Who does not like to have a hollywood smile??  Nowadays you can have it easily by visiting dentist or even at home.First of all I want to talk about teeth stains that leads to discoloration…

Tooth Whitening(tooth Bleaching).

We have two types of stains:

1-Extrensic: like smoking or drinking coffee or tea, and this kind of stains can be removed easily by prophylaxis and there is no need for bleaching.

2-Intrensic:like aging ,trauma, flourosis, tetracycline staining or developmental defect.

Tooth whitening will have high success rate when the cause is aging,smoking or drinking coffee and low success rate when its because of flourosis where the teeth will be blue or gray.

You have to know that some restorations need to be replaced after whitening like crowns ,veneers or composite.But is there any contraindicationsfor tooth whitening?? Yes ,there are some cases that we cant do whitening and for example :

1-Extrensic stains because they need prophylaxis only.

2-Teeth hypersensitivity .

3-Pregnant and lactating women .

4-Persons that have allergic to the ingredients of Carbamide peroxide preperation.

As we said at the beginning we can have tooth whitening in clinic or even at home and I will start with the (In office technique ) which means at clinic.

In-Office technique:

Its  done by the doctor using 35% hydrogen peroxide while protecting the oral and perioral structure,teeth should not be anesthetized  and this will need two to six visits of 45 minutes to 1 hour each.

The fee is higher in this technique and result may be not as good as the slower at home method But it produces faster effect and needs less patient compliance.

At home technique:

This is called also Night-guard Vital Bleaching that we use 10% carbamide peroxide in custom made tray worn at night.Its easy and less expensive .The patient wears the tray until the lteeth are whitened to the desired degree and patient's compliance here is very important.

What are the steps ??

First the doctor will make full arch alginate impression and then deliver the bleaching tray and you ghould know that Only one arch should be treated at a time.You should brush your teeth ,use floss and dry your teeth before wearing the tray.

Bleaching time will be from 6 to 8 hours but if the gingiva or the tooth becomes sore you should ask the doctor that will reduce the hours of wearing it. At the end of session you should clean out the excess gel ,rinse and brush with tooth brush without using hot water and store in the container and for sure clean your teeth .

You have to know that the older and darker teeth you have the more time it will take but in general age discoloration needs from 1 to 3 days , other stains need 7 to 10 years and tetracycline stain will need 2 to 12 months.

After 1 to 3 years you will need to touch up again so you should keep your tray after treatment is completed But not before asking the doctor.

For teeth sensitivity  You can use desensitizing agents like 3% potassium nitrate or .11 % fluoride desensitizing gel.

Dr.LiNa  - Tooth whitening (tooth bleaching)

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