Want a Brighter Smile?

 

Dental Whitening or bleaching is a popular cosmetic treatment option to getting a brighter smile. Here are answers to some commonly ask questions about dental whitening that patients should know to decide if whitening works for you.

 

Why is My Teeth Yellow?

Our natural teeth are naturally not ‘off white’. The natural colour is slightly yellow because of the yellow tint by the dentine layer. Aging, dental decay, non vital tooth and root treated tooth can cause teeth to discolour.  Dental whitening may not be your only solution to a whiter smile.

 

What is Dental Whitening?

Whitening is a process that make a tooth looks whiter. This can either be done by removal of its superficial stain (extrinsic stain) or by improving the internal core colour of your teeth (intrinsic stain). We remove extrinsic stain by scaling and polishing while peroxide based bleaching agents, usually available in different concentrations can help to improve the core yellow tint. Scaling and polishing are usually done a few days before bleaching procedures. This is needed to optimize beaching action and improve gum health

 

Bleaching Options Available according to Your Need.

There are basically in-office professional whitening and home whitening packages available. You should know that both will work but at different rate.

 

 In Office whitening is faster , more convenient and applied by dentist. THe appointment for this is about 2 hours. Peroxide concentrations used for in-office whitening ranges from 25 to 40% and are sometimes activated by light and lasers. If you have an event coming up very soon, this is probably the option you should go for.

 

Home whitening requires you to apply the whitening product for  a couple of hours everyday. As the concentrations are lower, whitening effect will take a longer time to show. This is for patients who are more budget conscious but compliant as you will need to apply this every night at home.

 

There are a lot of Over The Counter dental whitening products available and they should probably work to a certain extent. Some things to note when you are buying such products off the shelf would be to find out if it works to remove your extrinsic stain or intrinsic stain.

 

 

Will Whitening Weaken or Do any Harm to your Teeth?

Whitening do not weaken your teeth. However there are some temporaty side effects. The most common one being teeth sensitivity. Generally, the higher the peroxide concentration, the more likely there will be sensitivity. So, there is always pro and cons to everything. One good way to reduce or overcome this is to use some desensitizing toothpaste before and after dental whitening treatment. Occasional, tissue or gum irritation occur when they are in contact with the bleaching agents. These side effects usually appear in the initial state of treatment and are reversible once treatment is complete.