Dr. Hall
I’ve had Lumineers placed on my top and bottom teeth. It has been an ordeal. My top teeth are now fine and look great. My bottom teeth have been a nightmare of pain. I just had to have a tooth pulled after a root canal did nothing to ease the pain from the infection that started after the Lumineers. I am still in pain and have numbness and burning through half of my chin and jaw. I jumped into this cosmetic dentistry without fully researching it. I believed the ads put out by Lumineers by Cerinate. I had the money and I trusted the dentist’s expertise and now I am really paying for it with continual pain that has been going on since May 2007 – 5 months. Any suggestions? The scary thing is that I am continually having to take ibuprofen for pain and sometimes addictive painkillers like vicoden! I’ve also had to take a course of strong antibiotics which did not save my tooth. The upside is that the dentist is doing the corrective work for free and will put in a bridge where the tooth was pulled. I don’t know if my problems where due to the problems my teeth presented or if the doctor was poorly or inadequately trained. Any suggestions or opinions?
– Roberta in Texas
Roberta,
The Lumineers ads advocate a “no-prep” technique. People need to realize that when they get Lumineers and there is no shaving of the teeth to make space for the Lumineers, that the teeth will stick out just a little and will be about two millimeters longer.
On the upper, this can be done without hurting your bite. But on the lower, this will usually put the lower front teeth into traumatic occlusion and can cause real problems.
I don’t know all the facts of your case, but it appears from what you’ve told me that your dentist was also caught off guard by this, as you were. He probably didn’t have much training in cosmetic dentistry and relied on the advertising in dental journals that tells dentists how easy this is. You’re fortunate to have a caring and ethical dentist who looks like he is trying to take care of the problem for you. Judging just from what you’ve told me, I’d stick with him. He should be able to fix it. It sounds like your problems are within the basic dental school training that all dentists have. It will take some time and there will be pain in the meantime, but I believe he’ll be able to fix it.
I’d be sure to get the pain solved before putting the bridge in.
– Dr. Hall
Related topics from the www.mynewsmile.com web site:
Dental bridges
Porcelain veneers
Tooth infection
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About David A. Hall
Dr. David A. Hall was one of the first 40 accredited cosmetic dentists in the world. He practiced cosmetic dentistry in Iowa, and in 1990 earned his accreditation with the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. He is now president of Infinity Dental Web, a company in Mesa, Arizona that does advanced internet marketing for dentists.