Five-year clinical performance of porcelain veneers.

OBJECTIVE

The overall clinical performance of porcelain veneers was evaluated at 5 years.

METHOD AND MATERIALS

Porcelain veneers were placed on 87 maxillary anterior teeth in 25 patients (19 to 69 years) by a single operator following a standardized clinical procedure. At the 5-year recall, esthetics, marginal performance, vitality, fracture rate, and patient satisfaction were recorded.

RESULTS

At recall, 93% of the veneers were satisfactory without intervention. The remaining 7% presented clinically unacceptable problems such as recurrent caries, porcelain fracture, severe clinical microleakage, or pulpal reaction. The retention rate of the porcelain veneers was 100%, and the maintenance of esthetics was perfect. Only 14% of the veneers presented excellent marginal adaptation over the entire outline of the restoration; however, the impact of the slight marginal defects on the clinical performance was negligible.

CONCLUSION

Labial porcelain veneers offer a reliable and effective procedure for the conservative treatment of discolored, malformed, and malaligned anterior teeth.