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in collaboration with
Dr Jérémy Amzalag (Dentist specialized in Implantology and Periodontology)
According to information from the DailyMail, a young woman who had composite dental veneers fitted would have experienced a rare allergy: all over her body, her skin was inflamed and cracked for months. What does our dentist think?
She wanted to achieve a star smile, but ended up with a severe allergic reaction instead. Lily Lindsay, a 29-year-old Scotswoman, was tempted by the laying of composite veneers, touted on Tiktok, for which she paid £1,000 (about 1,200 euros). But surprise: a few days later, her appearance changed completely, and her painful, red and dry skin all over her body.
“Scaly skin like elephant skin”
Lily’s physical change had however started well: in August 2022, her installation of dental veneers made from resin, at the “best dentist of the moment”, she says, delighted her. But the brilliance is short-lived.
Two weeks later, Lily began to suffer from redness around her eyes, dry skin and itching. His doctor first thinks of dermatitis, without linking it to his dental care. She starts off with a cream for relief, then switches to a steroid cream used for eczema. Despite the disappearance of the redness after a month, the patches finally come back in force all over the body. A skin that she describes herself as painful, and cracked, extremely scaly “like an elephant skin”. Her condition then plunged her into depression.
An allergy linked to the material of the facets
Where does this reaction come from? Lily, determined to figure out what’s ruining her life, gets tested at a dermatologist for 100 different allergens, but the culprit isn’t identified. In January 2023, Lily’s allergic reaction then begins to affect her immune system giving her dizziness, ringing in her ears and black spots in her vision.
A final blood test reveals that the inflammation comes from inside the body and not from a product on the young woman’s skin. It was only then that Lily realized that her skin had started to flare up two weeks after having her famous veneers. In April 2023, she has them removed. A month later in May 2023, her skin is back to normal.
Does laying veneers expose you to danger?
Lily Lindsay’s story might make you think twice about changing the look of your teeth. But this extreme reaction is not representative of this dental practice. Consulted on the subject by Doctissimo, the dentist Jerémy Amzalag expressed his surprise.
“This situation is extremely rare, it is really an exceptional and marginal case of what we practice. The only explanation I find there is “perhaps” an allergy to a certain type of porcelain, but I don’t I never heard of it in France, or even in the United States when I was working there”.
On his site, Dr. Zisserman, a dentist expert in laying veneers in Neuilly-sur-Seine, however, mentions the allergic risk of veneers, but denotes a clear progress in current techniques: “There are a variety of sealing resins including those containing acrylate and methacrylate monomers that could cause allergy in some people. However, the new generation of sealing resins are completely non-allergenic.”
However, dentists are unanimous: in the event of an allergy that comes from an element placed in the mouth, the treatment is simple, everything must be removed, as Lily Linsay ended up asking. Still, having veneers placed under the influence of TikTok testimonials is not always a good idea: many experts have been warning for years about this practice which, if not done well, also weakens your teeth and therefore your health. .