Teeth Whitening Before Dental Crowns and Veneers?

The suggestion to whiten your teeth before placing crowns and veneers is related more to your other teeth than to the teeth being treated.  Over the counter and professional whitening products only work on natural tooth enamel.  They will not alter the color of tooth colored composite or porcelain restorations.

Especially if you are having this dental work done for cosmetic reasons, you will want to have the crowns and veneers designed to match your remaining teeth.  Whitening in advance allows you to obtain the tooth shade you want and match the dental work to that shade.  If the natural teeth darken sometime later, you will be able to whiten the natural teeth to match the unalterable dental work.

If the teeth to receive the dental work are heavily discolored, whitening before design and placement can provide a better cosmetic result.

What I have found is that teeth will relapse (darken) in their shade over time following whitening. That is why we recommend doing touch-ups periodically. Veneers are thin translucent pieces of porcelain that are color stable and when placed over a tooth let the natural coloring of the tooth show through. That is why they look so natural. I have found that if the teeth are whitened prior to veneer placement that the teeth under the veneer will relapse (darken) over time and the veneer will become darker and will be unable to be touched-up with whitening because of the porcelain covering. This will cause the veneered teeth to no longer match the crowns or other teeth. I prefer to build the desired shade in the color stable porcelain veneer and not whiten prior to placing the veneers. Thus achieving a long lasting esthetic result. You will want to whiten any teeth in your smile that will not be crowned or veneered prior so as to match the porcelain to your desired whitened shade of your natural teeth.