Living With Aesthetic Dental Work: Staining, Biting Habits and Long-Term Upkeep

The first week is easy. You catch yourself smiling at the bathroom mirror, you sip coffee through a straw as if it were a sacred rule, and you chew everything on the side that was not treated. Then life returns. A month later you are opening a bag of almonds with your front teeth and wondering whether that faint gray line near the gum was always there.

That gap between the careful honeymoon and the ordinary decades that follow is where most aesthetic dentistry quietly succeeds or fails. Veneers, crowns and bonding are engineered objects fixed to living tissue, and the living tissue keeps changing while the object does not. Maintaining cosmetic dental work is less about a heroic routine and more about understanding a few mechanisms: what actually stains, what actually breaks, and why the edge of a restoration matters more than its face.

This explainer walks through those mechanisms, the habits that undo them, and what the years after treatment typically look like.

How does maintaining cosmetic dental work actually work at the surface?

Start with what you are looking after. A veneer is a thin shell, usually porcelain or composite resin, bonded to the front of a tooth. A crown is a cap that covers the whole visible tooth. Bonding is tooth-colored resin sculpted directly onto enamel and hardened with light. Whitening is chemistry applied to your own enamel rather than an object attached to it.

Each restoration has two surfaces that behave very differently. The face of glazed porcelain is smooth and essentially non-porous, which is why it shrugs off coffee. Composite resin is a polymer mixed with glass filler; it is slightly porous at the microscopic level and roughens with wear, so pigments settle into it over time. The Cleveland Clinic notes that porcelain veneers resist stains better than composite ones and typically outlast them.

The second surface is the margin: the seam where restoration meets natural tooth, sealed with a thin layer of dental cement or resin. This seam is the weak point in almost every long-term story. Plaque collects along it, acids from bacteria can soften the enamel beside it, and if the gum recedes the seam becomes visible as a dark line. Everything you do to maintain cosmetic dental work is, in practice, protection of that seam and of the tooth beneath.

One more piece of the machinery: a restoration cannot repair itself. Natural enamel remineralizes a little with fluoride and saliva; porcelain and resin do not. A chip stays a chip, a rough patch keeps collecting stain, and a leaking margin keeps leaking until a dentist intervenes. That asymmetry is the whole argument for regular professional checks.

Which cosmetic dental treatments need the most upkeep?

People tend to ask this the wrong way round. The question is not which treatment is fussiest but which failure mode each one has, because the upkeep follows the failure. A table helps here. Lifespan ranges are typical figures reported by the Cleveland Clinic and the NHS; they are averages across many mouths, not a guarantee for yours.

Treatment	Material	Typical service life (cited range)	Main stain behavior	Main long-term risk
Porcelain veneers	Glazed ceramic shell	Roughly 10–15 years (Cleveland Clinic)	Face resists stain; margins can discolor	Chipping, debonding, gum recession exposing edge
Composite veneers or bonding	Resin with glass filler	Roughly 3–10 years (Cleveland Clinic)	Absorbs pigment, dulls with wear	Wear, chipping, color mismatch over time
Crowns	Ceramic, metal-ceramic or zirconia	Roughly 5–15 years (Cleveland Clinic)	Ceramic face stable; cement line vulnerable	Decay at margin, fracture, root problems in the tooth beneath
Teeth whitening	Peroxide gel on natural enamel	Effects thought to last months to about 3 years (NHS)	Fades faster with smoking, tea, coffee, red wine	Temporary sensitivity, gum irritation, uneven shade next to restorations

Read across the rows and a pattern appears. Porcelain and ceramic have the most durable faces and the most consequential edges. Composite has a softer face that needs polishing and eventual replacement but is repairable in the chair. Whitening has no edge to worry about, but it also has the shortest horizon and is the only item on the list that does nothing at all for the restorations around it.

If you have a mix, which is common, your upkeep plan should be written for the most vulnerable piece in your mouth, not the most robust one.

Who is cosmetic dental work usually for, and who is usually asked to wait?

Aesthetic treatment is elective, which means the treating team has room to say “not yet.” That pause is a form of maintenance before the work even begins, because restorations placed on unstable foundations fail early.

Candidates who usually proceed are adults with healthy gums, no active decay, a stable bite and a clear reason for treatment such as discoloration that whitening cannot address, chipped or worn edges, small gaps or mildly irregular shape. Most also need enough sound enamel for bonding; veneers rely on it.

