Lumineers ® porcelain veneers: Cerinate ® Lumineers ®

The thickness of Lumineers ® veneers can be as little as .2 to .3 millimeters (along the same lines as a contact lense). In comparison traditional porcelain veneers typically require a minimal thickness of around .5mm. The process by which Lumineers ® veneers are made is proprietary and only available to a dentist through the Cerinate ® Smile Design Studios owned by the Den-Mat Corporation.

What's different about Lumineers ® veneers in comparison to other types of porcelain veneers?

The typical selling points you see associated with Lumineers ® veneers are derived from the fact that they can be so thin. The manufacture claims that because Lumineers ® veneers are ultra-thin they can be placed using a technique where no tooth reduction ("no drilling") is need. In those cases where no drilling is required typically dental anesthetic will not be needed either ("no shots").

How is it that Lumineers ® porcelain veneers can be placed using a "no drilling, no shots" technique?

When Lumineers ® porcelain veneers are placed using a "no drilling, no shots" technique these veneers do in fact offer an alternative to traditional porcelain veneer methodology.

With traditional porcelain veneering technique a dentist will first reduce a tooth (grind away some of the tooth's surface) approximately the same thickness as the porcelain veneer they plan to place will be. The idea is that, in general, each tooth has an ideal contour and thickness. Since a dentist does not want to create an end result where a veneered tooth has become oversized or bulky, they will trim the tooth back the same amount as the thickness of the porcelain veneer being placed.

In most cases this tooth trimming means that a dental anesthetic will be required so the dental patient remains comfortable while the tooth reduction process is performed.

In theory, since a Lumineer ® veneer is so very thin a dentist doesn't need to trim back a tooth's surface because when the veneer is bonded into placed its presence will not add enough bulk to the tooth to pose a problem. Since no drilling is needed, no anesthetic ("shot") is required either. "No drilling" Lumineers ® technique also offers the added convenience that no temporary dental veneers will need to be placed.

How much truth is there to the Lumineers ® claim that no drilling or shots will be required?

Hypothetically it's conceivable that Lumineers ® porcelain veneers could be placed using a "no drilling, no shots" technique in essentially all veneering cases. But just because doing so might be physically possible does not mean that using this technique indiscriminately and universally would be in the best interest of the dental patients involved, and in fact it would not. Placing Lumineers ® using a "no drilling" technique can only create an acceptable clinical and cosmetic end result if the proper conditions exist initially.

To your dentist Lumineers ® is simply a brand of porcelain veneer, not a veneering technique.

In those veneering cases where the proper initial conditions do not exist for "no drilling" technique Lumineers ® veneers can still be placed, it's just that your dentist will need to use traditional porcelain veneer protocol to place them (meaning that your teeth will need to be trimmed).

By way of their advertising Lumineers ® porcelain veneers (a product) are typically married to "no drilling, no shots" technique (a method) but this does not have to be the case. Lumineers ® veneers are simply one type of porcelain veneer. Lumineers ® veneers are special because they can be manufactured to very thin tolerances (although this is not the only type of minimal thickness porcelain veneer available to your dentist). And this extreme degree of thinness does allow the dentist placing the Lumineers ® veneers the option of placing them using a "no drilling, no shots" veneering technique, but Lumineers ® veneers can always be placed using traditional porcelain veneering technique if the situation requires it.