SMILE AESTHETICS: TEETH WHITENING

A Brilliant Smile Can Be Yours!

Ever so often, images of celebrities and other well-known people capture our attention with their well-groomed looks, beautiful smiles and gleaming white teeth. Now, you too, can create an impact when you speak, eat or even laugh, with the whitening treatments available.

Causes of Tooth Discolouration

External Causes of Surface Stains:

• Coloured compounds found in foods and drinks (eg. coffee, tea, red wine, colas, curries)
• Tobacco
• Poor oral hygiene

External stains can be removed by scaling and polishing.


External stain caused by tobacco use

Internal factors of tooth stains:

• Natural aging
• Trauma to teeth
• Tooth decay (caries)
• Genetic factors
• Medication/chemicals eg tetracycline, fluoride (when taken during the tooth formative years)

Only some internal stains can be removed by bleaching.

Internal stain on single tooth due to trauma

Internal stain caused by Tetracycline use

How Is Bleaching Carried Out?
Dentist-supervised home bleaching
For this method, bleaching is done at your convenience, usually at home in the evening and your dentist will monitor your progress to ensure that the bleaching is carried out optimally.

A customized bleaching tray is first made of your teeth.  You will be provided with syringes of the bleaching gel (usually carbamide peroxide based) and taught how to apply the bleaching gel onto the bleaching tray. One wears the tray daily for an hour or two each day and teeth will gradually lighten in shade.

In-office chairside bleaching
Bleaching is carried out with the patient seated on the dental chair. In most cases, a satisfactory result can be achieved in one treatment visit and therefore offers convenience to those with busy schedules or who wish to achieve results in a short time. This method is usually more costly than the dentist supervised home bleaching method.

There are many in-office bleaching systems available, most of which use the hydrogen peroxide base bleaching gel. These systems may require some form of light activation from different light sources (eg, laser, plasmaarc light) to speed up the bleaching process. The bleaching gel is placed on to the tooth structure and the process activated with the light source. The entire treatment typically takes about 2 hours, including preparations. Sometimes, more treatment visits may be necessary to achieve a satisfactory result, depending on the intensity of tooth discolouration.

Considerations For Bleaching
The teeth and gums should be in a healthy state. Any tooth decay must be removed and the tooth restored. Only natural tooth structure can be bleached. Dental restorations such as crowns, bridges, dental fillings cannot be bleached.

Stains coloured yellow are more amenable to bleaching than stains coloured gray or dark brown. Some transient tooth sensitivity and gum irritation can occur, especially if one already has gum recession or experiences sensitivity when taking cold foods or drinks.

Useful links:
>> In the Media: Our Experts Comment on Teeth Whitening on the air.
Read the radio interview transcript.