Several groups are commonly asked to wait or to treat something else first:

• People with active gum disease. Inflamed, bleeding gums shift position as they heal, and a veneer margin placed against a swollen gum can end up exposed once the swelling settles. The NIH’s dental research institute describes gum disease as a bacterial infection that damages the tissue and bone supporting teeth; that foundation must be settled first.
• People with untreated decay or old failing fillings, which need restoring before anything cosmetic is layered on top.
• People with uncontrolled teeth grinding, discussed below, because the forces involved break porcelain.
• Anyone under 18 seeking whitening. The NHS notes whitening is not permitted for under-18s in the UK unless there is a clinical reason, and many clinicians elsewhere apply similar caution. Pregnancy and breastfeeding are also common reasons dentists defer whitening, on grounds of limited safety data rather than proven harm.
• People whose expectations rest on a single photograph rather than their own anatomy.

None of these is a permanent no. They are sequencing decisions, and they sit with the treating team, who can see what a mirror cannot.

Do veneers stain? What really discolors aesthetic dental work

The honest answer is: the face of a porcelain veneer, almost never; the things around it, absolutely. Most “my veneers have yellowed” stories, when a dentist examines them, turn out to be one of four other events.

First, the margin has picked up stain. Even a microscopic step between porcelain and enamel traps pigment and plaque, and that shows up as a thin brown or gray line at the gum edge. Polishing usually improves it; a persistent line can signal a leaking seal.

Second, the natural teeth have darkened. Enamel thins with age and the yellower dentin beneath shows through more, while restorations hold their shade. The contrast makes the natural teeth look stained and the veneers look artificial, even though neither has changed color in isolation.

Third, composite has been involved. Bonded edges, composite veneers and the resin used to repair a chip all absorb pigment. The Cleveland Clinic lists coffee, tea, red wine and tobacco as the classic culprits for composite discoloration. Smoking is the most powerful of these and also harms the gums that frame the work.

Fourth, the surface has been roughened. Abrasive whitening pastes, hard scrubbing and acidic drinks can dull glaze or resin, and a dull surface holds stain that a glossy one would shed.

What this means for maintaining cosmetic dental work is reassuring: you are not fighting a losing battle against every cup of coffee. You are keeping surfaces smooth, keeping margins clean and, when the natural teeth drift in shade, talking with your dentist about whether whitening them (not the restorations) would restore the match.

What foods and drinks should you avoid with veneers, crowns and bonding?

Most published lists confuse two separate problems: staining and damage. Sorting them changes how you eat.

Damage comes from hardness and from leverage. Ice, unpopped popcorn kernels, hard candy, olive pits, crusty bread torn with the front teeth, and bones all deliver force to a small point, and porcelain, like any ceramic, is strong under compression but brittle against a sharp impact. Sticky foods such as caramel and chewing gum are a different threat: they pull rather than press, and a veneer or crown with an aging cement layer can be lifted off. Cut hard fruit into pieces, eat corn off the cob with a knife, and let the back teeth do the cracking.

Staining comes from pigment plus time on the surface. Coffee, black tea, red wine, dark berries, soy sauce, curry and tomato sauce are the usual suspects. They matter far more for composite than for porcelain. Rinsing with water afterward shortens contact time, and a straw keeps cold drinks off the front teeth; hot drinks through a straw are not advisable.

Acidity deserves its own line. Citrus, vinegar, sports drinks and carbonated soft drinks do not stain much but they soften enamel at the margin and can etch resin, making both more stain-prone later. The NHS advises limiting sugary and acidic food and drink to mealtimes and avoiding brushing immediately afterward, since softened enamel abrades more easily.

The realistic goal is not abstinence. It is moving the risky items to the back teeth, shortening how long pigments and acids sit, and accepting that a person who never drinks coffee and a person who does will both need periodic polishing.

Can you whiten veneers or crowns, and when should whitening happen?

You cannot, and the sequence matters more than most people realize. Whitening gels work by letting peroxide penetrate enamel and break down colored compounds inside it. Porcelain, ceramic and cured resin have no such compounds to break down, so the NHS states plainly that whitening does not work on dentures, crowns, veneers or fillings. Apply a whitening product over a mixed smile and the natural teeth lighten while the restorations stay put, widening the very mismatch you wanted to fix.

