Lumineers for tetracycline stains

This is a follow-up question from Barbara. Read her original question about the cost of Lumineers.

Dr. Hall,
It’s actually my husband that needs the Lumineers. My husband has tetracycline stained teeth, but we don’t have $20 grand for veneers.

Sincerely,
Barbara from Boca Raton

Barbara,
First off, Lumineers are not cheaper than porcelain veneers. You mentioned being quoted $1100 per tooth for the Lumineers. You should be able to get quality porcelain veneers for that fee.

As to which brand of porcelain veneers, in the case of your husband, I would not recommend Lumineers. There are two reasons.

To adequately cover tetracycline stains, the veneer needs to wrap around the tooth somewhat, or you’ll have a tooth that looks whiter in the middle and gray around the edges, giving a halo effect. In order to accomplish that, there needs to be some tooth preparation. Lumineers, however, are promoted as a “no-preparation” procedure.

Second, to adequately cover dark tetracycline stains, Lumineers aren’t thick enough. So you either have to have your teeth ending up a fainter color of gray, or otherwise they have to be made a pasty looking opaque white–not natural at all.

Lumineers is just a brand name of a type of porcelain veneers that is strong enough that they can make them maybe about 25-30% thinner than other porcelain veneers. Some of the Lumineers ads are deceiving in that they show a picture of teeth being ground to a stub, implying that’s what the dentist will do for other brands of porcelain veneers. That’s a gross exaggeration. Even regular porcelain veneers are wafer thin.
– Dr. Hall