The colour of teeth varies between individuals and changes over time – teeth often tend to darken with age. Their shade can be affected by deposits on their surface but also by patient’s genetic traits.
Teeth whitening is usually carried out with a gel containing hydrogen peroxide. The treatment is preceded by thorough cleaning teeth from possible stains or deposits. The dentist takes an impression that accurately maps the patient’s teeth. On the basis of that individual impression a flexible whitening splint is prepared by a dental technician. Then the whitening device is filled up with a special gel according to the instructions from the dentist and applied to patient’s teeth. The design of the splint must limit the application of the active substance to the teeth surfaces only excluding the gums – otherwise irritation may occur.
Teeth whitening techniques
The bleaching tray is to be worn for several hours a day, usually at night. The whole procedure takes about several weeks and its result depends on the initial colour of teeth, the concentration of the active substance in the gel and the frequency of its use.
Restrictions related to teeth whitening
It is important to realize that whitening works only with natural structures, so any fillings, veneers or crowns that have been selected for the original tooth colour will not change their colour along with whitening, which may undermine the advisability of the whole procedure. Therefore, the surgery must be preceded by a thorough review and specialist dental consultation.
It may happen that the whitening procedure will not bring the expected results and some teeth (especially deeply discoloured or coloured) will differ in shade from the others. There are particularly stubborn types of hyperpigmentation that require special treatment from dentist.
Teeth that have been bleached tend to gradually return to their normal colour which means they may require re-bleaching in the future.
The condition for the safe use of whitening materials is professional supervision by a qualified dentist – in other words, it is categorically not recommended to whiten your teeth on your own without the professional care.
Alternative ways to whiten teeth
The relevant advantage of the teeth whitening is keeping the healthy structure of teeth unattended, however there is no guarantee that the procedure brings the expected result in every situation. Using crowns or veneers is a more invasive method because it is related to loosing a significant amount of fine tissue but in case of teeth that are already heavily filled or root-canal treated the benefits seem to outweigh any losses, especially that the aesthetic effect of therapy is fully predictable in this case.
The BUTTERFLY Dental Practice makes a warm welcome to the Patients coming from the cities and towns around Oswestry like Wrexham, Chester, Shrewsbury and Telford. As an example many Citizens of Welshpool have already appreciated the quality of our cosmetic dentistry services with teeth whitening techniques in the first place.