I have dental veneers on some teeth… will teeth whitening work on them
I had porclein veneers put on two of my front teeth after an accident about 4 years ago and at the time they were the same colour as my other teeth. But now my other teeth are quite yellow but my veneers are whiter and so they sand out and it looks a bit stupid. I am thinking of having teeth whitening to sort the problem out so that all my teeth will be the same colour. I went to see my dentist and he siad that he cannot guarentee that my teeth will come up to the same colour as my veneers because teeth whitening doesnt work on veneers. I just want a second opinion, in your expertise is it possible to make the veneers whiter and if not what are my options if I want my teeth to all look the same colour? X.S
Your dentist is right, once we place veneers you cannot really change the colour much and this is why as cosmetic dentists it is very important that we use a shade of veneer that matches your surrounding exactly. At our practice we have a shade technician whose main job is to ensure that the shade of your new veneers/teeth match in different lighting conditions. It seems as though your dentist got it right when he/she first placed your veneers but no dentist can guarentee that they will stay the same colour all the time and as your natural teeth become stained your veneers do not stain in the same way and generally are more resistant to staining. In short teeth whitening will not have the same effect on your veneers as your natural teeth. In your situation I would say that you have a couple of options.
1. Teeth whitening / stain removal treatment – It is quite difficult to judge which would be the best option here but either a prophyflex stain removal treatment or teeth whitening to try and get the shade of your teeth to match that of your veneers. I would probably say try the stain removal and after this reassess. If the shade of your teeth still need to be lighter to match your veneers then try aprofessional teeth whitening product. In your case I would reccomend a home whitening kit rather than a 1 hour zoom or insurgery whitening for the simple reason that the home whitening is more gradual and once your teeth are at the shade you want you can stop. The in-surgery whitening does not give you that degree of flexibility. We would generally offer you the service of coming in to the practice every few days to reassess your shade with our technician until they matched, sometimes it is better for a fresh pair of eyes to look at the teeth. Alternatively you could ask a friend to do this.
2. If the above does not work or you are not happy results obtainedI would then focus on whitening your teeth to the shade that you are happy with and then replacing the existing veneers to match the shade of your teeth. It is important that we leave some time between whitening and the new veneers to allow the colour of your teeth to adjust after treatment.
I hope the above helps and good luck with your treatment
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