This is why dentists who plan aesthetic work usually whiten first and place restorations second, matching the new shade after it has settled. The NHS describes that whitening results are not permanent and are thought to last up to about three years, less with smoking or heavy tea, coffee and red wine. Restorations, by contrast, keep their shade. Over years the natural teeth will drift back toward their original color while the porcelain stays where it was matched, and a top-up on the natural teeth, agreed with your dentist, is the usual way to restore the match.

Two cautions from mainstream guidance. Whitening should be carried out or supervised by a registered dental professional; the NHS warns that kits sold without dental supervision may not contain enough active ingredient to work or may be used in ill-fitting trays that let gel leak onto gums. And temporary sensitivity plus gum irritation are the common side effects; both usually settle, but persistent pain is a reason to stop and call.

If you already have front-tooth restorations and want a brighter overall look, the realistic options are whitening the natural teeth to match, polishing or replacing stained composite, or replacing veneers in a lighter shade. Each is a clinical decision for your treating team.

Does teeth grinding damage veneers, and do you need a night guard for veneers?

If one habit deserves an opinion in this article, it is grinding. Bruxism, the medical term for clenching or grinding the teeth, often during sleep, is the single most common reason porcelain chips and veneers come loose. The Mayo Clinic describes it as frequently unconscious, linked with stress, anxiety, sleep disorders and certain medicines, and often first noticed by a partner or by a dentist who spots flattened tooth edges.

The mechanics are unforgiving. Chewing food applies brief, moderate force. Night grinding applies sustained, sideways force with nothing between the teeth to cushion it, and porcelain that would survive decades of dinners can fracture in a single night of sideways loading. Composite fares little better; it wears flat instead of shattering, but the result still looks worn.

Signs a dentist looks for include shiny wear facets on the biting edges, morning jaw ache or tightness, headaches around the temples, chipped edges and, on restorations, tiny craze lines in the glaze. Reporting a sore jaw on waking is more useful to your dentist than any amount of careful eating.

An occlusal splint, commonly called a night guard, is a custom acrylic cover worn over one arch during sleep so that the guard takes the wear instead of the teeth or restorations. The Mayo Clinic lists splints and mouth guards among standard approaches to protecting teeth from grinding damage. Whether you need one, which design, and whether other causes such as sleep apnea or medication effects should be investigated first are decisions for your dentist or physician. What the evidence supports is the principle: if you grind, your restorations are being asked to do a job they were not built for, and a guard spreads that load.

Which everyday biting habits shorten the life of cosmetic dental work?

Grinding is the dramatic one. The mundane habits do damage by repetition, and because they are habits they are almost invisible to the person doing them. A dentist reviewing a chipped veneer will often ask a short list of questions, and the answers tend to be sheepish.

• Biting fingernails. Nail edges are thin and hard, and the incisors meet them edge to edge, which is precisely the loading porcelain dislikes.
• Chewing pens, pencils or glasses. Sustained pressure on one point over months creates micro-cracks that later join up.
• Opening packets, tearing tape or holding pins and hair clips between the front teeth. Leverage, not chewing force, is what pops a veneer off.
• Cracking seeds, nuts and ice with the front teeth. Move the job to the molars or to a tool.
• Tongue thrusting or pushing on the front teeth with the tongue while concentrating. Gentle but constant.

Sports are a separate category. Contact and ball sports carry a real risk of front-tooth trauma, and a restoration hit hard enough will fracture along with whatever natural tooth is beneath it. Mainstream dental guidance recommends a properly fitted mouth guard for contact sports; a professionally made guard fits more closely over restorations than a boil-and-bite version, though either is better than nothing.

Breaking these habits is behavior change rather than dentistry. Noticing the trigger (boredom, screen time, concentration), substituting a harmless action such as sugar-free gum chewed on the back teeth, and asking a partner to point it out all help. The payoff is disproportionate: a habit that costs nothing to stop can add years to a restoration that costs a great deal of chair time to replace.

How to care for veneers and crowns: the daily cleaning routine that matters

The daily routine for restorations is the routine for natural teeth, done with more attention to edges and less enthusiasm for abrasion. The NHS advises brushing twice a day for about two minutes with a fluoride toothpaste and cleaning between the teeth daily with floss or interdental brushes. Nothing about porcelain changes that; what changes is where you aim.

Aim at the margin. Angle the brush so the bristles reach the line where restoration meets gum, and use a soft or extra-soft brush. Hard bristles and vigorous scrubbing wear the gum back over years, and a receding gum exposes the edge of a veneer as a dark band that no amount of cleaning removes. An electric brush with a pressure sensor is a reasonable tool for people who know they scrub too hard, though the evidence favors technique over gadgetry.

