Tag Archives: problems with Lumineers

lumineers trouble

I had Lumineers placed on both my top and bottom teeth. The top ones did absolutely fine. It’s the bottom ones I am having trouble with. They’re in massive pain and I’ve already lost one tooth when a root canal didn’t help. My dentist is going to put on a bridge free of charge. He doesn’t know why there is so much pain. He’s trying to help but I’m living on pain killers right now. I don’t want this to be the rest of my life, especially knowing how addictive they are. Can you help? Have you heard of this happening before?

Margie

Dear Margie,

There are a couple of things going on here. First, Lumineers are often advertised to inexperienced cosmetic dentists as being easy to place. That gets many well-intentioned dentists in over their heads.

A lot of this is because the Lumineers’ company promotes them as being no prep. Sometimes that can work out well on top teeth, though not always. Many patients complain about them being bulky. The bottom teeth, however, are a completely different story.

Second, when you’re talking about a no-prep technique, the teeth are about two millimeters longer as well as sticking out a tad. On bottom teeth, this can throw your teeth out of their proper occlusion and cause lots of pain for you.

That is likely what is going on in your case.

Cosmetic Work on Bottom Teeth

When it comes to smile makeovers, unless there is something which needs to change structurally with your bottom teeth, we’ll put porcelain veneers on the top teeth, but only whiten the bottom arch. Though, there are times veneers make sense. In those cases, however, tooth prep is necessary.

It does sound like your dentist is trying to take responsibility and make things right for you. That’s a sign you have an ethical dentist who just happened to do a procedure he wasn’t ready for. Don’t be too hard on him. We all start somewhere with procedures that are new to us. It’s a good sign that he’s stretching himself and adding to his field of knowledge.

Make sure you are out of pain before the bridge is placed. If he’s having trouble with that, you can suggest he talks to an expert cosmetic dentist, who’s studied occlusion as well. I’d look for an AACD accredited dentist in that case. Feel free to show him this post.

This blog is brought to you by Lafayette, LA Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Mike Malone.