Dental Veneers: Lumineer Vs. Davinci Vs. Empress

The first type of veneer to enter dentistry was a material called feldspathic porcelain, and it appeared around 1985.  How do I know?  Well, I've been doing them since they first arrived back then.

Feldspathic porcelain is one of the weakest type of porcelain, but has two huge advantages.  They can be made thinner than most other types of porcelain, and also they can made to best match difficult colored teeth.  Lumineers, Da Vinci and Dura Thin veneers are examples of dental labs that are still using feldspathic porcelain.  Lumineers were instrumental in marketing their veneers as requiring little or no drilling, however most cosmetic dentists agree that at least some minimal tooth drilling is almost always necessary or else the veneers will end up looking too thick and fake.

After a decade of feldspathic veneers, around 1995, another different type of porcelain was introduced to cosmetic dentistry, pressed ceramic porcelain veneers.  These are usually much stronger than feldspathic veneers, but do require a little more thickness, thus minimal tooth preparation (drilling) is necessary.  The best known of first wave of pressed ceramics for the past ten years was Empress porcelain veneers.  The Microdental Labs was one of the major international dental labs that produced Empress veneers and helped gain its popularity among dentists and patients. 

In the last few years Empress has been for the most part replaced with it's younger brother Emax, which also is a type of pressed ceramic.  Emax has all the advantages of Empress, but is many times stronger and can be made much thinner than Empress.  Thus Emax can be made almost as thin as Lumineers, Da Vinci feldspathic and Dura Thin porcelain veneers.

So, I've been a practicing cosmetic dentist for 35 years and since porcelain veneers were introduced I've placed thousands of veneers.  Many have been of the feldspathic type, but most have been pressed ceramic.  Today, based on current techniques what is my favorite types of porcelain and why?  Where as most of the veneers I've placed were Empress, today my favorite material is Emax.  I believe it has the strength, fit, beauty to make it the current longest lasting porcelain veneer material.  I still use the older feldspathic, but mostly in situations where only a few teeth are being veneered and the most accurate custom color match is the goal.  For example, a patient breaks one front tooth.  Then I would use feldspathic.  If the patient needed four, six, eight or ten veneers, then I would most likely recommend Emax.

When it comes to veneers, don't get caught up on a particular brand name, or material. More importantly, find the most skillful and experienced cosmetic specialist, who will work along-side a master ceramist to get you the ultimate result possible.Hope that helps.James Asaf, DDS

A dentist should pick a particular veneer material because the laboratory technician is skilled with this product. 

Lumineer and Davinci veneers are made by certain labs that have spent a lot of money on market and brand awareness so that patients come to the dentist asking "I want Lumineers." when really the patient is saying "I want a veneer that is going to look natural and great"

Lumineers market that their veneers can be placed without drilling or anesthetic. This is true for some limited cases.

Hope this helps.