Once your teeth have been prepped for veneers, your dentist will place temporary veneers over them. While your permanent veneers are being made by a ceramist in a lab, which might take about 2 weeks, your temporary veneers will serve to protect your teeth. They should also give you a good idea of what the final veneers will eventually look like once placed.

However, temporary veneers are nothing like permanent veneers. Therefore, if a temporary veneer breaks or becomes stained, this is not an indication that your permanent veneers will do the same.

Temporary Veneers Are Acrylic

Porcelain veneers do not stain, nor are they easy to break. This is not true of temporary veneers. Temporary veneers are made of acrylic. Acrylic is porous and so, unlike porcelain, it picks up staining molecules easily. Because of this, you should avoid smoking and eating foods such as yellow curries and foods rich in tumeric. Avoid coffee and coloured sodas, too.

For the two weeks or so that you are wearing your temporary veneers, eat neutral-coloured foods, and perhaps cut down on habits like smoking and drinking coffee in the morning.

Temporary Veneers Are in One Piece

Unlike porcelain veneers, which are placed on teeth individually, temporary veneers are generally placed in one piece. That is to say, if you are getting more than one veneer, the temporary versions will also be attached to each other when they are placed onto your teeth. This is because it would simply take too much work to fashion each temporary veneer individually.

One of the major downsides to the temporary veneers being in one piece is that they will break together and stain together. You will also not be able to floss between them. So again, take care not to chew hard or coloured foods whilst wearing your temporary veneers.

Stains Can Be Removed

If you stain your temporary veneers soon after getting them, the good news is that those stains can be removed. Your dentist can remove some of the surface of the temporary veneers with abrasion. This should remove the stains; however, if the stains are too severe, you may need to purchase another set of temporary veneers.

If your permanent veneers are almost complete, it might be better just to wait; otherwise, you could end up paying more than you expected.

Your temporary veneers will only last about 2-3 weeks at most. Eat soft foods and stay away from foods that might stain your temporary veneers, such as coffee and tumeric.