Colorado Lumineers

Lumineers are a particular brand of porcelain that is used for teeth veneers. They are made by the Den Mat company, and Den Mat has marketed this brand quite effectively. While they have done an excellent job of raising public awareness of what can be done for your smile, there are some misconceptions that have been created.

Misunderstandings about Lumineers

The primary misconception is that Lumineers are unique. Some people who have seen some of their commercials believe that if you have any other type of smile makeover, your teeth will have to be "ground down." This isn't true. There are many brands of porcelain veneers, and some of them can be made just as thin as Lumineers, and don't require any grinding down of your teeth.

Here in our office, we use a number of different brands of porcelain, and our choice will be based on several factors. One type of porcelain veneer that many people like is made with the Cerec process. The reason this is popular is because there is no waiting time. With Lumineers or other types of veneers, there is a period of maybe two weeks or more between the time the impression is taken of your teeth and when they are actually bonded onto your teeth. During that time, a dental laboratory technician creates your new smile on the model that is made from the impression. With the Cerec process, everything is computerized so that your smile can be created while you wait. A lot of people like the idea of having an "instant" new smile. To read more about this, please see our One-Day Makeover page.

Pros and Cons of Lumineers

Their primary advantage is that they are very strong (though there are other brands that are just as strong).

Their primary disadvantage is that, because Lumineers are protected by trademark, they have to be made in the Den Mat laboratory. Many outstanding cosmetic dentists don't believe that the smiles created at this large, impersonal laboratory are very artistic, and they believe that they aren't as good as other laboratories at customizing the new smile to the personality and preferences of the individual.

Before Lumineers		After Lumineers

Typical Lumineers smiles are criticized by cosmetic dentists as tending to make the teeth look too bulky, too opaque, and too long. The above before-and-after pictures show a sample case from another dentist. While the teeth in the after picture look nice, they are a little bulky and pasty-looking. We think you should expect more.

As a comparison, look at these before-and-after pictures of a patient treated by Dr. Rota.
You can see that by using his own choice of a master ceramist and avoiding the large, impersonal Lumineers lab, Dr. Rota was able to create a much more natural, pleasing look.

Dr. Rota's work has won eight medals in international smile gallery competition. Results that consistently beautiful are usually created with an artistic dentist and a gifted master ceramist working together as a team to create a unique result tailored to the personality and facial characteristics of each patient—not with a large, impersonal dental laboratory.