One of the biggest questions we get is “Does bleaching damage your teeth?”  The short answer to that is no, it doesn’t.  The process can make your teeth temperature sensitive while you are doing it but when you stop it will go back to your normal level.  There is no damaging of the tooth structure or making it weaker.  It is simply an oxidation reaction where electrons are exchanged.

Tooth whitening can be categorized in two types:  1) Removing external superficial stains through mechanical abrasion or 2) Removing both external and internal stains through chemical means.

External stains can be from many factors including the smoothness of a surface, salivary protein composition, diet, smoking history, and oral hygiene.  Foods like tea, coffee, and red wine can contribute excessively to this.

Internal stains occur when stain exists or penetrates below the enamel surface of a tooth.  Sometimes people have a natural color of the underlying dentin that is darker than normal.  Sometimes systemic factors and trauma can contribute to this discoloration.  Intrinsic staining can be particularly stubborn and may take months to cause change.

Over the counter “bleaching” toothpastes have minimal results and rely mostly on abrasives within the paste to try and polish away external stains

Over the counter whitening products like Whitestrips have lower concentrations of the bleaching material and are not custom fit to your mouth.  With that being said, some people can have good success with those.

For us, the “gold standard” of tooth whitening is custom-made trays with take-home bleach.  The trays are made to fit your mouth specifically and because of that we can give you higher concentrations of bleach than over the counter products.  This system is to be used at home at your own discretion.  The most effectiveness will occur in the first 30 minutes to one hour but some people will wear them overnight to get all the residual effects.  Best results will occur if you can wear them every day through the night.  But everybody can have different results.

“Power bleaching” in office is also an option.  This is a great option if you need as much whitening as possible in as short a time as possible.  So if you are looking forward to that wedding or the reunion in the next week or two, power bleaching would be a great way to go.

A third option that we have started using is called deep bleaching.  This is a combination of take-home and in-office bleaching and we have had great results with this technique.  This way is especially good for those teeth that have very dark staining or deep tetracycline stains from antibiotics.

If you want to go over these options in more detail just call us to set up a quick consult to go over the specifics and decide what might work best for you!