Teeth Whitening
What is teeth whitening?
Tooth whitening is either restoration of natural tooth shade or whitening beyond natural tooth shade.
How Does Teeth Whitening Work?
Teeth whitening is a simple process. Whitening products contain tooth bleaches. These bleaches break stains into smaller pieces, which makes the color or stain, less concentrated and hence your teeth looks brighter.
There are many methods for tooth whitening: bleaching strips, bleaching pen, bleaching gel, laser bleaching, and natural bleaching. The effects of bleaching can last for several months, but may vary depending on the lifestyle of the patient. Factors that decrease whitening include smoking and the ingestion of dark colored liquids like coffee, tea and red wine.
Methods for tooth whitening:-
Whitening methods include
- In-office bleaching
- Home tooth whitening kit
What is In-office bleaching?
In in-office bleaching as the name says this treatment is carried out in a dental clinic.In-office treatment is quicker and the results are immediate.
How is in-office bleaching performed
- The dentist will record the current state of your teeth either by taking a digital photograph(‘before’) or via a tooth shade chart.
- He will cover your gums with a protective gel or cotton material to protect them from any splashes of bleach. You will be given goggles to wear to protect your eyes from the laser beam or bleach.
- Your dentist will then apply a whitening gel to your teeth. This gel contains a high concentration of peroxide which helps to bleach the teeth white.
- He or she will then use a small handheld light or laser which emits a beam onto your teeth and so stimulates the bleaching process. This has the effect of speeding the process up.
- Once this is done the dentist will wash off the whitening gel before reviewing the final result. This involves taking a photograph (‘after’) or viewing the result against the tooth shade chart.
Home Tooth Whitening Kits:-
In regard to home whitening kits, there are several different varieties of kits which can be used at home. What generally happens is that dentist will start off the process by taking an impression of your teeth. This impression is used to produce special bleaching trays which are customised to your teeth only. These trays when used for 15 days they help to remove stains and improve the colour of your teeth.