Thanks to innovation in dentistry, there are currently a wide variety of types of dental veneers. Made of different materials, each type of veneer has particular characteristics that make it different. This does not mean that there are better or worse, it will always depend on the parameters that are most important to you: durability, naturalness, resistance, price etc…
There are people who opt for cheaper veneers, but which have less resistance and durability to color changes and breakages, and others who opt to invest a little more money in exchange for benefiting from more natural, resistant and durable dental veneers. At this point, you need to ask yourself what is most important to you.
We will always be more in favor of opting for top-quality dental veneers that offer you the best long-term results, as we will see later, but ultimately, the decision will always be the patient’s.
Porcelain Veneers
We’ll start with one of our best recommendations: Porcelain veneers, also known as ceramic veneers.
Porcelain dental veneers are thin sheets that are placed on the external face of the tooth and are made of porcelain (as the name suggests).
If they are the traditional ones, they have a thickness of approximately 0.5 mm and for their placement the preparation of the tooth is required. We explain this part better in our article on how to put dental veneers, so we invite you to read it for more information.
The characteristic of porcelain veneers is that they provide very high durability and resistance. To give you an idea, porcelain is an even stronger material than the natural tooth enamel itself.
They offer very natural results and are hardly noticeable, something that our patients greatly appreciate. They are customizable and are tailored to the patient so that it does not distort with the rest of the teeth, in the case in which you choose to put only one veneer – we do not recommend this practice, and we are in favor of placing them on at least 4 teeth, those adjacent to the part that needs it).
Another advantage of porcelain veneers over other types of dental veneers is that they are resistant to staining and color changes, which is not the case in other types of veneers, as we will see later.
Lumineers Type Dental Veneers
Lumineers dental veneers are ultra-thin porcelain veneers, no more than 0.3mm thick that adhere to the tooth in an adhesive way. This is a great advance over traditional veneers, since being adhesive they do not require tooth preparation and they are fully reversible.
It’s extremely thin thickness means that the transition between the gum and mucosa, with the veneer itself, is not perceptible, so the final result is one hundred percent natural and perfect. Among its main characteristics, it also stands out that Lumineers type veneers have the ability to reflect light, achieving a total similarity to natural teeth.
At the moment, even having a higher price than other options, Lumineers dental veneers are the most requested due to their ease of placement, because they do not need to prepare the tooth and because, as they are made of porcelain, in addition to the benefits already mentioned, they offer a unique resistance both in hardness and in color change. Something very important if you value how long dental veneers last in cosmetic dentistry.
Composite Dental Veneers
Composite dental veneers are made of a synthetic resin called composite, as its name cites. Composite is an acrylic resin material mixed with ceramic particles, widely used in fillings and fillings.
It offers great hardness and cheaper prices than other types of dental veneers, such as the ones we have mentioned in the previous sections. These veneers do require tooth preparation, so they are permanent. If one is damaged, it should be changed to maintain the aesthetics of the smile.
Composite dental veneers are cemented on the same tooth, shaping it so that they maintain a similar shape and color to the adjacent teeth, although they have the disadvantage of not being completely imperceptible. If you asked us for advice on what type of dental veneer to use or if we would recommend composite veneers, the truth is that we would choose to recommend other options.
Composite dental veneers, despite being resistant and cheaper, do not offer great resistance to staining and color changes, making their durability much less.
Zirconia Veneers
Finally, we explain what zirconia veneers are and what their main characteristics are so that you can obtain a comprehensive and complete view of all the types of dental veneers that exist.
In dentistry, we have been using zirconium for a long time as a material for the production of crowns and covers, since it offers great benefits in terms of aesthetics and resistance.
Interestingly, in dental veneers there are already many clinics moonee ponds that do not use them – ours, among them – and we are making our way to other materials that have proven to be more suitable.