BL1 vs BL2 Veneers Color: How White Are They?

The colors BL1 and BL2 are bleached shades for veneers and they are both extremely white but the BL1 is ever so slightly whiter than the BL2.

What’s the difference in whiteness you ask…

Well, the difference in whiteness isn’t as drastic as what you’re probably imagining. We would actually be surprised if you could even tell the difference for someone on the streets with BL1 veneers vs a BL2 shade.

In other words, what we’re trying to say is that the difference in lightness is fairly negligible in our opinion and we’ll prove it to you.

How white is BL1 and BL2 for veneers?

Both the BL1 and BL2 colors are a part of the BL shade family by IVOCLAR. The “BL” represents the bleached shades and there are four colors in the entire series: BL1, BL2, BL3, & BL4.

You may not think that these BL shades are overly white if you look at them in isolation. However, when you compare them side by side to other teeth colors, you’ll realize just how white they are.

Below is the full veneer color chart which shows all four of the BL shades as well as the natural teeth colors (B1, A1, A2, A3, and A4).

In the image above, the whitest veneer shade is on the left and as you move towards the right, the color gets progressively darker and darker. Literally, BL1 is the whitest veneer color in existence.

Are these colors natural?

For the record, NONE of the BL shades are natural by any means because there isn’t a single human being on this planet with teeth that are naturally that white.

The only way to get your teeth to this level of whiteness is with a combination of teeth whitening and having porcelain veneers bonded onto your teeth. In other words, all of these bleached shades are unnatural and completely artificial.

Yes, BL1 and BL2 veneers are both unnatural bleached colors for teeth.

In case you were curious, the whitest natural tooth shade would be B1. We’ll compare what BL1 and BL2 look like vs B1 so you get an idea of the difference in whiteness.

There is basically no competition because both of the BL tooth colors are definitely much lighter in color than the B1 shade.

Image comparisons

Yes, BL2 is slightly darker or less white than BL1 but the difference is almost negligible in our opinion. You really have to look extremely closely in order to even see the difference.

It also doesn’t help that under certain lighting and backgrounds you may not even be able to tell which one is whiter.

Below are various images that we took of BL1 vs BL2 against various different colored backgrounds. Hopefully it’ll give you a sense for the difference in their color.

You can certainly tell the difference in the level of whiteness under certain backgrounds and lightning.

Video comparison

If the still photos weren’t enough for you, we also made a video to show you up close what the BL2 and BL1 colors look like. We also compared it to what a dental crown in the shade A1 looks like just to give you additional perspective.

Are they good veneer colors?

Both the BL2 and BL1 colors are good colors for veneers since they’re whiter than natural teeth. The purpose of getting veneers for most people is to change the color of their teeth so if it doesn’t get whiter, it would’ve been considered a failure.

Overall, most people do choose a bleached shade whenever they get veneers because they want their smile to stand out and look better. They want their mouth to make an impact and a statement when they show off their pearly whites.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a single person who wants veneers in the B4 shade if you know what we mean. In case you were curious of what that looks like, here is a comparison of the two bleached shades vs B4.

I don’t know about you but I would consider B4 to be a “bad” color for veneers since it looks like the tooth color of a heavy smoker.

Exception: When too white can be a bad color

Despite what we’ve just said, there is one situation where choosing one of these two bleached shades can be a bad color decision. That is if you’re getting a single veneer done because you chipped a tooth and the rest of your teeth are NOT a bleached shade.

The reason we consider that a bad choice is because if your adjacent teeth are say shade A3 but you choose a BL1 veneer. The color of that veneer would never match the rest of your teeth since it is too white.

When you choose colors for your dental restorations, one of the goals is to make it blend in seamlessly with the rest of your dentition. If it sticks out like a sore thumb and creates a contrast, everyone will know that you’ve had dental work done and that isn’t what you want.

Verdict

Objectively, the BL1 veneer shade is slightly whiter than the BL2 veneer color. However, you do have to look very closely to even be able to tell the difference in lightness. Both shades are already so white that even dentists have a hard time telling the difference at times.

Nonetheless, you really can’t go wrong with choosing either of these two shades for your new porcelain laminate veneers if you want white teeth. After it is all said and done, you can pretty much be certain that you’ve the whitest teeth out of all of your close friends and acquaintances.