What is teeth whitening?
Tooth whitening is a cosmetic dental procedure that is used to lighten teeth that are stained.
Tooth whitening will not lighten dental fillings or dental crowns, and it will only lighten some of your natural tooth structures.
Tooth whitening will not lighten dental fillings or dental crowns, and it will only lighten some of your natural tooth structures.
What causes stained or dark teeth?
- Age
- Coffee
- Wine
- Soft drinks
- Certain food groups: tomato sauce, berries
- Smoking
- Fluoride in high concentrations: will cause white, yellow, or dark spots on teeth and surface irregularities; this is called fluorosis.
- Antibiotics- tetracycline as a child or in the womb.
- This will cause a banding (a stripe) across all of the teeth and is the most difficult stain to remove.
- Abscessed or a dead tooth: this may be caused by an infection, trauma, periodontal disease, or a cracked tooth.
- The tooth damage will cause the nerve and pulp to die and may cause the tooth to turn dark pink, gray, or black.
Types of teeth stains : internal and external
Some teeth stains are removed first by a dental specialist through a dental cleaning, these are called extrinsic stains.
- extrinsic stains are on the outside layer of the tooth; this is where the enamel is.
- A dental cleaning can help remove extrinsic stains so the whitening products can reach the intrinsic tooth stains more easily.
- Brushing your teeth helps remove some of the external stains
- Avoiding things that cause stains such as coffee, wine, and smoking will help you from staining your teeth.
- Intrinsic stains are on the inside layer of the tooth, this is where the layer of dentin is.
- these are some the hardest stains to remove because they are on the inner layer of the tooth.
- tetracycline staining occurs here and are known to be one of the hardest intrinsic stains to remove.
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