What if I don't like my Lumineers?

[Caitlin]

Hi

I am planning to have Lumineers placed on my top front eight teeth and just have a few question to ask you.

I have seen photos and galleries of Lumineers but I don't really know how Lumineers will look on my teeth. If I have Lumineers placed on my teeth and decide later on that I don't like them, can they be removed?

If they can be removed, is the process difficult? how will my teeth look without Lumineers? Will they look like they did at the beginning or will they look differently?

[Dr Vahid Motahar]

Hi,

Thank you for your question.

There are very few occasions that there has been a need for removing lumineers after cementation because patient has been happy with them (I personally cannot remember of a case). This is beacuse they are very simple ways to avoid this probelm.

One is that if a patient is not sure about the aesthetic of veneers, they can do a trial smile first. In this way impressions of the teeth is taken and then very experienced dental technicians that specialise in cosmetic dentistry will build up your lumineers in wax on the cast model. so patient can see the final result and shape of the lumineers on the model. A lot of times this can also be replicated directly in the mouth with some temporary material so patient can get even a better idea of what their teeth will look like.
At this stage making any alterations and adjustments according to the requests of patients can be very easily done as final lumineers are not as yet made.

If patient is happy with the looks of the trial smile wax up model then they go ahead to make the actual lumineers. Trial smile is much cheaper than the lumineers itself and is a fantastic way of giving patients some ideas about the final shape of the lumineers.

In the very unlikely scenario of having had a trial smile done and then having lumineers done and cemented and patient still not beeing happy and decide to have the lumineers removed, then they have to be drilled off. In this situation one will do the best humanly possible to just remove the lumineers without touching the teeth underneath but sometimes minor tooth removal will be inevitable. What will be left is the patients teeth similar to its shape before lumineers were placed.