You should whiten teeth before veneers or bonding, because porcelain and composite keep the colour they are made in, and the only way to make them match a lighter smile is to settle the shade of your natural teeth first. Healthdirect points out that veneers cannot be changed in colour once they are applied, and whitening gel does nothing to them. If you whiten afterwards, your own teeth lighten and the veneers stay where they were. Most patients who ask us about this are not sure which step comes first, and the order matters more than the product.
Written by Dr James Tran, general dentist at Lumi Dental, Melrose Park. BDent (University of Sydney), Graduate Diploma in Oral Implants.
The short version
- Whiten first, wait around two weeks for the colour to settle, then choose the shade of the veneers or bonding.
- Veneers, crowns, fillings and composite bonding do not respond to whitening gel, so they are matched to the teeth you have on the day.
- Freshly bleached teeth are dehydrated and look lighter than they will end up, which is why a shade taken straight away can mislead.
- If you only plan to bond one or two teeth, whitening the rest of the smile first usually gives the bonding a lighter, more even target. Our guide to whitening with fillings or bonding covers the detail.
- Some stains are better covered than bleached. A shade assessment shows which group you fall into.
- Sensitivity from whitening is common and temporary, and it is ideally settled before any tooth preparation begins.
Why the order matters
Natural enamel contains tiny coloured molecules that peroxide gel can break down. Porcelain is a fired ceramic and composite is a tooth-coloured resin, and neither contains stain in the same way, so the gel passes over them without lightening them. Their colour is chosen by the dentist and the laboratory at the time they are made.
That sets up an awkward situation if the steps are reversed. Say a patient has four veneers placed in a shade matched to their current teeth, and then decides to whiten. The natural teeth next to the veneers move lighter by a few steps and the veneers do not. The veneers may suddenly look darker than the teeth either side. The fix is to replace them, which is a cost and a procedure that could have been avoided. The Australian Dental Association makes the same point about restorations: they do not change colour with whitening, and may need replacing to match.
The simple rule
If there is any chance you will whiten, do it before the shade is taken for veneers or bonding. That is the whole rule. Whitening can still be skipped, and many people with a plan for full-coverage veneers decide not to bleach at all. What does not work well is whitening afterwards and hoping for a match.
There is one sensible exception. If you have a single dark tooth, perhaps one that has had root canal treatment, the dentist may whiten the rest of the smile and then treat that tooth separately with bonding or a veneer chosen to suit the new colour.
How long to wait between whitening and the shade being taken
Bleaching temporarily dries enamel, which makes the teeth look chalky and lighter than their true colour. As they rehydrate, the shade settles back slightly. In my experience about two weeks is a reasonable wait, and some people need a little longer if the whitening was intensive or if their teeth were sensitive and they paused the course.
During the wait, it helps to avoid heavily staining food and drink such as red wine, black tea and coffee. Patients are sometimes told to follow a so-called white diet, but the main aim is simply not to add new surface stain while the final shade is being judged. The question of how long teeth whitening lasts is a separate one, and worth reading if you want to plan top-up sessions.
Whitening needs to be completed before any tooth is trimmed for porcelain veneers. Sensitivity is worth letting settle first, because later appointments are more comfortable without it.
What changes between bonding and veneers
Both treatments cover or reshape the front of a tooth, but they ask different things of your natural colour.
| Question | Composite bonding | Porcelain veneers |
|---|---|---|
| Can the colour be changed after it is placed? | Not by whitening. It can be polished or replaced. | No. The colour is fixed once fired and fitted. |
| When is the shade chosen? | At the visit, from the teeth as they are that day | Before the laboratory makes them, usually after whitening has settled |
| How much of the tooth is changed? | Often little or none | A thin layer of enamel is usually trimmed |
| If your natural teeth later darken | The bonding may look lighter than the neighbours | The veneers may look lighter than the neighbours |
| Fixing a mismatch | Often adjusted or replaced in one visit | Usually means remaking the veneer |
Our comparison of bonding, veneers and crowns goes further into the trade-offs between the options.
