Get Your Smile Back With a Professional Teeth Whitening

 

Professional Teeth Whitening

Brushing twice a day and flossing are crucial to keep your teeth healthy. Still, even with regular care, and maintenance, your teeth can lose their shine and start turning yellow. According to a survey conducted by the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, most people want to improve their smiles by making them whiter. The American Association of Orthodontists found that more than 90% of dental patients are interested in professional teeth whitening procedures.

This article will serve as a guide to explain what causes yellowing teeth, the treatment options available, and the associated risks.

Causes of Yellowing Teeth

 

Yellow teeth

With time, a person's teeth can go from white to yellow due to several reasons. Here's a look at some of them.

Food & Drinks Consumed

Some major culprits responsible for staining include coffee, tea, and wines. Now, what do all these things have in common? All these liquids contain color pigments called chromogens. Once swallowed,they attached themselves to the tooth enamel, causing it to stain with time.

Tobacco

Tar and nicotine, found in tobacco, cause teeth staining. Tar is a blackish substance, whereas nicotine is colorless in its basic form. It only changes color when it comes into contact with oxygen and then turns yellow.

Age is Not Just a Number

With time and age, the tooth enamel, the white, hard outer covering of the teeth, starts getting thinner, and the dentin beneath it shows more. Dentin is dark yellow in color.

Traumatic Incidents

Some traumatic incidents can also cause the teeth to change color. For instance, if you were hit in the mouth at some time during your life, or your teeth got knocked off because of an accident, the teeth go into a defensive mode by laying down more dentin.

Medications

Sometimes, certain medications that a person takes cause tooth discoloration or staining as a side effect. Life-saving treatments like chemotherapy and radiation of the neck and head area can also darken teeth with time. Even pregnant women who have been given antibiotics like doxycycline and tetracycline have children who end up suffering from discolored teeth later in their adulthood.

Available Treatment Options

Nowadays, there're several whitening treatments available that people can take advantage of. These various whitening treatments rely on different mixtures and concentrations of hydrogen peroxide and carbamide peroxide with varying application times to get the desired results. One thing to keep in mind here is that not everything that glitters is gold.

Take-Home Whitening Kits

While take-home whitening kits give their users the results they want over the long term, they work more like the jack of all trades. They aren't for everyone, nor can they fix all the tooth discoloration or staining issues. Unless one is a dentist and can safely whiten their teeth at home using a professional teeth whitening kit, it's advisable not to try these kits at home. Yes, they have worked for people previously and might still in the future, but it's not the best way to go about with teeth whitening, and here's why;

· Their user might end up developing tooth or gum sensitivity

· Worse teeth staining than before

· These kits cannot remove all stains

· Their user cannot diagnose their cavities, and these kits can cause more harm than good

· The result isn't the same as with cosmetic dentistry

· It can cost anywhere between $100 to $400

Commercial Over-the-Counter Whitening Products

These commercialized over-the-counter products are the most cost-effective teeth whitening options that use bleaching agents or a low concentration bleaching gel. One can apply this gel on their teeth via a gel tray or through strips or paint-on gel applicators. However, these bleaching gels only whiten the front of the teeth rather than the whole mouth though the whitening effect that their user gets from them is temporary. These commercialized gels can cost between $20 to $100.

In-Office Professional Teeth Whitening

A significant benefit of professional teeth whitening is the solid results in the shortest possible time. Here, the dentist works with relatively high concentrations of hydrogen peroxide and carbamide peroxide gels instead of the ones used in commercialized off-the-counter gels and at-home whitening kits. This concentration is then applied to a patient's teeth after the dentist,or the technician uses a paint-on rubber dam to protect the gums from harm.

The dentist leaves the peroxide concentration on the teeth for three to four intervals of fifteen minutes each, up to an hour at the most. The dentist might ask those patients who have more stubborn stains to come in for more than one bleaching session. A dentist is a professional who regularly performs professional teeth whitening.

Let's go through some of the advantages of in-office professional teeth whitening.

· Safer than at-home teeth whitening kits

· Speedier than other teeth whitening treatments

· Effective results

· Less painful than at-home whitening kits as concentration percentages are administered under controlled conditions

· Better and more pronounced teeth whitening than at-home kits

· Last longer, i.e., at least for six months or more with proper care, and

· Fewer chances of teeth or gum sensitivity issues arising.

· A professional can diagnose any oral issues then and there before they get worse.

At Copperhill Smiles, their dentists understand that everyone deserves to feel confident about how they look. They are dedicated to providing you with the most technologically advanced professional teeth whitening services in Santa Clarita, CA. Get in touch with their dental experts for cosmetic dental treatments, emergency dental treatments, smile makeovers, and dentistry consultations, all under one roof.