Will Whitening Bleach Damage My Porcelain Veneers?
Have your natural teeth begun to stain? Do they no longer match the colour of your veneers? If this is happening to you, whitening can help you to restore the balance of your smile. However, a common concern that dental patients have is how the whitening bleach might affect their porcelain veneers. Patients worry that the bleach, which contains hydrogen peroxide, might damage the porcelain.
Fortunately, whether the bleaching agent you choose contains just hydrogen peroxide or a combination of hydrogen peroxide and carbamide peroxide, it won't damage your porcelain veneers.
Porcelain Is Non-Porous
Porcelain is an extremely dense material, much more so than enamel. Because of that, porcelain is harder than enamel. Porcelain is also non-porous, which is one reason why it makes such good flooring for bathrooms. No matter how many times you spill water or shampoo on it, moisture and stains will not penetrate porcelain tiling. The same goes for porcelain veneers.
Enamel stains because it is porous. However, for the same reason, enamel whitens because hydrogen peroxide can penetrate it via the pores and break down staining molecules. Since porcelain is non-porous, the bleaching agent in both over-the-counter whitening products and in-office whitening products will not penetrate it.
Subsequently, you can neither damage porcelain veneers nor whiten them with a bleaching agent.
Whitening With Veneers Is Tricky
The only issue that you might have when whitening your teeth is that you'll need to be careful not to whiten them too much. Otherwise, you may end up with teeth that are much whiter than your veneers. Although veneers won't stain, they can fade over a span of several years as abrasion wears away their polished surface.
So, when whitening, you need to take these two factors into account. You will get better results if you work with a cosmetic dentist than if you work alone at home with whitening trays. This is because your dentist will be able to whiten your teeth in stages. After each short whitening session, they can check whether your newly whitened teeth match your veneers and work from there.
And, one further means of ensuring that your newly whitened teeth match the shade of your veneers is through polishing. When porcelain veneers fade or pick up light surface stains, a dentist can polish them to enhance their whiteness. By doing this and by whitening your teeth in stages, you can ensure that the whitening procedure doesn't negate the beauty of existing veneers.
Are you worried about how whitening might affect your porcelain veneers? Get in touch with a cosmetic dentist to learn more about teeth whitening today.
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