These provide the most aesthetic veneers as they are layered on a platinum foil with a very precise and exacting technique that requires a very experienced and specialist ceramist to use this material.

The strength of this material is low at about 90MPa, having the lowest strengths of all veneers and thus fragile and thus challenging to use.

This material used to be the mainstay of veneers about 10 – 15 years ago.

These are lucite-reinforced pressed ceramics with strengths of about 200 MPa and with decades of clinical success.

The marginal adaptation is excellent, but these veneers are the least natural-looking as they create a more opaque appearance and thus an unnatural look.

We rarely use this type of porcelain.

Emax uses either lithium disilicate ceramic, zirconia and Tetric CAD ( a hybrid ceramic resin ) as the underlying base, thus creating the ability to be used not just for veneers but for crowns and bridges.

The strengths of these range from 250 MPa to 1200 MPa depending on the material used.

The Zirconia base is opaque and is thus more indicated for back teeth and bridges, where strength is the prerequisite.

The Tetric Cad is ideal for back teeth allowing flexure.

The Lithium Disilicate ceramic is ideal for veneers as it has a range of ingots to create the ability to provide patient-specific aesthetics, including:

• HT – with High Translucency
• MT – with Medium Translucency
• LT – with Low Translucency

And the Opal range can be all most see-through when pressed thin and ideal for no or minimal predation veneers.

The use of layering ceramic will colour match the smile irrespective of the foundation base used and is thus an ideal smile makeover as the aesthetics can be excellent.

Emax has shown about a 98% survival rate, with over 40 million restorations made over the last decade.

There are two types of 3M Lava veneers.

• 3M Lava Plus Zirconia which has a strength of 1400Mpa
• 3M Lava Esthetic Zirconia which has a strength of 800Mpa
• Both these are colour matched to the Vita classic shade

The strength of 3M Lava Esthetic Zirconia is almost half that of 3M Lava Plus Zirconia. But has other advantages including a gradient pre-shaded cubic zirconia.

Offering four shading formulations, inherent fluorescence for all shades enables highly aesthetic full-contour veneers to be fabricated in a simple mill-sinter-glaze process. Other less popular manufacturers include cubeX, Katana and Imagine.

However, the brands that we commonly use include Durathin, Ultrathin and Lumineers; with Durathin and Ultrathin using Emax as the foundation for these veneers.