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Veneers and Tooth Whitening

Can I use Tooth Whitening Products with Veneers?

The main problem with tooth whitening and veneer is that that the veneer itself will stay the same color and will not be affected by the bleaching process - unless it has a stain on the veneer itself.

You can then easily end up with a mis-match that people may well be able to see. It's often difficult to judge exactly how much the bleached teeth will lighten. In general, dentists recommend replacing the veneers and doing an overall color match. At $1,000 a veneer, that makes sense for them, but maybe not you.

The second problem is increased sensitivity to the bleaching agent. With porcelain crowns, quite large areas of enamel may have been lost which are potential sensitivity issues. It's very difficult to predict the degree of sensitivity, and how severe that sensitivity may be. Some patients cannot tolerate even the weakest 10% carbamide gels. These patients need a local anaesthesia and in-office whitening.

Hydrogen Peroxide solutions will not harm the porcelain veneer itself. In fact, Hydrogen Peroxide is used to clean veneers that have become dirty due to contamination by the bonding materials or chemicals used to take the tooth impression.