The surfaces of teeth can become stained because of food and drinks, smoking, or even disease and aging. If you are not satisfied with the whiteness of your teeth, you can go for a professional teeth whitening procedure.
Teeth whitening:
Teeth whitening is quite a popular dental procedure; professional teeth whitening can be accomplished in thirty-minute to one-hour sessions at a dental clinic. The first thing to do is to consult a dentist, who can give you a thorough oral exam and let you know what whitening procedure will be most effective in your case.
Yellowish teeth can probably be bleached well, while brownish or grayish teeth are not as easy to whiten. If your front teeth have bonding or tooth-colored fillings in them, bleaching them is not recommended because teeth whitening does not work on these materials.
If your goal is to optimize the attractiveness of your smile, your dentist may want to fix teeth that are particularly crooked or damaged before proceeding with professional teeth whitening. He resulting color of the teeth may be uneven.
If your teeth are suitable for bleaching, the dentist can do the procedure in the clinic. This professional teeth whitening procedure is referred as chair-side bleaching. Each session at the dentist’s office can last from thirty minutes to one hour. Chair-side bleaching involves application of protective gel to the gums or a rubber shield to protect the soft tissues in the mouth. The dentist applies bleaching agent on the teeth, and a special light or laser may be used to accelerate or enhance the bleaching agent’s effect. To remove deep or surface stains, professionally applied bleaching materials routinely have hydrogen peroxide as the active ingredient.
Internal bleaching is available for teeth in which the pulp has been treated. The bleaching agent is sealed inside the access cavity, and the patient returns to the dentist for renewal of the bleaching agent until they achieve the desired effect on the teeth. This procedure should be free of pain since the teeth do not contain nerves.
Custom tray bleaching is used for whitening multiple teeth or entire arches. The method commonly used is a tray custom fabricated for the patient’s teeth, which is loaded with carbamide peroxide gel, and it effectively whitens moderately yellow or brown discoloration after bleaching daily for two to six weeks.
This effect usually remains stable for six to twelve months or longer, after which the patient can decide whether to bleach the teeth again. This treatment has been researched extensively and is considered effective and safe if a dentist is supervising the treatment.
