Objectives: Various techniques have been suggested to enable the operator to produce an even reduction of 0.5 mm of labial tooth enamel during preparation for a porcelain veneer. For example, in addition to the traditional free hand method, longitudinal or horizontal depth orientation grooves and the use of small round burs to produce dimples as depth guides have been suggested. However, there is no published data that compares how effective these techniques are at producing the 'ideal' veneer preparation. In this study three techniques were compared using the technique of co-ordinate metrology.
Method: A single operator using the above three techniques prepared 84 extracted teeth. Impressions of the prepared and unprepared teeth were scanned using a co-ordinate measuring machine (CMM). Measurements of maximum labial reduction along the mid-labial plane were taken and analysed.
Results: The study showed that among the three techniques studied the use of small round burs (D001-012), when used side on at an angle of 45 degrees to the tooth surface to produce dimples as depth guides, resulted in the greatest frequency of tooth reductions closer to the 'ideal' depth chosen for this study, ie within the 0.4 mm-0.6 mm range.
Conclusion: The study concluded that even after using techniques designed to produce consistent preparations, a single operator still produced preparations with considerable variation from the ideal. The study showed that among the three techniques compared the use of small round burs, when used side on at an angle of 45 degrees to the tooth surface to produce dimples as depth guides, resulted in the greatest frequency of tooth reduction closer to the 'ideal' depth chosen for this study only, ie within the 0.4 mm-0.6 mm range. It is stressed that this range may not be the ideal in all clinical situations.