Resin veneers duration: what to do to make them last longer

Mrs. Hadjipanagiotidou too many people have placed resin facings. What can be done to make the result last longer?

What are the risks to resin facings

The resin facets are at risk of breaking and from the pigments. Usually what we say is that resin veneers last on average about 5 years in the mouth. After 5 years they usually need changing. Of course we have placed resin veneers that have already lasted 10 years or more and have not been changed , but the average change is close to 5 years. Why is this the case? Resin veneers are made of a material that adsorbs pigments. So the fewer pigments they receive daily, the longer their longevity will be.

What are the pigments

The pigments are mainly coffee and tea and cigarette smoke. Many people ask me do red wine, beetroot, cherries, strawberries affect the colour? Not so much. What mainly plays a role is coffee. Coffee is the pigment that most of all affects the resin facets. You will say to me "I'm not going to drink coffee?" No, you will drink coffee, but you will certainly drink as little coffee as possible, and what I often suggest to my patients is to drink a cup of coffee fairly quickly and then rinse with a little water.

The slow consumption of coffee is understood to yellow the teeth too much because the resin material is constantly in contact with the coffee dye. If I have decided that I need resin veneers and have gone through this step and I am a coffee lover I will drink the coffee because I need it but I will drink it relatively soon and then if I can rinse my mouth with some water.

Toothbrush without toothpaste

For my patients who are able to carry a toothbrush with them to work, I recommend using a toothbrush without toothpaste during the day.This would be ideal.

The toothbrush I can use is also an electric one because the electric one brushes the tooth surfaces very well. The disadvantage of the electric one is that it doesn't get into the interdental spaces as well so I often recommend using an electric toothbrush and if you want to then use a simple water toothbrush once a day for the interdental spaces.

Breakage of resins

That's as far as the pigments are concerned. As far as the breakage of resins is concerned, resins are a material that is relatively more sensitive than toothpaste or porcelain. So if I have placed resin veneers on my front teeth and especially if I have lengthened my front teeth, meaning I have added length to my front teeth which means that the resin does not have dental substance behind it to support it,the potential for breakage is real.

Then we clearly suggest that patients should not bite too hard with their front teeth, avoid it and the other thing that happens to patients that they may not realize is that some may clench at night in their sleep. In this case if we notice it we wear a special thin gum at night in our sleep and protect our teeth from chipping. It must be said of course that in resin facets even if we break to occur it is repaired too easily and too quickly.

Resin or porcelain veneers

The other thing we have to say is that we first of all take into account with the patient the daily use of pigments. If we understand that any patient who uses too much coffee smokes too much then possibly resin veneers are not the indicated treatment for him and we might move on on porcelain veneers. I remind you that porcelain veneers, unlike resin veneers, do not absorb pigments and so possibly someone who drinks 4 to 5 coffees a day, smokes 2 packs of cigarettes may not have to proceed to resin veneers from the beginning and proceed directly to porcelain veneers or porcelain veneers depending on the needs of his mouth.

Photos with resin facets

Here you can see resin veneers, or tooth bonding, in action. We have published pictures with tooth bonding that show how much the smile has improved with the application of the method.

---