I went to Central America to have six porcelain veneers done. Since returning, the gums around my porcelain veneers have been red and swollen. I called the clinic and they told me this is normal and should resolve on its own. It’s taking quite a bit of time to resolve, so a friend of mine suggested I rinse with peroxide to speed up the healing. Will that damage the porcelain veneers?
Tammy
Dear Tammy,
While peroxide will not damage your porcelain veneers, using it more than once or twice can lead to you getting an oral yeast infection. This is because while peroxide kills bacteria it will not differentiate between good and bad bacteria. It will destroy the bacteria that protects you from an overgrowth of yeast in your mouth.
However, the redness and swelling of your gums around the porcelain veneers needs to be addressed. This is not normal and will not resolve on its own despite what the dentist told you. This is one of the risks of dental tourism, poor quality dental care. You have little recourse with it either. In fact, I know of a woman who went to Costa Rica to have some work done. When the work ended up being disastrous, she complained online, which is illegal there. The dentist put a warrant out for her arrest and she had to flee the country.
I realize people travel out of the country in order to save money on their dental care. Sometimes that works out, but all too often they end up spending a lot more money getting their discounted work repaired.
You need to see an expert cosmetic dentist and have them look at your porcelain veneers. If the underlying problem is not addressed, you will end up with gum disease that will put your teeth at risk. There are a few things that could be going on here:
- One possibility is that the veneers don’t meet your teeth under the gumline precisely. This needs to been seamless and smooth. If not, you’ll have what dentists call an overhang that will catch food and breed bacteria.
- Another possibility is that the porcelain veneer can be over contoured at the gumline. This will create a bulge at the gumline causing the same problem as the overhang.
- Finally, there can be some hardened cement that is at the gumline that was not properly removed. This will irritate the gumline. This would be the easiest of the three problems to fix.
Don’t put off getting this addressed.
This blog is brought to you by Lexington, KY Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Fred Arnold.