What Is Tooth Shaping for Laminates? Isn’t No-Prep Laminate Better?

Hello. I’m Director Kim Yu-na.

The weather has gotten much colder. Looking at recent laminate trends, there are more and more attempts to reduce the amount of tooth reduction, such as no-prep and minimal-prep approaches. However, I personally find it most disappointing when a no-prep laminate is performed in a case that is not suitable for it.

At first, expectations are high, but after it is actually bonded, many people end up feeling like, “I shouldn’t have done it,” or “It looks like my teeth stick out.”

Of course, there are cases where no-prep laminate is possible. But they are extremely rare.

The conditions under which no-prep laminate is possible are as follows.

• The teeth are already well aligned, or are positioned toward the palate, like so-called “buck teeth”

• The teeth are small

• There are gaps between the teeth

It is really rare for someone to satisfy all three of these conditions.

In other cases, if you insist on “no-prep,” you will most likely regret it later.

That is why, for patients who want no-prep, I first recommend tooth shaping.

By trimming the tooth shape with only a very small amount of reduction—so small that anesthesia is not needed—we can create teeth that are suitable for no-prep laminate.

This is a technique that only a laminate specialist with extensive experience can perform.

In the case above as well, the front teeth were the type that stood out particularly strongly.

The patient did not like the rabbit-tooth look and wanted the teeth to appear smaller and more neatly aligned.

So we performed tooth shaping and gum shaping at the same time,

and the patient was very satisfied with these two procedures alone.

Today was such a rewarding day as well.

Everyone, with tooth shaping and laminate, keep reduction to a minimum and beauty to a maximum!