[Study of masking ability of laminate veneers for discolored teeth]

To select the most effective method among different masking treatments, such as different thickness and transparence, tissue surface's opaque coating, and opaque resin cement to restore discolored teeth esthetically by porcelain veneer.

Four extracted intact maxillary central incisors were prepared for porcelain veneer restoration and each three heat pressed porcelain veneers from three thicknesses (0.8 mm, 1.0 mm, 1.2 mm) and two transparency(high transparence, HT and low transparence, LT))in Vita shade A2 were fabricated for each tooth, in total of 72 pieces. The surfaces of three prepared teeth were then painted to mimic situations of severe dental fluorosis, severe tetracycline teeth, and necrotic teeth. Each of the veneers was temporarily cemented to the corresponding tooth surface using try-in cements with three different colors (transparent, opaque, and yellow), then used the shade guide (3D master) and electronic colorimeter (easy shade) to record the shade of each porcelain veneer through hue, lightness, and chroma reading. After that, high-transparence porcelain veneers in thickness of 0.8 mm was fused with a layer of opaque porcelain in tissue surface, and were shade matched again after cementation. Statistic treatments were performed to analyze the difference in each masking method.

For each 0.2 mm increase in the veneer thickness of porcelain, the average lightness was reduced by 1 unit, while the chroma was not changed which was independent of the type of the resin cements. When the thickness of the porcelain veneer was decreased to 0.8 mm, the opacity effect was not remarkable even if a low-transparence porcelain veneer was used. Transparent and yellow resin cements had poor opaque performance, while opaque resin cement could reduce the lightness by 2 units and the chroma was also reduced. The opaque layer of the tissue surface could be applied uniformly, and the lightness and chroma could be reduced to Vita 2M1 to 2M1.5 levels regardless of the color of resin cements, which suggested a stable opacity effect for different discolored teeth in this study.

For porcelain veneer restoration of discolored teeth, thickened veneers are the most effective means to display a natural transmittance and color. Tissue surface's opacity coatings and opaque resin cements can also be used to reduce grayscale and increase lightness.