Could dental veneers cause root canals?

Veneers: Strictly speaking, veneers themselves do not "cause root canals". However, after receiving veneer treatment, sometimes teeth become sensitive or even painful, and root canal treatment (rct) may be indicated to help. Some teeth have unknown 'stressed' or barely live nerves from past trauma or bad bite. If your tooth is in such a condition, the tooth nerve may die soon after veneers, needing rct.

Possible : Anytime a tooth gets worked on, there can be inflammation of the nerve in your tooth. The amount of tooth structure that has to be removed and the amount of blood supply the tooth has can all influence whether a teeth can make it through a dental procedure such as veneers. The drills used in dentistry can generate a great deal of heat and if the blood supply to the tooth is poor it will need rct.

Possible ?: Possible? Yes. Likely? No. In the hands of an experienced dentist and with proper precautions, the risk of this is very small. Any time a drill is used on teeth, there is always a risk of inflammation and irreversible damage to the nerve of the tooth. More often, the tooth would have required root canal therapy anyway due to previous decay or dental treatment.

No: With every dental procedure there is less than 6% chance the nerve might act up. Veneers being more conservative that chance is less.

Veneers rct not: If a tooth that has gotten a veneer needs a root canal it is unlikely the veneer caused it and the tooth was leaning to that before the veneer was placed