I Hate My Lumineers

Question submitted by: Emily

I think I was misled by my dentist. I told him that I wanted a smile makeover with porcelain veneers. He suggested I get lumineers instead because then I wouldn’t have to grind down my teeth. He showed me pictures of before and after cases and they looked absolutely beautiful. My own didn’t turn out that way. The teeth looked square and way too large. Plus, the color looks chalky.  I was pretty upset when I saw them.  I thought maybe I was overreacting. I asked my best friend to be blunt and tell me what she thought. I could tell she was holding back, so when I asked her to tell me the hard truth, she cringed a bit and told me they looked like horse teeth. I couldn’t understand the difference between my results and the images he showed me. I did an image search and it turns out that not only were the pictures he showed me done by him, but they weren’t even Lumineers. Is there a way I can get my money back on these? Can they be fixed or am I stuck with horse teeth?

Emily

Dear Emily,

I am so sorry that this happened to you. When you go to a dentist and pay for a smile makeover, you not only want them to deal with you with integrity, you also want them to actually provide you with a stunning smile. Yours obviously did neither. The good news is he misrepresented things, which works in your favor for getting a refund.

Just so you know for the future, getting traditional porcelain veneers does not mean that your teeth will be ground down. There really is only about the depth of a fingernail removed from the surface of the tooth for porcelain veneers. Where the grinding happens is with dental crowns.

I would start by just giving him a chance to do the right thing. Let him know you really don’t like the results and the image he showed you of the type of results Lumineers gets was not Lumineers and you feel misled. Don’t let him try to redo them if he offers that. Tell him you’d just like your money back.

Lumineers are just one brand of porcelain veneers. Bear in mind that they require dentists to use their lab, which is not known for its artistic results. Plus, you want to focus on getting the right dentist, with post-doctoral training in cosmetic dentistry so you can get beautiful results.

This blog is brought to you by a top-rated prosthodontist in Tucson, AZ, Dr. Howard Steinberg.