I recently got Lumineers. I’m mostly happy with them. They look good, but are not as white as I’d expected. My dentist says that’s because they’re intended to look natural and that’s as white as they get.  Is there a way I can whiten them? I know it sounds vain, but I got these because I wanted more of a Hollywood smile. It matches that in everything except the color.

Dania L. – Pennsylvania

Dania,

You have every right to want your smile to look Hollywood. It’s not vanity. It’s about confidence.  Unfortunately, you went to the wrong dentist. It’s obvious from what you’re telling me that he doesn’t truly understand cosmetic dentistry.

We see this a lot in dentists who do Lumineers. They’re marketed to dentist’s who are inexperienced in the cosmetic procedures as being easy to place. Place, yes. Make beautiful, no.

While the shade he gave you may be the whitest “natural” shade. Lumineers, along with any other brand of porcelain veneers can look as white as you want them to look. There are a bunch of shades a cosmetic dentist works with that a family dentist dabbling in cosmetics would be unfamiliar with.

I wish I could tell you that you could whiten them, but any color changes would have had to been made before they were bonded on. Only natural tooth structure responds to teeth whitening. The Lumineers are stuck the color your dentist made them.

You could try to get a refund and then have them done by a more experienced cosmetic dentist. The fact that he told you they’re as white as they get, might give you some leverage.

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