Prepless Veneers
Serving Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah and surrounding areas
Prepless veneers (Lumineers, Dura-Thin veneers, Radiant veneers, Ultra-Thin veneers are examples of brand names) are becoming increasingly popular.
They are a little thinner than some other porcelain veneers, so it is possible that they can be bonded over the top of your teeth with little or no drilling. There are some companies that make them seem very easy to place and therefore something that dentists would be able to do in their practices with minimal training.
Advantages of Prepless Veneers are:
- No temporary veneers are required while you wait for the permanent ones to be made in the dental lab, because your teeth have not been noticeably shaped.
- They have been shown to be very durable in many clinical studies.
- The procedure can be reversible because little or no tooth structure is removed.
In certain circumstances Prepless veneers do simplify the placement of the porcelain veneers, but in most cases there are complexities that exist. They do not lend themselves to an oversimplification of the process of a smile makeover. Properly placing porcelain veneers requires the hand of an artist, to properly design them for the variables that present themselves, such as the shape of the face, the positioning of the existing teeth and the desires of the patient.
When there is minimal shaping of the teeth, the smile design process actually becomes more complicated. Now the dentist is confined to working with the shapes of the teeth the way they are. Color of the veneers also becomes more complicated because the veneer is thinner. Hue, chroma, translucency, color selection, brightness all need to be taken into account for you to have a beautiful smile.
Some of the companies have attempted to over-simplify the process for the dentist by having them take an impression of the teeth and then send them off to the laboratory to make the veneers. The lab person (often in countries such as China or the Philippines) makes all of the decisions about the case.
Most people that choose to enhance their smile with porcelain veneers want to have the best possible result. Cosmetic dentistry is best if handled by someone with exceptional training, experience, and talent. The best results are not achieved when the majority of the decisions are made by the lab and the dentist doesn't take the proper care in placing the veneers.
The bottom line is that Prepless veneers (thin feldspathic porcelain) are appropriate for some people. In certain circumstances, they can be a good option, sometimes the best option, for improving your smile. The best types of situations are those with good alignment of the teeth and minimal color change. Dr. Johnson can advise you if this is a good option for your situation once he has had a chance to examine your teeth. He will take into consideration your desires for a final result, current conditions that exist with your teeth and the importance of being as conservative as possible with your teeth.
To learn more about Prepless Veneers in Salt Lake City and Park City, Utah, or to set up an appointment or consultation, contact us or call Dr. Kent M. Johnson today at 435-658-0678.
