Even after having porcelain veneers placed over your natural teeth, you will need to continue visiting your dentist once every six months in order to have your teeth professionally cleaned. Just as with your natural teeth, the hygiene routine that you employ on a daily basis in between appointments can play a huge role in the health of you teeth and the need for additional dental services. Below you will learn more about how you can ensure both your veneers and your underlying teeth remain healthy and beautiful in between your dental appointments.
Water Flossing
It can be very difficult to remove the plaque and food particles that build up in the small space between the bottom of your veneers and your gums. While traditional dental floss can help to remove the debris from in between your teeth, it will often prove ineffective in this sensitive area. This can be a serious problem as this small gap is often the ideal entry point for bacteria to work its way behind your veneers where it can attack your natural teeth. Thankfully, you can easily solve this problem by investing in a water flosser.
Water flossers work in a similar manner to the equipment your dentist uses to remove plaque and bacteria from all those hard to reach places. Rather than trying to manually dislodge this plaque, water flossers rely on a steady stream of pressurized water to push the plaque out of the hard to reach places so that it can be easily rinsed or brushed away.
In order to keep both you veneers and teeth clean and healthy, you should floss with a water flosser at least twice a day, just as you would when using traditional dental floss.
Non-Abrasive Toothpaste
Nowadays, toothpaste companies are adding a variety of ingredients to their products in order to help individuals achieve a brighter, whiter smile. While these products are safe for most people, they will often reek havoc on porcelain veneers. This is because many of the whitening ingredients that are added to toothpaste achieve results by using abrasion to buff away surface stains. When used on veneers, these abrasive materials can scratch the surface of the veneer, leaving it looking dull.
In order to protect your veneers from damage, always choose a mild toothpaste that does not make use of any abrasive materials, such as baking soda. You will also want to avoid toothpastes that make use of peroxide as these pastes can work their way behind you veneers and cause the cement used to hold your veneers in place to soften.
For more information, contact a specialist like Carolina Forest Family Dentistry.
Share14 May 2015
