I need to whiten my teeth. Well…I want to whiten my teeth. What worries me is that I have porcelain veneers on only four of my teeth. It’s the teeth next to the porcelain veneers that need the whitening. My smile is about eight teeth wide. I wish I had the money to do more veneers so they’d all match but I didn’t. I want to whiten the teeth to match but I’m worried that the whitening gel will hurt the porcelain veneers. Will I damage them if I use something weak like Crest Whitestrips?
Corinne
Dear Corinne,
Teeth Bleaching Trays
I am glad you wrote. I wish your dentist would have whitened your teeth before doing your porcelain veneers. That is pretty standard operating procedure when a person can’t get enough veneers to cover the width of their smile. The good news is, while it won’t be as easy, it is still possible to get them whitened.
Crest Whitestrips will not do any damage to your porcelain veneers. In fact, neither will professional strength teeth whitening. If you decide to use the Whitestrips, you need to be aware of some limitations. First, they’re not very big. In fact, they’ll only cover your first six teeth. With four of them being veneered, that would mean you are wasting a significant amount of whitening. With them being only a fraction of the strength of professional whitening, I don’t think you’d be truly satisfied with them.
My suggestion would be to have your dentist make you custom fitted trays that can be shaped around your porcelain veneers. This will enable you to whiten those teeth at full strength, while under the care of a professional. Plus, you can keep the trays and use them for touch-ups every couple of years. Then, you’ll only need the inexpensive gel.
This blog is brought to you by Duluth, GA Dr. David Marion.
