The best methods for bright teeth

Many people want a bright white smile – and teeth whitening can make this dream come true. This blog post will tell you which method works best and what you should pay attention to when whitening your teeth.

What does teeth whitening mean?

The term bleaching stands for a variety of methods that allow discoloured teeth to be bleached. For professional use, carbamide peroxide is usually used, or hydrogen peroxide and is able to chemically remove stains from your teeth. Depending on the chosen method, life circumstances and tooth structure, the results obtained can last between three and five years.

How does bleaching work?

There are many ways to toothpaste commercials. These include procedures that only the dentist can perform, those that the dentist prepares and the patient performs at home, and others that anyone can use alone, and you can buy online for many different brands, such as Gogo Smile Teeth Whitening, However, the chemical substance used is always the same: the so-called carbamide peroxide. It is composed of carbamide, a tasteless, colourless gel, and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), which is also used for hair colouring, for example. It does not dissolve the deposited colour pigments out of the enamel, but only destains them.

Nevertheless, bleaching can cause some side effects. Therefore, preparations containing over 38% cent hydrogen peroxide may only be used by the dentist. The commercially available means contain a lower concentration of active ingredient. But their use is not completely unproblematic and should be clarified in advance with the dentist.

Bleaching is out of the question for you if your teeth are sick or damaged, for example, if you have caries, periodontal disease, tooth enamel defects, leaky fillings, enamel cracks, or exposed tooth necks. Even if you are pregnant or nursing, your teeth should not be bleached.

Teeth bleach at the dentist

Depending on the cause of the discolouration, the colour of the teeth and the degree of lightening desired, different bleaching techniques and drug concentrations may be considered. Your dentist can judge which method is gentle and at the same time produces the most natural look possible. The choices are: power bleaching, walking bleaching and home bleaching under medical supervision.

Before lightening, he will examine the dentition for tooth and gum damage. It may be necessary to treat diseases such as tooth decay or inflammation of the teeth (pulpitis) before bleaching. In most cases, a professional tooth cleaning is necessary for advancement. Because only if the teeth are free of coating, the doctor can judge their colour correctly. The dental plaque also prevents the bleaches from acting evenly. Crowns, bridges and fillings do not change their colour when bleaching. The dentist will take this into account when whitening teeth and pay attention to a harmonious overall picture.

Whitening methods

Power bleaching

Power bleaching, also known as in-office bleaching, uses very strong concentrations of the active substance. Your dentist will cover the gums with a rubber-like coating, a varnish or a protective gel. Her mouth is held open by gentle clips. Then he brushes the teeth with highly concentrated bleaching gel and lets it work for about 15 to 30 minutes. The whitening effect of the gel is increased when it is irradiated with special lamps (eg laser, LED or UV light). The used light frequencies activate the chemical process in the bleaching gel very fast. Afterwards, the dentist sucks off the gel and applies a new coat.

This procedure is – depending on the desired degree of lightening – sometimes repeated several times. Thereafter, the teeth are after treated with fluoride gel or potassium nitrate gel. In the first few days after bleaching the teeth are particularly sensitive, as the patient should abstain from smoking and his teeth do not require colouring foods. As the teeth darken a bit, the end result will not be apparent until after some time.

Power Bleaching is ideal for those who want to see fast results. Even with stubborn discolouration, the method can help; The result also lasts for a comparatively long time. As the rate of complications inevitably increases with increasing drug concentration, it is advisable to use the method only in particularly severe cases. When power bleaching, it is therefore particularly important that the teeth are thoroughly examined before.

After several sessions are usually required at the dentist and the health insurance does not cover the costs, the power bleaching is more expensive than other procedures. If the duration of treatment is to be shortened by exposing the teeth to light, bleaching can only be carried out in practices with the appropriate technical equipment.

Walking whitening

After a root canal treatment, the affected tooth may darken over time because of blood clots inside the tooth. For prominent teeth, patients sometimes find this disturbing. In this case, the walking bleaching is used. The dentist will examine the affected tooth closely and decide how much the tooth should be bleached. Before the whitening can begin, the filling must first be removed. Then your doctor rinses the tooth with a hydrogen peroxide solution that breaks down the clotted blood inside the tooth.

