Teeth Whitening

Professional teeth whitening is a cosmetic dentistry procedure that removes stains from your enamel and bleaches your teeth to help them appear whiter. The procedure can help your teeth return to their natural shade of white. Another way to think about teeth whitening is by giving your teeth a clean, stain-free slate to work with.

To understand how tooth whitening works, it’s important to first understand how your teeth become stained and discolored in the first place. Although the enamel of your tooth is hard, it’s porous. This means it absorbs anything it comes into contact with that your saliva doesn’t wash away like coffee, wine, or tea. When tiny amounts of pigment enter the enamel and lodge, over time, your teeth will start to show a more yellow color.

Most professional tooth whiteners use hydrogen peroxide to brighten your teeth. Once our cosmetic dentist applies the whitening gel to your teeth, it begins to work its magic like laundry detergent on a stain. The hydrogen peroxide penetrates the enamel to break up the pigment in the stains and then rinses away the pigment once removing the gel. As a result, your teeth look whiter.

Most patients are a good candidate for teeth whitening, however, there are a few requirements. To start, we only perform teeth whitening treatments on patients who have healthy teeth. If you have a noticeable amount of tooth decay or signs up gum disease, we will recommend addressing these issues first before whitening your smile.

In addition, we also require patients to have a limited amount of dental restorations like fillings, crowns, veneers, and bridges because most restorations won’t change in color. This means that if you want your teeth a shade brighter than the color of your restorations, your restorations will remain their current color and stick out. If you’re really unhappy with the color of your restorations, you might need to get them replaced with your desired tooth color.

Aside from having a healthy mouth and a limited number of restorations, almost any patient can benefit from professional tooth whitening.

There are a few different reasons your teeth become stained. Listed below are the most common reasons.

• What You Eat – Eating foods like blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and even dark chocolate can stain your teeth.
• What You Drink – Drinks such as coffee, red wine, tea, juices, colas, and other dark drinks can stain your teeth.
• Smoking/Tobacco Use – The nicotine in tobacco products leave yellow stains on your teeth.
• Tetracycline – This antibiotic had heavy use in the 60s and 70s and has left many people with severely stained teeth. This type of staining is so deep that the stains require veneers or bonding to cover them.
• Fluorosis – When the body produces too much fluoride, fluorosis occurs which can stain the teeth.
• Genetics – Some people genetically have darker enamel than others.