Advice on Teeth Whitening Discussion Thread

lipper

To Joe 13 - Tooth whitening will not alter the colour of tooth coloured crowns, but will alter the colour of natural teeth around crowns, meaning the contrast between the crowns and natural teeth will change. This could improve the appearance of your teeth if you're lucky but could also lead to the problem of finding yourself in a position where you'll be thinking about having to have new crowns to match your newly whitened teeth. It's cosmetic treatment so it's your choice.

To LopezLopez - all chemically induced tooth whitening can produce some degree of increased sensitivity of your teeth and there's no way around it. Sometimes (as you say) it can be severe, especially when stimulated by cold food or liquids. Typically the method you have used previously tends to produce less sensitivity than 'laser/power' whitening believe it or not. Perhaps doing at home whitening for shorter periods over a longer time span might help a little bit, but the bottom line as ever with cosmetics is that treatment requires you to make some sort of compromise. In this case, which concerns you more - the pain of sensitivity when whitening or the colour of your teeth in their unwhitened state? Sorry I can't advise you on a miracle solution to both problems.

Lipper (UK-trained dentist)

Toothsmith

LopezLopez wrote: »

Toothsmith, my teeth are quite badly discoloured due to tetracycline and about 6 years ago I tried the Opalesence method (dentist-led). I paid I think about £300, had the mould done and then took the syringes home. No one has mentioned here that this procedure can be extremely painful as it was for me due to sensitive teeth. I persevered as much as I was able to but after wearing the moulds overnight, I used to be in agony the day after, even in tears. My teeth did get a lot better bearing in mind the limitations caused by the tetracycline staining. However, after a while, I really was unable to bear the pain and I stopped the treatment completely. I think I did half the sessions (nights) I was supposed to do on my upper teeth and only about 4 sessions (nights) on the lower, as they were even more painful. My teeth look worse now as I age but I'm scared of repeating the treatment. Is there anything at all you could recommend me? Many thanks.

As lipper said, the Opalescence treatment is about the best for the lowest sensitivity.

There are 2 widely used strengths here, a 10% one and a 15% one.

With it being a tetracycline case, your dentist may well have opted to use the 15% one, and you may find from a sensitivity point of view, 10% is better. (It will take longer to achieve a result though.

In reality, tetracycline cases are THE most difficult to get a decent result with, so you might well be flogging a dead horse here!

If you've had an improvement, then I would call it a day. You will never have teeth that match the fridge without chopping them down and encasing them in porcelain.

But the bottom line is that a healthy but discoloured tooth with be much cheaper to maintain and give you much less trouble than a mouthful of crowns.

Lady_K

LopezLopez wrote: »

Toothsmith, my teeth are quite badly discoloured due to tetracycline and about 6 years ago I tried the Opalesence method (dentist-led). I paid I think about £300, had the mould done and then took the syringes home. No one has mentioned here that this procedure can be extremely painful as it was for me due to sensitive teeth. I persevered as much as I was able to but after wearing the moulds overnight, I used to be in agony the day after, even in tears. My teeth did get a lot better bearing in mind the limitations caused by the tetracycline staining. However, after a while, I really was unable to bear the pain and I stopped the treatment completely. I think I did half the sessions (nights) I was supposed to do on my upper teeth and only about 4 sessions (nights) on the lower, as they were even more painful. My teeth look worse now as I age but I'm scared of repeating the treatment. Is there anything at all you could recommend me? Many thanks.

My daughter also use the opalescence and to prepare herself against sensitivity before treatment she cleaned her teeth with sensitive toothpaste for 3 weeks beforehand. During her treatment she also used a sensitive gel that came in a syringe like the opalescense which she got from dentist.net. I don't know if your dentist sells that but she said it was really good, my daughters dentist told her to just put a sesitive toothpaste in the trays for a couple of hours if she got sensitive so I don't know if the gel works relatively the same or better but it helped my daughter anyway. My daughter probably isnt as badly sensitive as you though but it may be worth a try. She also had been on minocyclin for 2 years too so we werent sure if some of the yellowing was from that either but it took longer than she thought it would to get a nice colour. She got used to it first by doing at least 1 hour a day up to 2 hours then she was able to sleep in the trays and it took prob 4 weeks. They arent brilliant white but they are not yellow they are her natural white colour. She made the mistake of slightly overfilling the trays which lead to gum irritation and pain but once she got this right there was no problem at all

n57602000

Looking to do the home bleaching kits and wanting to get some from ebay and was wondering what one is the best as there are millions on there so any advice please help thanks

pinkgem

there was an article in one of my magazine the other week advising against home bleaching kits. after using them some people had experience increased sensitivity. other had got sores on their gums etc.

anyone wanting to bleach or whiten their teeth were advised to visit their dentist for professional advice

n57602000

Yeah and you pay for advice too they all use the same stuff you just need to be careful with the strength of the gel and how much and how often you use it

motorguy

there are many many things i have bought and will buy off ebay. However anything that may affect my health, it just isnt worth saving a few pennies over.

Sugar_Coated_Owl

I would post in the sub-board Health & Beauty Moneysaving Toothsmith is a dentist and I'm sure he would be able to advise. Here's a few threads I have found:

Teeth whitening
Teeth whitening

motorguy

razorbladekisses wrote: »

I would post in the sub-board Health & Beauty Moneysaving Toothsmith is a dentist and I'm sure he would be able to advise. Here's a few threads I have found:

Teeth whitening
Teeth whitening

As Toothsmith says in one of those posts....

"Ones obtained through your dentist will be perfectly safe for you to use.

If sourced from elsewhere, then you are getting a gel which you have no idea where it came from, or indeed if the stuff inside is what it says on the packet.

It might be safe, it might not.

You can get whitening systems that are not available in this country via the internet. There is often a reason why they are not available here!

I will not list ones that I feel are 'unsafe' as that, by implication would mean I think some are safe.

The only gels I would put anywhere near my teeth are ones that I knew EXACTLY where they came from."

So as i was saying, probably not worth risking ebay when really you've no idea where it came from

Toothsmith

n57602000 wrote: »

Yeah and you pay for advice too they all use the same stuff you just need to be careful with the strength of the gel and how much and how often you use it

Of course you pay for the advice - it's the advice that's the valuable bit!

As your post illustrates

There is much more to it than how much, how strong & how often.

You could write that down on a piece of paper!

I would also beware the ones now being set up by hairdressers and beauticians.

As well as being technically illegal under the dentist act (1984), a weekend course does not give you enough knowledge of the potential pitfalls of tooth bleaching.

Plus, I doubt if any of them would have insurance should you need to sue, or even a professional body that could 'strike them off' if they did anything really stupid.