Lumineers ® veneers are simply one brand of porcelain veneer. Lumineers ® veneers are fabricated using the patented ceramic Cerinate ® and can only be produced in a Cerinate ® Smile Design Studio. (These dental laboratories are owned by the Den-Mat Corporation.)
The main characteristic that sets Lumineers ® veneers apart from other types of porcelain veneers is that they can be made so their thickness is ultra-thin. In their advertising Den-Mat Corporation states that Lumineers ® veneers can be crafted so they are as thin as a contact lense. In more precise terms, Lumineers ® veneers can be fabricated so they are as little as .2 to .3 millimeters in thickness. As a basis of comparison, the minimal thickness of a traditional porcelain veneer is typically on the order of .5 millimeters (almost twice as thick).
The fact that Lumineers ® veneers can be crafted to such minimal tolerances allows a dentist some options in regards to the protocol that is used when these veneers are placed. When traditional porcelain veneer technique is employed the tooth receiving the veneer is typically reshaped with a dental drill before the veneer is made and subsequently placed.
While Lumineers ® veneers can be used with this technique, Den-Mat Corporation also advocates the placement of Lumineers ® veneers using a technique where no tooth reduction ("no drilling") is needed. As a side benefit, because no tooth trimming is required it is very likely that no dental anesthetic ("no shot") will be needed either.
Beyond the capability that Lumineers ® veneers can be made so they are ultra-thin (thus providing the option for "no drilling, no shots" placement) Lumineers ® veneers are really just one other brand of porcelain veneer. Lumineers ® veneers are unique in the fact that they alone are made from Cerinate ® porcelain. Cerinate ® porcelain has exceptional strength characteristics, hence Lumineers ® veneers can be made to such thin tolerances. Cerinate ® porcelain also has its own optical properties, meaning the way that its color can be modified or balanced between degrees of translucency and opaqueness. And although a dentist will typically be inclined to favor or disfavor the various characteristics of Cerinate ® veneers, they are not drastically different from other porcelain veneers.
You've probably seen advertisements for Lumineers ® porcelain veneers touting the claim that they can be placed without the need for tooth reduction ("drilling") or dental anesthetic ("a shot"). When traditional porcelain veneer technique is utilized the front side of a tooth (the side that the porcelain veneer will be bonded to) is typically trimmed back about the same thickness as the porcelain veneer being placed will be. The idea is that the dentist wants the contours and overall size of the veneered tooth to fall within parameters that would be considered normal.
With Lumineers ® veneers an alternative placement option is possible. The idea is that since Lumineers ® veneers can be crafted to be so thin that even though no tooth trimming is performed, bonding an ultra-thin Lumineers ® veneer to a tooth will not change the overall size of the tooth so drastically that it will fall outside of the realm of normal.
Lumineers ® veneers aren't limited to placement using a "no drilling, no shots" technique, they can always be placed using traditional porcelain veneer protocol. But unlike thicker types of porcelain veneers the potential for using a "no drilling, no shots" protocol does exist. Our next page describes some of the circumstances where this "no drilling" technique might be appropriately applied.
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