Choose toothpaste by what it lacks. Heavily abrasive whitening pastes and charcoal powders can dull the glaze on porcelain and roughen composite, making both more stain-prone; a standard fluoride paste does the job. Fluoride protects the natural enamel at the margin, which is where new decay under a crown typically begins.

Floss with a slide-out motion rather than snapping upward, especially around crowns joined to neighbors in a bridge, where floss threaders or interdental brushes reach the underside. Alcohol-free mouthwash is optional; the NHS notes rinsing straight after brushing washes away the concentrated fluoride, so if you use one, use it at a different time of day.

Finally, the parts of the mouth without restorations still matter most. Healthy gums frame the work, and healthy neighboring teeth keep the bite balanced so that no single veneer is overloaded.

How often should you see the dentist when maintaining cosmetic dental work?

There is no universal interval, and the honest guidance says so. The NHS recommends that the gap between check-ups be set by the dentist according to individual risk, anywhere from three months to two years. People with restorations, a history of gum disease, a grinding habit or a taste for coffee and red wine tend to sit at the shorter end, because the things that threaten cosmetic work are precisely the things that a professional can see early and you cannot.

What happens at those visits is more than a glance. The dentist checks each margin with a fine probe for roughness or a catch that signals a gap in the seal, takes periodic X-rays to look for decay beneath crowns where no mirror reaches, examines the gums for recession or inflammation around the restorations, and inspects biting edges for the shiny facets of grinding. A hygienist removes stain from margins and polishes composite back to a gloss, using pastes and instruments chosen not to scratch porcelain; this is one reason to tell the practice about every restoration you have, including work done elsewhere.

Small interventions at these visits are the quiet core of maintaining cosmetic dental work. A rough edge gets smoothed before it collects stain. A tiny chip in composite gets resurfaced before it grows. A slightly high spot in the bite, often noticed only as a veneer that always seems to catch, is adjusted before it fractures. A night guard is checked for wear and refitted.

Skipping visits does not cause failure by itself. It removes the early warnings, so that the first sign of trouble is the one you cannot ignore.

How long do veneers last, and what happens after 10 years of veneers?

The figure people quote most is 10 years, and it deserves context. The Cleveland Clinic reports that porcelain veneers typically last around 10–15 years and composite veneers roughly 5–7, with wide variation depending on habits, bite and gum health. Ten years is therefore not an expiry date. It is the point at which a dentist starts looking harder.

What has usually changed by then is the mouth rather than the veneer. Gums recede a little with age and with years of brushing, so the edge that once sat under the gum line may now be visible, sometimes as a thin dark band where the underlying tooth or cement shows. The natural teeth have yellowed slightly while the porcelain has not, so the shade match drifts. The bond, which is a chemical adhesive layer, ages; some veneers remain firmly attached for decades, others loosen and can be re-cemented if the tooth beneath is sound.

Wear tells a story too. Edges may show tiny chips, especially in people who grind or bite nails. Composite surfaces have usually dulled and picked up pigment, and polishing brings back only part of the original gloss.

The decision tree at this stage runs roughly as follows: polish and monitor if the veneers are sound and only the margins have stained; repair small chips in the chair; whiten the natural teeth if shade drift is the main complaint; replace when the seal has failed, decay has started underneath or the appearance no longer meets your goals. Replacement involves removing the old shell and preparing the tooth again, so preserving the first set for as long as it is healthy is worth the effort.

Every one of those forks is a clinical judgment for the treating team, made with X-rays and probes rather than a mirror.

What do the first days and weeks after cosmetic dental work usually look like?

The long-term habits are easier to build if you know what is normal at the start, because the early weeks generate most of the anxious phone calls.

In the first few days, mild sensitivity to cold and pressure is common after veneers and crowns, since a small amount of enamel has been removed and the tooth beneath is adjusting. The Cleveland Clinic describes this as typically settling within a week or two. Gums may feel tender where the margins were finished. Whitening commonly produces sharp, brief zings of sensitivity that fade over a few days; the NHS lists sensitivity and gum irritation as the usual side effects.

The bite often feels strange. Even a perfectly placed restoration changes how the teeth meet by fractions of a millimeter, and the tongue and jaw notice. Speech can sound different for a day or two with new front veneers. Most of this fades as the brain recalibrates; a persistent high spot that you hit first on every closure is worth a call, because an overloaded veneer is one that chips.

