I whiten my teeth regularly. My old dentist whitened them and would give me a whitening gel to touch them up every year. I’ve since moved and have a new dentist. I decided to get porcelain veneers. He did four of them, but they are noticeably darker than the rest of my teeth. He says it is the whitest shade. How is that possible? Can I do anything to fix this?

Lacey

Dear Lacey,

I think I know what happened here. The above is a tooth shade guide. This is the old standard one which dentists would use to match a dental crown to their patient’s natural tooth color. Then, as teeth whitening grew in popularity this became problematic. We could no longer find a shade white enough to match their teeth.

This is because teeth whitening doesn’t just remove stains which have built up over the years. It will also whiten the natural pigment of the teeth making your teeth whiter than “natural” shades. My guess is your teeth are whiter than what he has available on his shade guide. That also tells me your dentist hasn’t kept up with his field very much.

In the 90s, as teeth whitening grew in popularity, dental companies knew they had to expand the pallet. Here is an additional guide the Ivoclar company came out with for dentists to use when their patients had very white teeth. Your dentist should have based the color of your new porcelain veneers from something like this guide.

Getting Bad Porcelain Veneers Fixed

Show your dentist this post and ask him to re-do your porcelain veneers at his cost. They don’t match your natural teeth, so it is not the beautiful smile you paid to get.

This time, before you allow your dentist to bond them on permanently, tell him you will want to see them on first. He can use a temporary try-in paste. This will allow you to look at them carefully on your teeth. You get to approve them before they are bonded. If you’re not happy with how they look, it is a simple thing for your dentist to send them back to the lab and make changes. This has to be done before they’re bonded.

This blog is brought to you by Tulsa Dentist Dr. Jerome Cha.