Teeth whitening is turning out to be a very popular and accepted treatment for many patients.  Over time minerals and stains from food or drink darken or stain teeth. Highlands Ranch dentists Dr. James DeLapp and Dr. H. Candace DeLapp provide Cosmetic and Family dental services for patients in the Lone Tree and Highlands Ranch areas of Colorado.

Difficult colors to bleach

There are a variety of colors of teeth that are easy to bleach and other colors very difficult.  Colors that are generally considered easy to bleach are yellows.  Most systems respond favorably to most bleaching protocols.  However… gray colors are very difficult to bleach and at times our Highlands Ranch dentist need to combine techniques. Colors that are impossible or very difficult to bleach include colors that are a result from tetracycline staining or fluorosis (too much fluoride in the water).  In these situation bleaching may “mitigate” the very dark color but really does not whiten them. In this situations some type of dental veneers may be needed.  A dental veneer is a small piece of porcelain that is bonded onto the from surface of your tooth.  Even veneers can be difficult to mitigate the underlying color.

Types of teeth bleaching

There are many different types of tooth whitening or teeth bleaching.  All the systems currently available use hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide as the bleaching agent.  These solutions are delivered to the tooth as one of the following

• Toothpastes (not very effective)
• Whitening strips
• Generic trays
• Custom Trays
• One-hour whitening

What is seen in all of these is the lowest concentration is in the tooth pastes and the highest concentration is in the one-hour bleaching systems. What can be “generally” stated is… bleaching is a combination of concentration and time on the tooth.  A higher concentration (one-hour whitening) needs less time than whitening strip (lots of time on tooth).

Combined techniques for tooth whitening

Our Highlands Ranch dentist have found using a combination of techniques can be most effective in whitening your teeth especially hard to whiten colors (grays).  In this scenario we first use one hour teeth whitening and then f9llow up with custom tray whitening. Some of the issues seen is tooth/teeth sensitivity.  Whitening DOES make teeth sensitive to some degree or another.  If you teeth are very sensitive to hot or cold you most likely are “not” a candidate for tooth whitening.

Call an make an appointment at our Highlands Ranch Dental office today

Please call (303) 69-9740 and make an appointment today

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