When whitening will not give you the result you want
Whitening is not suited to everyone. Healthdirect lists people who should not whiten, including those who are pregnant or breastfeeding, have gum disease, or have cracks or holes in their teeth. Untreated decay needs attention first.
Some stains are also poor candidates. Grey or blue toned teeth and some medication-related stains tend to lighten slowly, and in some cases only partly. Fluorosis marks can persist even when the background colour lightens. For these situations, I will usually talk with the patient about whether bonding or veneers are a more reliable route than repeated bleaching. A good starting point is our guide to how many shades whiter teeth whitening can go.
Some patients want a very light shade and are not sure how light is realistic. A shade that sits well with your skin tone, gum colour and the whites of your eyes generally looks more natural than the lightest tab on the guide.
What happens if you already have veneers or old fillings
Plenty of people come in with a mix of natural teeth and restorations from years ago. Whitening in that situation can leave the older work looking darker by comparison. Before any gel is used, the dentist can check which teeth have composite, which have crowns and which are natural, and explain what will and will not change. Our article on teeth whitening with veneers or crowns sets this out.
A common plan is to whiten the natural teeth to a new baseline, let the shade settle, and then replace only the restorations that no longer match.
How we approach this at Lumi Dental
At Lumi Dental in Melrose Central, Melrose Park, a cosmetic plan usually starts with a conversation about what you want your smile to look like, followed by an examination and a record of your current shade. The practice offers teeth whitening, composite bonding and veneers, and has in-house 3D intraoral scanning and 3D printing, so the plan can be shown and discussed in a way that is easy to follow.
We work with the order described above: whitening first if it is wanted, a settling period, then the shade is chosen for the restorations. The team at Lumi Dental will also say plainly when whitening is unlikely to be enough and when a different option might suit better. Where a case needs a registered specialist, we refer.
Questions patients ask
Should I whiten before getting veneers?
Yes, if you want your natural teeth lighter. Veneers do not change colour, so the shade should be chosen after whitening has settled. If you are happy with your current colour, you can go straight to a shade assessment.
Can veneers be whitened later?
No. Whitening gel does not lighten porcelain or composite. If you whiten afterwards, your natural teeth lighten and the veneers stay as they are, which can leave a visible difference.
How long should I wait after whitening before bonding?
Around two weeks is a common wait, so the teeth rehydrate and the shade settles. Bonding is matched to the colour you have on the day, and a shade taken too early may end up a touch too light. If you are weighing options, see composite bonding at Lumi Dental.
Will whitening damage my teeth before veneers are fitted?
Professionally supervised whitening is generally considered safe for healthy teeth, though it can cause temporary sensitivity. Healthdirect says that high-strength products used without care can irritate the gums and lips, which is one reason to have it supervised.
Do I need whitening at all if I am having veneers?
Not always. If all your visible teeth are being covered, whitening matters less, because the veneers set the colour of the smile. It matters more when only some teeth are being covered and the rest of your teeth stay natural. A shade assessment at a consult helps settle that question.
Sources
Book a free cosmetic consult at Lumi Dental
If you are thinking about veneers or bonding and are unsure whether whitening should come first, the team at Lumi Dental in Melrose Park can record your shade, check your existing restorations and talk through the order of treatment. Book a complimentary cosmetic consult, or read more about teeth whitening at Lumi Dental. Patients visit from Ryde, Parramatta, Ermington, Rydalmere and nearby suburbs.
About the author
Dr James Tran is a general dentist at Lumi Dental in Melrose Park, Sydney, and is registered with the Dental Board of Australia. He holds a Bachelor of Dentistry from the University of Sydney and a Graduate Diploma in Oral Implants, is a Member of the International Congress of Oral Implantologists (MICOI), and is part of the General Dental Residency faculty. Read more about Dr James.
This article is general information and is not a substitute for advice from your own dentist after an examination. All dental treatment carries risks, and individual results vary.
