Lumineers porcelain veneers will typically cost on the same order as the price of traditional porcelain veneers. Here's a very general estimate for the price range you might find.
Lumineers ® veneer per tooth cost:
$600 to $1500
It would be expected that you might find quite a bit of variation in the cost of Lumineers ® veneers in your area. Since this is a cosmetic procedure its costs are sometimes driven by forces other than simple supply and demand. Some people will have seen the results of or have an opinion that a specific dentist's veneering results are superior to others, and therefore will pay whatever their asking price is. On the other side, some dentists may feel that the demands and expectations of certain prospective patients seem somewhat unrealistic and will be hard to meet. In this situation the dentist may feel that they need to increase the cost of the case so to make it worth their trouble.
Lumineers ® veneers (which are only made by Cerinate ® Smile Design Studios dental laboratories which are owned by Den-Mat Corporation) may very well cost your dentist more than those porcelain veneers they have made by other dental laboratories. If so then you will have to expect that they will need to price their Lumineers ® veneer cases differently than their cases involving traditional porcelain veneers.
In theory, when Lumineers ® veneers are placed using a "no drilling" protocol the dentist has less treatment time involved when performing the case. If this is true, you may find that a dentist charges less for their Lumineers ® veneers cases than they do for their traditional porcelain veneers.
So as you can see there are a lot of considerations involved when a dentist determines the price they must charge for a Lumineers ® porcelain veneers case. It seems unlikely that any dentist could quote costs for you until they had had an opportunity to evaluate your situation during a consultation and examination appointment.
Lumineers ® veneers can be expected to last for a time frame that is on the same order as traditional porcelain veneers. A review of several studies (Decker, 2006) found a lifespan for Lumineers ® veneers that can easily exceed ten years. One of the studies evaluated found a 94% success rate for Lumineers ® veneers that had been in service for 20 years. While Den-Mat Corporation only registered their trademark on the term Lumineers ® in 2004 they have been creating porcelain dental restorations out of Cerinate ® porcelain for more than 20 years.
You'll have to rely on your dentist's judgement about the prudence of using this technique. Since the Lumineers ® veneer will only make a cosmetic change, your dentist must first evaluate the restoration involved and determine that it is otherwise sound and intact. No doubt when the dental crown or bridge was first placed the dentist placing it considered the contours of the restoration to be ideal. This means that your dentist must also determine that the added bulk of the Lumineers ® veneer will not create a situation that places your tooth at risk for developing dental problems.
We can see how in the case of an extensive dental bridge that the ability to resurface just one or a few offending teeth could extend the lifespan of the bridge at just a fraction of the cost or effort of replacing it. In the case of individual dental crowns the benefit of this technique is harder for us to grasp. We'd expect that the cost of placing a Lumineers ® veneer on an existing dental crown would not be much of a cost savings (if any) over simply replacing the dental crown outright. The advantage of the later is that the restoration would be a single unit created in the controlled environment of a dental laboratory, as opposed to being a repair consisting of two dental restorations assembled in the harder to control oral environment.
First published: August, 2006 (Last update: 6/18/09)
Reference sources:
BC Decker, Inc. Evidence-Based Veneers: Lumineers. Biological Therapies in Dentistry. Vol. 21, Supplement 2. April/May 2006.
Deng X, Hu X, and Ouyang X. Effects of change of crown contour on health of gingiva. Zhonghua Kou Qiang Yi Xue Za Zhi. November, 2001. Volume 36, Number 6.
Ehrlich J and Hochman N. Alterations on crown contour--effect on gingival health in man. J Prosthet Dent. November, 1980. Volume 44, Number 5.
Kohal RJ, Gerds T, and Strub JR. Effect of different crown contours on periodontal health in dogs. Clinical results. J Dent. August, 2003. Volume 31, Number 6.
Kohal RJ, Pelz K, and Strub JR. Effect of different crown contours on periodontal health in dogs. Microbiological results. J Dent. February, 2004. Volume 32, Number 2.
Wagman SS. The role of coronal contour in gingival health. J Prosthet Dent. March, 1977. Volume 37, Number 3.
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