Using Whitening Toothpaste With Dental Veneers

You step outside the Stanley Dentistry office with your brand new veneers and stop by a Target on your way home, in search of new toothpaste that will help maintain your teeth’s new, bright and shiny appearance. After investing in your new smile, you want to keep your pearly whites as pearly as possible. Without really thinking, you grab some whitening toothpaste.

It seems like the smart thing to do. If you care about your smile, chances are you’ve used a whitening toothpaste in the past and it probably worked. For natural enamel, whitening toothpaste is great but for veneers, it can actually lead to staining instead of the other way around.

When maintained correctly, veneers will have a polished, glossy sheen that, while beautiful, isn’t as strong as enamel. On a normal tooth, the abrasive nature of whitening toothpaste works to gently polish away surface stains. On a veneer, however, whitening toothpaste wears down the glaze that protects the porcelain from stains. Damage to the glaze makes the porcelain much more susceptible to stains from coffee, wine or sodas.

To avoid unnecessary wear on your dental veneers, stay away from whitening toothpaste and look on the box to see if the toothpaste is recommended for veneers. Your veneers shouldn’t stain though sometimes, when a doctor poorly places a veneer, the bonding line becomes visible over time. Things like wine and coffee can emphasize that bonding line.

On average, well-done and well-maintained veneers should last a very long time.

If you have any questions about the toothpaste you are using or which toothpaste we recommend, give us a call! We would love to give you our advice on the perfect products to maintain your Stanley smile.