Teeth whitening or veneers?

[Alex B]

Hi

My teeth are very discoloured as I drink a lot of coffee and smoke. I have spoken to my own dentist about getting my teeth whitened but he said that without getting veneers my teeth are unlikely to become much whiter than they are at the moment. I looked at the price of porcelain veneers and it seemed like it would cost 4-5 thousand pounds for eight to ten veneers. I would like to know if you think teeth whitening would work on my teeth because there is such a big difference in cost between veneers and teeth whitening. If you think teeth whitening would do the job, which type of teeth whitening would do you recommend?

[Dr Mohsen J. Esfahani]

Without seeing your teeth its impossible for me to say if teeth whitening will work or not on your teeth. As a general rule, we always try teeth whitening first on all patients who wish to have whiter teeth because its less invasive compared to dental veneers.

If you are happy with the teeth whitening results, then all you will need will be periodic whitening top-ups which are very cheap. If you are not satisfied with whitening, you can have dental veneers but please understand that the long term maintenance costs of multiple porcelain veneers will be far higher than teeth whitening.

[Dr Ehsan J. Esfahani]

Hi Alex,

In my experience teeth whitening will reduce the disolourations of most teeth and should always be tried first as it is a conservative treatment. The best type of teeth whitening is combination whitening. This involves zoom laser teeth whitening performed at the dentist followed by home whitening for 2-4 weeks. The results can be great. Following bleaching you can further improve the appearance of your teeth and smile with composite/porcelain veneers or composite bondings and cosmetic contouring.