If you have temporary crowns or veneers while permanent ones are being made, treat them as fragile. They are held with weak cement by design, so sticky and hard foods are best avoided until the final fit.

By two to four weeks, most people have stopped noticing the work, and that is the moment the real maintenance begins: the night guard goes in every night, the nail-biting gets caught, and the first review appointment checks that the gums have settled cleanly against the margins. The honeymoon caution can relax; the structural habits should not.

What people often get wrong about maintaining cosmetic dental work

Several ideas circulate online with more confidence than evidence. Here are the ones dentists hear most, and what the evidence actually shows.

“There is a 50-40-30 rule in dentistry.” Search this phrase and you will find several conflicting definitions, none of which appears in mainstream clinical guidance from the NHS, CDC, Mayo Clinic or Cleveland Clinic. It is not an established rule. The evidence-based principles it seems to gesture at are simpler: keep margins clean, control bite forces, and see your dentist at the interval your risk dictates.

“Veneers are permanent.” The commitment is permanent, because enamel removed to fit a veneer does not grow back. The veneer itself is not; the Cleveland Clinic’s typical lifespan figures sit in the 10–15 year range for porcelain.

“Whitening toothpaste will keep my veneers bright.” Porcelain does not whiten, and abrasive pastes can dull it. Standard fluoride paste and professional polishing do the job.

“Does a particular celebrity have crowns or veneers?” No one can tell from a photograph, and no responsible clinician comments on an individual’s dental records. The useful version of the question is the difference: a veneer covers only the front face of a tooth and preserves most of it; a crown covers the whole tooth and is chosen when more structure is missing. Which one suits you depends on your teeth, not anyone else’s.

“Can you write off cosmetic dental work?” This is a tax question rather than a medical one, and the answer usually turns on whether the work was purely cosmetic or restored function after disease or injury. Ask a qualified tax professional; a magazine health desk should not advise on it.

“If it does not hurt, it is fine.” Decay under a crown and a leaking margin are often painless until they are advanced. That is what check-ups are for.

Questions to ask your care team about long-term upkeep

Good maintenance starts with a conversation you may not think to have while admiring the result. These questions are worth asking before, or at the first review after, aesthetic treatment. Write the answers down; you will want them years later.

• Which materials were used for each tooth, and are any of them composite rather than porcelain? This determines how they stain and how they are polished.
• Where exactly do the margins sit, and are any of them at or below the gum line? Marginal position shapes how the work will age as gums change.
• Do you see signs that I grind or clench, and would an occlusal splint be appropriate for me? If so, how often should it be checked?
• What review interval do you recommend for my risk level, and what will you be checking at each visit?
• Which toothpaste ingredients or hygiene products should I avoid so I do not dull the surfaces?
• If a veneer chips or comes loose, what should I do in the first hours, and what can be repaired in the chair versus replaced?
• My natural teeth will darken over time; what is the plan for keeping the shade match, and when would whitening them be considered?
• Are there any teeth beneath crowns that have had root treatment or large fillings, and do they need closer watching?
• Do I need a sports mouth guard, and should it be made to fit over the restorations?
• What signs would make you want to see me sooner than the scheduled visit?

None of these questions second-guesses the clinician. They give you the information you need to be a competent custodian of work that someone else built and that you will live with every day. The decisions that follow from the answers remain with your treating team.

When to call your doctor (or dentist): red-flag signs with cosmetic dental work

Most of what this article describes is slow: stain that creeps in, a gum edge that recedes over years. Some events are not slow, and they need a call rather than a wait for the next check-up.

Call your dentist promptly if a veneer or crown comes off or feels loose. Keep the piece if you can; it may be re-cemented, and the exposed tooth beneath is vulnerable to sensitivity and decay in the meantime. Call if a restoration chips or cracks, even if it does not hurt, because a rough edge cuts the lip and tongue and a crack propagates under chewing load.

Seek care soon for pain that is new, worsening or wakes you at night around a crowned or veneered tooth; for sensitivity to hot or cold that lasts more than a few seconds after the trigger is removed or that persists beyond the first couple of weeks after treatment; for swelling of the gum or face near a restoration; for a bad taste or discharge at a margin; or for a tooth that suddenly feels high in the bite. These can point to decay under the seal, an inflamed or infected nerve, or an abscess, and MedlinePlus lists persistent tooth pain and swelling among symptoms that warrant dental assessment rather than home management.

