Teeth Whitening Archives | Williams Family Dentistry

I have been using Crest Whitestrips for a while now. It was going fine until this past week. Every once in a while I get this horribly painful zing. It lasts about 15-20 seconds, but almost floors me. It is right where I had some dental bonding done to repair a chipped tooth about 11 years ago. Is it possible that the teeth whitening is weakening the bonding? I’ve stopped whitening for now. Any advice you can provide will be most appreciated.

Karyn

Dear Karyn,

Teeth Bleaching Trays

Teeth whitening is not known to damage any dental bonding. Plus, if you are using Crest Whitestrips, that is significantly less strong than the whitening gel a dentist would use. When the bond to a repair is weakened or old, the repair for the chip will just fall off. There are a couple of possibilities here. One is that your dental bonding has reached its age limit and needs to be replaced. Another is that you have a sensitive area where there was once some composite bonding, but that has worn down.

The solution is either to replace the dental bonding all together or to have your dentist seal that sensitive area. You’ve already paused your whitening, which was smart. Keep it paused until you have this repaired.

If you want to whiten your teeth faster and in a more safe manner, you should consider having your dentist make you a set of teeth bleaching trays, such as the one pictured above. There have been cases of patients needing a root canal treatment after using DIY kits.

One thing to be aware of is that teeth whitening will not whiten the dental bonding you have. My advice would be just to have your dentist repair the sensitive area, whiten your teeth to the level of whitening you want, then replace the chip repair so it can match your new color.

This blog is brought to you by Lexington, KY Dentist Dr. John Weaver.

My daughter recently had her braces removed. There were white spots on her teeth that she was embarrassed about. Our dentist just got a Zoom Whitening thing and suggested we whiten her teeth with that because it would only take one appointment. We liked the idea of a quick fix and so agreed. Somehow, her teeth look worse. Did the dentist do something wrong?

Angie

Dear Angie,

If you mean did your dentist do the procedure wrong, then probably not. The only thing she did wrong is suggesting the wrong procedure. Zoom Whitening is a very effective teeth whitening method, however, it whitens the teeth evenly. So while the structure surrounding the white spots do get whiter, so do the spots themselves. This will make the teeth look worse, as your daughter experienced.

Using at-home whitening, such as with the teeth bleaching trays that are pictured above, won’t help either. Your daughter’s teeth aren’t stained. What she’s facing is decalcification. This is the result of the area around her braces not getting thoroughly cleaned enough. This is a common situation with braces. Those metal wires and brackets are tough to get around.

There are a couple of things you can try. The first is to purchase some tooth mousse. This is designed to help re-calcify those areas. If that doesn’t work, your next option is to see an expert cosmetic dentist and have them do dental bonding on the areas. This is not a procedure you want your dentist to do. It is much more advanced than teeth whitening and she didn’t have an understanding of even the basics. You’ll need to find an expert cosmetic dentist.

This blog is brought to you by Lexington, KY Dentist Dr. John Weaver.
We offer Holistic Dentistry.

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