1. Numbness of your lip, tongue or palate may persist for several hours. Do not chew gum, eat, drink hot liquids or smoke until the anesthetic has worn off to prevent injury from accidentally biting or burning oneself.

2. Soreness may occur at the tooth, the surrounding gum, the injection sites or the jaw joint. If these occur, apply moist heat to the affected area and take an analgesic/anti-inflammatory, such as ibuprofen or similar product (if medically able to do so).

3. When a temporary restoration made out of thin plastic has been placed on your tooth, avoid sticky or crunchy foods to avoid loosening or fracturing this restoration.

4. If the bite feels “high” on the temporary restoration, please call the office to have it adjusted. Failure to do so can result in toothache or fracture of the temporary restoration.

5. Brush your temporary restoration daily. When flossing, slide the floss out from between the teeth instead of lifting it back out to avoid loosening the temporary restoration.

6. When the final restoration has been placed, brush and floss accordingly. Use the technique that we recommended you. Do not chew on ice cubes or other hard objects, or continue deleterious habits, such as biting on Popsicle sticks, pens, etc. Use Sensodyne toothpaste with fluoride if thermal sensitivity occurs. Also, if the bite feels unusual, please call to have it checked. If you are engaged in sport events, please use athletic mouth guards.

7. On occasion, damage to the pulp of the tooth may occur following any restorative procedure to a variety of reasons. If this occurs, further treatment, such as root canal therapy, may be necessary.

8. Avoid grinding and clenching. If you know that you grind or clench your teeth, you should be prescribed to wear a night guard while you sleep.

9. Minimize staining influences such as tea, coffee, red wine, colas and tobacco products. Porcelain veneers are a great improvement over other types of cosmetic dental bonding by the fact that their surface is very resistant to staining. The Achilles heal of porcelain veneers, however, is that the veneer is bonded onto your tooth using cement which is capable of picking up stain over time. It is possible that a veneer itself will still have a nice appearance, but at its edges, where the cement holding the veneer in place exists, staining will have occurred, thus spoiling the overall cosmetic appearance of the tooth.

10. Regular dental examinations are important to maintain the function and appearance of one’s veneers, etc.

11. If you have any questions, please feel free to call the office.