Subjects: Clinical records were reviewed for more than 80,000 different patients from the General Dental Services (GDS) in England and Wales. A total of 2562 porcelain veneer restorations were placed in 1177 adult patients (> or =18 years old, 35% male and 65% female) over a period of 11 years (January, 1991, to March, 2002).
Key exposure/study factor: A number of factors were considered potentially capable of impacting the need for reintervention on teeth restored with porcelain veneers. These included a number of patient factors such as gender, age, and dental utilization practices. Other factors analyzed included the tooth position receiving veneers, dentists' qualifications, and where and when the veneer was placed (eg, month and geographic location).
Main outcome measure: The main outcome was survival over 10 years between initial placement and the first date of intervention for each tooth treated with a porcelain veneer. Information was abstracted from clinical records to create an analytical dataset of porcelain veneers, with their dates of placement and their dates, if any, of reintervention. This dataset was analyzed using a modified Kaplan-Meier statistic and a Cox-regression model.
Main results: Factors that were found to influence the survival of porcelain veneers included the following: gender, with veneers placed in male patients surviving for less time than those placed for female patients (P = .01); patient age, with poorer survival of porcelain veneers in older (60 years or older) patients (P = .003); changing dentist, with teeth of patients who change dentist surviving for shorter periods of time to reintervention than for those patients who continue in the care of the same dentist (P < .001); patient's treatment need, with patients whose gross annual fees on all dental treatment are higher having teeth with less time to reintervention after receiving veneers than those patients with lower annual fees (P < .001); patient paying status, with patients who are exempt from charges also having veneered teeth with shorter time to reintervention (P <.001). Nevertheless, the factors associated with tooth position or mouth quadrant and with the dentist (gender, age, years since graduation, and country of qualification) did not influence the survival rate.
Conclusions: Although dentist factors do not appear to play a part, a variety of patient factors have been found to influence veneer survival to reintervention. Overall, 53% of porcelain veneers in the study survived without reintervention at 10 years.