February 2024 - Arnold Dental

I had four porcelain veneers placed a few years ago. My natural teeth have yellowed since then, so my smile looks very weird. If I use Crest Whitestrips, will it damage the veneers?

Pablo

Dear Pablo,

Teeth Bleaching Trays

I’m glad you wrote. I’m surprised you only were given four porcelain veneers. Most smiles are eight to ten teeth wide. This is still workable, but it will require fairly regular whitening. Crest whitestrips, while they can slowly whiten teeth, are not a great option for you. First, they are extremely weak and will take quite a few boxes to make any difference at all. Second, they only cover your front six teeth. Four of yours are veneered, so you will only get two teeth that will have any gel placed on them at all.

My suggestion is you have them professionally whitened. Though the whitening gel will not harm your porcelain veneers, I believe your results will be more effective if you have your dentist design a tray to fit around your porcelain veneers so that the gel is only getting on the teeth that actually need it. Keep this tray and you can use it for touch ups every couple of years or so. This way you only need to purchase the gel and can keep your teeth white inexpensively.

In between, there is a great toothpaste, Supersmile Toothpaste, that is specifically designed for cosmetic dental work. It can help keep stains off of your natural teeth without doing any harm to the surface of your porcelain veneers. I highly recommend this for anyone with cosmetic dental work.

This blog is brought to you by Lexington, KY Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Fred Arnold.
An AACD accredited Dentist.

I planned on letting my family dentist do my dental implant because he’s done hundreds of them even though he is not a specialist. He told me that I would need some bone grafting done. I went ahead and did that. After a time of healing, I was about to get the dental implant. When he went in he decided the graft was not ready and closed me up without giving me the dental implant. He told me I would need more grafting if I want the implant. I’ve had two surgeries and still no dental implant. I feel like this wouldn’t have happened if I went to a specialist to begin with. Do I need to give up on this implant or go to a different dentist?

Angela

Dear Angela,

Technically, there is not a recognized specialty in dental implants. However, some dentists have more experience than others. Though your dentist is likely very skilled at dental implants, he may be new at the bone grafting procedure. Don’t be too hard on him about that. There are two things I think are noteworthy about your dentist. The first is his willingness to broaden his skill set. There are still dentists who barely know dental implants at all. Your dentist is continually expanding his skills instead of just resting on what he knows. Adding bone grafting was the next step. Everyone starts off learning whenever they’re adding a skillset.

The second is integrity. To have to close up a patient and admit your procedure did not work took a lot of courage. There are many dentists who would have gone ahead and placed the implant rather than risk their patient losing confidence in them, even though the dental implant would fail down the line. You’d never know it was because of the bone grafting because it would not happen immediately. Your dentist was more invested in your procedure than saving himself embarrassment or money. That is a dentist worth keeping.

When it comes to a single tooth, both a dental bridge and a dental implant are great replacement options. If you still want the dental implant, you can get it, you’ll just need your dentist to recommend to you an oral surgeon with extensive experience in the dental implant procedure, including bone grafting. Just make sure it is your dentist who determines the placement of the implants and not the surgeon.

This blog is brought to you by Lexington Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Fred Arnold.

Teeth Whitening and Porcelain Veneers

Bone Grafting Did Not Work

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