When Should Veneers Be Replaced?
Age alone is not a reason, and most of the existing work I am shown does not need to come out. What actually decides it.
In short
Not by age. For two reasons only: something is happening to the tooth or the gum that needs to stop, or you are not happy with how they look.
Not because they are old. I replace veneers for two reasons: because something is happening to the tooth or the gum that needs to stop, or because you are not happy with how they look. Age on its own is not a diagnosis. Neither is a style that has dated.
Why I do not assume existing work must come out
Arriving at a consultation expecting to be told that everything has to come out is understandable, and it is not where I start. Existing work can be perfectly sound, placed by someone making reasonable decisions with the information available at the time.
So I do not begin from the assumption that what is already there should be removed. Taking off a sound restoration can sacrifice additional healthy tooth structure, and that is a real price to pay for a small improvement. If yours can be kept, or repaired rather than replaced, I would rather tell you that.
The findings that do justify it
A dark line at the gum is not always a stain. It can be the edge of a margin that has stopped sealing, and what matters is what is happening underneath it. Gum that is inflamed around two teeth and settled everywhere else is reporting something specific rather than general.
Restorations that keep chipping or coming loose have more than one possible explanation. How your teeth are loaded is one, and it is the one I look at first. The bond can be at fault, or the material, or the thickness it was given, or something about how it was fitted. Replacing the ceramic without establishing which it is changes the restoration and leaves the cause where it was. A tooth can also change underneath: a fracture, a nerve that has died, a shade that has shifted.
Some veneers look dated and are perfectly sound. Some look acceptable and are quietly failing. The visual and the clinical do not always agree, which is why this is a diagnosis rather than an opinion.
The one reason that is entirely yours
If you do not like them, that is legitimate, and you do not have to justify it to me clinically. Shade, shape, how much tooth shows when you speak: those are yours to be unhappy about. What I will do is be straight with you about how much of it can actually change, and what changing it costs in tooth structure. Sometimes the honest answer is that the gain is smaller than the price.
If you are weighing this up, start with a diagnosis rather than a quote. You may be told your veneers are fine, and that is a result too.