San Diego Cosmetic Dentist, Dr. Eshom practices minimally invasive dentistry in all of his dental treatments and like the product Lumineers. Dr. Eshom, a San Diego Cosmetic Dentist expert offers beautiful and natural looking porcelain veneers that cause minimal or no destruction of your existing tooth structure. Wafer-thin porcelain veneers are individually crafted to perfectly fit and bond to the shape and structure of your existing teeth, correcting for staining, chipping, or spacing. This means a brilliant, new smile without the extensive preparation of existing tooth structure. Say goodbye to worrying about long and painful dental visits, with minimally invasive porcelain veneers placed by San Diego Cosmetic Dentist, Dr. Eshom, your only worry will be who will get to see your new smile first!

Lumineers or no-prep porcelain veneers are ideal for:

· Stained teeth
· Chipped Teeth
· Spaced Teeth

Contact San Diego Cosmetic Dentist, Dr. Eshom to see if Lumineers or no-prep porcelain veneers are right for you!

Facts about Lumineers/ No-prep Porcelain Veneers

Manufacturers claim that no-tooth-preparation porcelain veneers, “prepless” dental veneers, can be a permanent cosmetic solution from your cosmetic dentist: a painless solution that can reshape, brighten, and whiten a smile. This type of dental veneer has a popular trade name known as “Lumineers”, but any dental veneer lab or company has a ultra thin porcelain that can be used for prepless porcelain veneers. The difference between these and regular dental veneers placed by your cosmetic dentist lies in the “no tooth preparation” part. So unlike regular dental veneers, removing part of the existing tooth is not necessary. Sounds good, right?

The problem is that—unless you have very specific circumstances like lots of gaps, or teeth that slant inward and need to built outward—you usually end up with bulky, fake-looking teeth. With San Diego porcelain veneers Cosmetic Dentist, Dr. Eshom, can remove as little as half a millimeter from the existing tooth and replace it with porcelain so it looks natural. Typically, unprepared dental veneers simply look fake. This is not to say it should never be done, but dental veneer case selection is critical for success. That is where San Diego Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Eshom’s experience plays a priceless role.

Dr. Eshom has completed thousands of porcelain veneer cases, and his cosmetic dentistry is a testament to itself. His critical eye can discern where tooth structure would best be removed for a regular porcelain veneer and where no tooth structure removal would work just fine for your dental veneers. Cosmetic Dentist, Dr. Eshom spends time with you to understand the final result you expect. He then calculates from his immense experience the exact teeth and surfaces needing recontouring to result in your expected smile. Many times, patients will come in needing cosmetic dentistry that calls for some teeth that do not need tooth structure removed, but are combined with teeth that need reduction. Seldom can the whole smile be done with absolutely no tooth structure touched. San Diego Cosmetic Dentist, Dr. Eshom knows that tooth structure is priceless and we pride ourselves in saving our patients from needless tooth structure removal.

There are certain instances that “Lumineer/ Prepless” dental veneers are definitely not advisable. If you have dark teeth the “prepless” porcelain veneers are too thin to block out the dark underlying color of the tooth to look natural and if attempted will be opaque or chalk looking. You would recognize this on a friend’s new smile that looks like “Chicklets” and give cosmetic dentistry a bad name. This is totally avoidable by going to an experience and accredited San Diego cosmetic dentist like Dr. David Eshom who would have informed your friend the result of trying to cover dark teeth with such a thin porcelain veneer on unprepped teeth.

Another unadvisable condition that “Lumineer/ Prepless” porcelain veneers would not be suitable for are teeth that are “buck” or angled outward from ones mouth. Trying prepless/ Lumineer type porcelain veneers on this type of smile would result in teeth and smile that angle further out of the mouth and look like the funny/goofy teeth you buy on the internet or drug store called “Dr. Buck”. This again can be avoided by making sure you see a talented, experienced and Accredited San Diego cosmetic dentist like Dr. Eshom.

Before:Bulky dental veneers w/ no prep design

After: Natural looking dental Veneers with prepared tooth design

Common problems with Prepless/Lumineer type of porcelain veneers is an over contoured or fat looking porcelain veneer tooth. Since there is no subtraction of tooth structure in prepless dental veneers an addition is done with porcelain and that often lead to “fat” unnatural looking teeth. Letting an experienced and Accredited San Diego cosmetic dentist like Dr. Eshom look at your teeth before committing to this type of veneer is imperative.

Another common and fake looking mistake that is often committed by less experienced cosmetic dentists is using Lumineer/ Prepless dental veneers and not paying attention to the separations of the teeth at the edges. These separations are called embrasures and they are “v” like notches between the teeth that separates the teeth to make them look individual rather than one big wide band of teeth. An experienced and Accredited San Diego cosmetic dentist like Dr. Eshom is trained in these nuances and makes the teeth look natural by placing the notches properly.

“Black triangles” disease is another common error in use of Lumineers/ prepless dental veneers and is seen when in the attempt to save tooth structure the inexperienced cosmetic dentist does not cover the natural tooth at the gumline between teeth leaving unappealing dark areas between the new porcelain veneers.

Lastly and most importantly is the error of inexperienced cosmetic dentists by not meeting the expectations of the patient. Inexperienced cosmetic dentist will do Lumineer/ prepless dental veneer cases and not make temporaries for the patient thinking they don’t need them. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Nothing can be further from the truth with porcelain veneer treatment. The temporaries communicate to the patient what the final result will look like. Patients need to see the “trial smile” in temporaries to evaluate the look, length, color and feel. It is a nightmare for a patient to envision their smile one way and the dentist to bond in porcelain veneers and have them hate the color or length or shape. Temporaries are vital to proper doctor/patient communication. Experienced and Accredited San Diego cosmetic dentist, Dr. Eshom never does a porcelain veneer case without his patients approving the temporaries.

Before Dental Veneers

Temporary Dental Veneers

After Dental Veneers

To summarize, the biggest problem with “Lumineers/ prepless” dental veneers is that some cosmetic dentists are overusing them and getting less than stellar results due to poor case selection. Inexperience is a major contributing factor to poor dental veneer results. Talk to someone like San Diego cosmetic dentist, Dr. David Eshom, before you decide on what seems like porcelain veneers that are too good to be true. It will be priceless decision on your way to your ideal smile.