Over time, teeth become yellow and stained. This could be due to lack of care, but even if you take excellent care of your teeth with a strict home regimen of brushing, flossing, and rinsing, along with regular dental visits, your teeth will still change.

This may be partially due to the foods and beverages you consume, some of which contain natural dyes while others are laden with chemicals that stain teeth. Or it might just be that your teeth are undergoing totally natural yellowing that occurs with age.

Regardless, you can definitely brighten up your smile with whitening procedures, including in-office laser treatments or professional bleaching trays. However, if you have permanent dental work like crowns or veneers, there are a few things you should know first.

Can I Whiten My Veneers?

If you have veneers, you may have noticed that they do not darken and stain the way natural teeth do, because they are made from porcelain and don’t readily absorb staining agents. Sure, they can get surface stains, but these are generally easy to clean with a professional polish during your regular dental appointment.

This is important because it also means that your veneers cannot be whitened in the same way as your natural teeth. If teeth have become yellow or stained since you got veneers, you may see a noticeable difference from one tooth to the next. When you whiten your natural teeth, though, your veneers will not change their hue.

What are My Options?

Whether your veneers are the same color as your teeth or not, you may be interested in whitening to achieve a more youthful and attractive smile. Unfortunately, after whitening procedures are complete, your teeth could end up being whiter than your veneers. What can you do to correct this?

There are a couple of options. If you use bleaching trays, which brighten teeth over the course of several days to a couple of weeks, you might be able to whiten your natural teeth to the point where they closely match your veneers. There is no guarantee this will work perfectly, though.

A better option is simply to bleach your teeth to the desired brightness and then update your veneers to match. Veneers last a long time, but eventually you may want to replace them anyway, say if your gums recede somewhat and you start to see the line of your natural tooth under the veneer.

Whether you have other reasons for replacing your veneers or not, though, you can achieve a bright and refreshed smile all around by whitening natural teeth and then updating your veneers.