Prep Design Tips for IPS Empress Veneers

by Dr. David Hornbrook

1. As Empress utilizes a pressed core or coping and is then overlaid with a translucent enamel to produce a vital, natural-looking result, the restoration needs to be at least .6 mm in thickness. This provides the room necessary for the ceramist to build in translucency and vitality.
2. Incisal edge translucency is mandatory to obtain a lifelike, esthetic result. Design prep to provide approximately 1.5 mm between the incisal edge of the preparation and the final incisal edge of veneer (i.e. if final restoration length 10.5 mm, prep should be minimum of 9.0 mm in length). Allows ceramist to cut back core material, highlight the dentinal lobes with maverick colours and overlay the translucent.
3. Establish a lingual-incisal margin when increasing the length of the tooth. Can either be a chamfer margin if the incisal edge is thick or a long bevel when the incisal edge is thin.
4. Proximal contacts do not need to be broken unless the mesio distal width of the tooth is going to be altered. It is imperative to extend the preparation into the gingival-proximal embrasure to hide the transition between the veneer and the natural tooth. This margin should not be visible from the facial but rather dogleg into the proximal embrasure gingival to the contact space.

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