What are the foods you should avoid with porcelain veneers?

1. Ice
2. Tough meats
3. Toasted and hard bread
4. Hard and sticky candies
5. Staining foods and drinks
6. Alcohol

Porcelain veneers can transform your smile in just a few visits — capable of fixing a minor misalignment, discoloration, gaps, and a host of other dental issues. Porcelain is a tough and durable material, capable of resisting cracks and staining. With proper care, it can last for as long as 20 years. If you want to know how to make your new smile last longer, here are some of the foods to avoid with porcelain veneers. Read on.

Ice

If you have a habit of chewing on ice, you might encourage premature wear and tear on your new porcelain veneers.

While porcelain veneers are made of tough material, they’re not indestructible. A hard substance such as ice can cause a chip or breakage eventually. Veneers or not, eating ice is a bad habit that can lead to dental problems.

Tough Meats

While it’s perfectly alright to enjoy the occasional steak, chewing through tough meats every now and again can be harmful to your new porcelain veneers. In worst cases, the meat can cause the veneers to pull loose from your teeth.

To avoid this issue, opt for tender cuts of meat like ground beef, grilled chicken, or tenderloin when cooking or dining out. If you have to use a tough cut of meat, tenderize it first either through pounding or slow-cooking.

Toasted And Hard Bread

French bread, breadsticks, and toasted bread slices have thick and rubbery crusts that can damage your porcelain veneers if you’re chewing on them with your front incisors.

If you want to protect your porcelain veneers but still want to consume hard bread, you can try softening them by soaking the bread in soups, broths, or a drink. You can also remove the hard crust first before eating. If you consume bread on a regular basis, opt for softer options — such as dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, or brioche.

Hard And Sticky Candies

While it’s alright to enjoy sweet treats now and then with porcelain veneers on, there are certain types of desserts that you might want to avoid. Hard candy, when bitten on, requires excess force from your teeth and veneers, putting them at risk of cracking and breakage.

Sticky treats, such as caramel or taffy are also best avoided if you have porcelain veneers. These can get stuck in your veneers, which makes them challenging to remove.

Staining Foods And Drinks

Most people rely on coffee in the morning to get them through the day. Although porcelain veneers are excellent at resisting stains, prolonged consumption of staining beverages can lead to discoloration in the bonding material and your natural teeth. If you can’t function without coffee, rinse your mouth afterward and make it a habit to brush your teeth.

Other examples of staining drinks include wine and tea. You might also want to limit your consumption of pigmented substances such as ketchup, berries, tomatoes, and the like.

Alcohol

While alcoholic drinks may sound good to cap off the day, you might want to limit your intake when you have porcelain veneers. The alcohol in your beverage can negatively affect the bonding agent used to apply the veneers to your teeth. If you’re a heavy drinker, you might notice that your veneers will loosen up over time.

Instead, limit your intake of alcohol. While a night out now and then is perfectly fine, regular consumption of alcohol can be detrimental for your porcelain veneers and for your overall health as well.

Key Takeaway

Porcelain veneers are tough and durable, but they’re not indestructible. The material is also resistant to stains, but the bonding agent and your natural teeth are not. That’s why you should try to limit tough, chewy, sticky, and staining foods and drinks. Now that you know which foods to avoid with porcelain veneers, you can take proper care of your veneers and make them last for longer.

If you haven’t decided where to get your veneers done yet, you can visit us here at Elevate Dental. We have skilled dentists who are trained and experienced to perform the treatment on you. Other than porcelain veneers, we can also apply composite veneers or zirconia veneers. Book an appointment with us by clicking here.