Bleeding gums that do not settle with careful cleaning, or a gum that has visibly pulled back from a margin, should be reviewed, since gum disease around a restoration threatens both.

Seek urgent medical attention if facial swelling spreads toward the eye or neck, you develop fever with dental pain, or swelling makes it difficult to swallow or breathe. These are signs of a spreading infection and are treated as emergencies.

After any dental trauma from a fall or sports impact, have the teeth examined even if nothing looks broken; damage beneath a restoration is not always visible.

Frequently asked questions

Do veneers stain over time?

Porcelain veneers resist stain very well on their polished face, but the margin where veneer meets tooth can discolor, and composite veneers absorb pigment from coffee, tea, red wine and tobacco. Natural teeth also darken with age while porcelain does not, which makes the veneers look mismatched rather than stained. Regular professional polishing and, where appropriate, whitening the natural teeth usually restore the match.

What is the 50-40-30 rule in dentistry?

It is not an established clinical rule. The phrase circulates online with several different definitions, and none appears in guidance from the NHS, CDC, Mayo Clinic or Cleveland Clinic. The evidence-based principles that matter for restorations are keeping margins clean with fluoride toothpaste and interdental cleaning, controlling grinding and biting habits, and seeing your dentist at an interval matched to your risk.

What happens after 10 years of veneers?

Ten years is roughly the lower end of the typical lifespan the Cleveland Clinic reports for porcelain veneers, not an expiry date. By then gums may have receded slightly, exposing the edge, natural teeth may have darkened relative to the porcelain, and edges may show small chips. A dentist decides between polishing, repair, whitening the natural teeth or replacement based on the seal and the health of the tooth underneath.

How long do veneers last compared with crowns and bonding?

Cleveland Clinic figures place porcelain veneers at roughly 10–15 years, crowns at about 5–15 years, and composite bonding at around 3–10 years. These are averages; grinding, nail-biting, gum health and how well margins are kept clean all shift an individual result up or down. Composite is the shortest-lived but the easiest to repair in the chair.

Do I need a night guard for veneers?

Not everyone does, but anyone who clenches or grinds is a strong candidate, because sustained sideways force is the commonest cause of chipped or loosened porcelain. The Mayo Clinic lists occlusal splints and mouth guards among standard measures for protecting teeth from bruxism damage. Whether you grind, which design suits you and whether underlying causes such as sleep disorders need investigation are decisions for your dentist.

Can you whiten veneers or crowns?

No. Whitening gels work by breaking down colored compounds inside natural enamel, and porcelain, ceramic and cured resin contain none, so the NHS states that whitening does not work on crowns, veneers or fillings. Whitening the natural teeth around restorations can restore a shade match that has drifted, but the sequence and product should be agreed with a dental professional.

Does Taylor Swift have crowns or veneers?

No one can tell from photographs, and clinicians do not comment on any individual’s dental records, so the question has no responsible answer. The useful distinction is this: a veneer is a thin shell covering only the front face of a tooth and preserving most of it, while a crown caps the whole tooth and is chosen when more structure is missing or weak. Your dentist recommends based on your own teeth.

Can you write off cosmetic dental work?

That is a tax question rather than a medical one. In general terms, tax treatment tends to depend on whether the work was purely cosmetic or restored function after disease, decay or injury, and rules differ between countries and change over time. A qualified tax professional or your national tax authority is the right source; a health publication should not advise on it.

How to care for veneers day to day?

Brush twice daily for about two minutes with a soft brush and a standard fluoride toothpaste, angling bristles toward the margin where veneer meets gum, and clean between the teeth daily with floss or interdental brushes, as the NHS recommends for all adults. Avoid abrasive whitening or charcoal pastes that dull surfaces, move hard and sticky foods to the back teeth, and keep the review interval your dentist sets.

What foods should you avoid after cosmetic dental work?

Separate damage from stain. Hard items such as ice, popcorn kernels, hard candy and bones can chip porcelain, and sticky foods such as caramel can lift a restoration, so route these to the back teeth or avoid them. Pigmented drinks such as coffee, tea and red wine stain composite far more than porcelain; rinsing with water afterward helps. Acidic drinks soften enamel at margins, so the NHS advises keeping them to mealtimes.

References

• Cleveland Clinic: Dental Veneers
• Cleveland Clinic: Dental Crowns
• NHS: How to keep your teeth clean
• MedlinePlus: Dental care – adult

This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult a qualified doctor about your individual situation.