Is Rinsing with Peroxide Harmful to Porcelain Veneers?
Posted by writeradmin
I had six porcelain veneers done when I went out of the country. I decided to combine a vacation visit with some inexpensive cosmetic dentistry. My gums are red and irritated. If I used a peroxide rinse to help them, would it do any damage to my porcelain veneers?
Katie
Dear Katie,
While peroxide will do no damage to your porcelain veneers, it also will not help with redness and irritation you are experiencing. This is caused because you are developing gum disease. I have found that people who received smile makeovers are generally better at caring for their teeth because they want to protect their investment. Because of that, the problem is very likely to be because the porcelain veneers were not done properly.
Dental tourism generally sounds like a great idea because you think you can save a lot of money. Sometimes, though not very often, that works out beautifully. Much of the time, however, it ends up costing you more. I’m afraid this is going to be one of those cases. Your porcelain veneers may need to be redone to protect your gums, depending on what the underlying mistake is.
Possible Causes of Gum Inflammation
- Poor dental hygiene. We’d already discussed that this is not often the case with smile makeovers because patients want to protect their new smile.
- Leftover Bonding. It’s possible the dentist did not properly remove all of the excess bonding material. This will leave it rough and irritating at the gums. The good news is that it can be an easy and inexpensive fix.
- An Overhang. If the porcelain veneers don’t meet your teeth under the gum seamlessly, it will catch food and other debris, which turns that area into a breeding ground for bacteria.
- Over contoured. Another bacteria trap is when the veneer is contoured to the point where there ends up being a bit of an extra bulge at the gumline. This leads to the same problem as an overhang.
I suggest you go to an expert cosmetic dentist and have them examine your gums and veneers so that they can diagnose the problem specifically and give you recommendations on a fix.
The Danger of Peroxide as a Rinse
While peroxide is great at killing off bacteria, it is an indiscriminate killer. It does not care whether it is removing good bacteria or bad bacteria. The problem with that is the good bacteria is necessary to keep certain things in check, such as the yeast organism, candida albicans.
If that is allowed to flourish, you will end up with a nasty oral yeast infection (thrush). Using a peroxide rinse periodically is fine. Regularly is dangerous.
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