Whitening My Non-Veneered Teeth
Posted by writeradmin
I have six porcelain veneers, but the teeth next to them look very dark compared to them. It makes it obvious my veneered teeth aren’t my natural tooth structure. Is there a way to whiten my non-veneered teeth without damaging my porcelain veneers? I was looking at using Crest Whitestrips.
Emory
Dear Emory,
I am very glad you wrote. First, I want to say that I wish your dentist had thought ahead on your smile makeover. Most smiles are eight to ten teeth wide. When you are getting a smile makeover, it is standard operating procedure for the dentist to recommend you have your teeth whitening first. This way your adjacent teeth will blend in better with your veneered teeth. It also helps the teeth in your lower arch to match your smile without spending a fortune on veneers for those teeth too. Had your dentist followed this procedure, you would not be in this situation.
To answer your question, whitening your teeth will not damage your porcelain veneers. Bleaching gel only works on natural tooth structure. I’m going to recommend something a bit different from Crest Whitestrips, though. While they do whiten teeth, they will have two big disadvantages in your situation.
First, the strips are designed to cover your front six teeth. As those all have porcelain veneers on them, it won’t really improve your situation much. Second, the strength of the whitening gel you would get from their strips is not nearly as strong as what you’d get from the dentist. Depending on how white your veneers are, it could take you several years to get them as white as your veneered teeth.
My suggestion is that you have your teeth whitening done by a dentist. This uses custom-fitted trays and professional strength bleaching gel. Your dentist can even shape the trays to fit around your veneers.
This blog is brought to you by Douglas, AZ Dentist Dr. Gilberto Tostado.