the effect on gingival tissue of prep vs. non prep LUMINEERS has found that both had no adverse effect on the gingiva, and both types were esthetically acceptable over the 14 years of the study. In reviewing all the literature on LUMINEERS the longest study is one of evaluation over 160 LUMINEERS for 20 years (Strassler and Ibsen, Contemp  Esthet Restor Dent, 2005, 9 (3), 5441) and the success rate for retention was 95% and color stability was excellent-apparently the method survives the test of time. Other studies ranging from 1-4 years looked at them from stability of color, marginal fit, etc. and found them to be 95% acceptable.

6.   “This means you have to have the right circumstance (the product certainly isn't for everybody).”

From our own dentist’s experience and also that of thousands of other dentists, LUMINEERS can be used to correct almost any dental esthetic problem. Obviously, if the teeth are overlapped or malaligned, some reshaping of the teeth will be necessary. Since LUMINEERS are so thin, however, much less tooth structure needs to be removed. In almost every case, tooth modifications remain in the enamel layer with no penetration into the dentin. This is quite significant since, with no exposure of sensitive tooth structure, there is no need for local anesthetic, temporization and no post-operative sensitivity.  It has also been proven in many studies that bonding to dentin is not as strong as bonding to etched enamel.  For these reasons, patients find LUMINEERS a very attractive option over other types of porcelain veneers.