His name comes from walking whitening because the doctor then closes the tooth with a provisional filling and you can follow your normal daily routine while the solution does its job. After three to five days, the dentist will assess the result and decide if it needs further treatment. When satisfied with the whitening, he removes the temporary filling, rinsing the tooth and placing a new, final filling in the tooth.

This method is relatively expensive and is not paid by the health insurance companies. For this purpose, individual teeth can be treated in a targeted manner in a few short sessions.

Home bleaching under medical guidance

The home bleaching method is the least risky procedure. However, it requires a lot of reliability and endurance from the patients. On the basis of a jaw impression, the dentist prepares an individual plastic splint, which the patient takes home to allow the bleaching agent to take effect. Two different types of splints are used: those that are worn overnight and those that the patient uses during the day for a few hours. The soft plastic rails are adjusted exactly for the rows of teeth of the patient. The doctor explains how the bleaching gel needs to be applied to it at home. For one to two weeks, the patient then uses the splint on his own responsibility and rinses his mouth thoroughly after each time.

During the treatment, development must be regularly monitored by a specialist. In the long term, home bleaching is still the cheapest procedure, which is led by a dentist. Once the rail has been manufactured, future refreshments will only cost the bleaching gel and the check-up. The downside: patients have to handle a rail and consistently wear it over several days.

How long does the effect last?

How long you can enjoy the new radiance in the mirror depends very much on your eating and cleaning habits. The more often the teeth come into contact with colouring stimulants, the faster the lightening effect fades. As a general rule, after professional teeth whitening treatments, patients may expect the effect to remain visible for about three to five years.

Who smokes, neglected his dental care or drinks a lot of coffee and tea, will have to put back on the dentist chair faster. If the bleaching is repeated, but usually a smaller amount of peroxide sufficient to refresh the effect.

For do-it-yourself products, the effect can be seen for different lengths of time. Again, it depends mainly on the eating and smoking behaviour. In principle, however, you can assume that the whitening of the teeth will last for about half a year.

Bleaching: disadvantages and risks

Bleaching is a relatively safe and low-risk procedure these days. But still, the methods contain various side effects. Thus, the teeth may be more sensitive after treatment – a reaction that is usually alleviated at the dentist by fluoridation of the teeth. In addition, the bleaching agent may irritate the mucous membranes if the gingival margin has not been sufficiently covered and protected.

However, the main topic of discussion is the activation of bleaching agents by light or laser. These methods are suspected of damaging the pulp. The long-term effects of high-dose bleach are still controversial. In addition, the whitening may possibly weaken the tooth structure and attack the tooth substance in the root area.

Many side effects particularly affect the product range for the home: For example, too frequent or too intense bleaching can change the hard tooth substance. In particular, whiteners that abrade deposits (such as pastes and activated charcoal) can cause lasting damage to the teeth. The Federal Dental Association, therefore, advises not to use whitening methods several times a year.

The main danger of do-it-yourself treatment is that pre-existing conditions may go undetected. In the case of home bleaching, there is also the risk of swallowing larger amounts of gel and irritating the gastric mucous membranes. If the bleach or bleaching strip is not placed properly, the cervicals may also be very sensitive. Excessive home-bleaching products on the market can cause lasting damage to teeth and gums.

The Federal Dentists Association also warns of side effects of an aesthetic nature: “If you use bleach on your own, this can lead to unsightly results, which are particularly noticeable in the anterior region. If necessary, only the dentist can rectify the irregularities later. “Foil strips, for example, usually only cover the foremost teeth. “Anyone who likes to laugh and show teeth should keep in mind that bleaching only the anterior teeth will make the neighbouring teeth look darker, which can lead to an inharmonious overall picture.”

The FDI World Dental Federation, the World Federation of Dentists, concludes: “Technically verified studies have shown that peroxide containing products are considered safe and efficient when used under the supervision of a dentist and properly used. This technique falls into the field of dentistry and should not be used by people who are not dentists. For reasons of public safety, the free sale of these products is not supported. “