Dental veneers are perfectly customizable, allowing you to redesign your teeth to your ideal size, shape, and color. When they’re first bonded to your smile, veneers provide a beautiful look and a brilliant shine that can’t be beat. However, these custom-made shells require just as much, if not more, care as your natural teeth. Without a dedicated oral health routine, your veneer smile can stain, or the teeth beneath it can become a victim of cavities or gum disease. Dental veneers have a high survival rate of about 10 to 20 years, but only if you care for them properly! At Riviera Dental Care, we’re here to provide expert guidance on how to care for your porcelain veneers, ensuring they remain beautiful and effective.
5 Tips To Help You Care for Your Porcelain Veneers
Dental veneers often require extra care and attention to maintain their color and effectiveness. By following these five important steps, you ensure that your oral health routine keeps your veneers in great condition!
1. Brush Your Veneers
After the veneer process, many believe that their journey to a bright and beautiful smile is done. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth!
Porcelain veneers, like natural teeth, require brushing at least twice a day to clear bacteria and plaque from their surfaces. Although veneers can’t decay like natural enamel, the teeth underneath your veneer are still susceptible! Without proper maintenance, your smile may be vulnerable to cavities, root canal infections, or gum disease.
Brushing twice a day with a soft-bristled brush is an incredibly important step in caring for your veneers, both to keep them healthy and to prevent discoloration. After eating, sugars and other food particles build up on the surface of your smile. If allowed to remain there, they become plaque. Not only does plaque itself darken the color of your veneers, but it also attracts and absorbs stains.
2. Use a Water Flosser
Just like with natural teeth, you need to floss as well. At Riviera Dental Care, we recommend using a water flosser for veneers, as the gentle water pressure removes food debris and bacteria in your mouth without harming the veneer itself.
With a water flosser, you can reach the crevices and seams between teeth and near the gums that are difficult to reach with regular floss. This is vital for the health of your smile, as leftover food particles lead to bacterial infections and gum disease.
3. Avoid Staining Foods
While any food left on your teeth can cause staining, some foods in particular are worse culprits.
Food and drink like coffee, tea, berries, marinara sauce, soda, and wine are all known for staining teeth. These substances contain pigments notorious for staining, and though porcelain veneers are stain-resistant, they are not stain-proof.
After consuming these foods and drinks, be sure to brush your teeth, or at least rinse your mouth out with warm water. In general, it’s best to limit your consumption of these substances if you want your veneers to remain as white as the day you got them.
4. Wear a Nightguard
Porcelain veneers are highly durable, allowing them to withstand the wear and tear of daily life for years. However, bruxism—or the grinding of teeth—can easily lead to chipped or broken veneers.
For those who grind their teeth at night, Riviera Dental Care recommends wearing a nightguard, or mouthpiece, to protect your smile. While sleeping, keep your nightguard in place over your veneers to prevent grinding and protect the porcelain material.
5. Protect Your Porcelain Veneers
While all the previous steps focus on protecting your veneers, it’s also essential to safeguard them from physical damage. Whether you have natural enamel or porcelain veneers, never use your teeth to open something.
Often, people will use their teeth to aid in ripping open a package or bag. Teeth are never meant to be used as a tool in this way, and with veneers, this commonly results in broken or chipped porcelain.
With veneers in your mouth, be sure to avoid using your teeth as a tool. Instead, opt for scissors or use your hands to avoid a dental emergency.
Keep Your Smile Perfect With Porcelain Veneers
Veneers allow us to perfectly customize your smile down to the very last detail. After the veneer process, however, it’s up to you to care for your smile. Keeping up with your oral health routine and following these five simple care tips will help your porcelain veneers stay bright and beautiful for years to come!
Book an appointment today to discover how veneers can change your life.
Follow Riviera Dental Care on Facebook and Instagram to learn more about the porcelain veneer process!
