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TEXT: Evija Ozola
COUNSELING: Diāna Rožkalne, dentist, prosthetist
When trying to get a whiter smile, it is important to note that two terms, tooth whitening and tooth whitening, must first be distinguished. Tooth whitening is a process in which their color is affected by chemicals. They pass through the top layer of the teeth – enamel into the base mass of the teeth – into the dentine, making it whiter. Teeth whitening can be done both in the dentist’s office and at home. Whitening of teeth, on the other hand, is the acquisition of their natural colour by the use of appropriate toothpastes, which relieve enamel of substances and pigments adhering to it due to harmful habits and food and drink consumed. The effect of whitening is usually achieved by abrasives, enzymes that act on pigments by separating them. Their effects are superficial and therefore do not affect the structure of the teeth inside them, but excessive abrasive effects may result in teeth enamel being scratched.
A visit to a hygienist to assess the condition of teeth is recommended before any bleaching. There are patients who are not eligible for even the most lenient way to improve the tone of their teeth – using whitening toothpaste because it contains abrasive particles that can harm teeth.
If you want to have an immediate effect, the safest form of bleaching for dental health and beauty will be bleaching in your dental office. However, bleaching plaques and graves suitable for home use are also a popular way to make your teeth a few shades lighter. Following the manufacturer’s instructions and using them regularly, very good results can be obtained. There are two types of bleaching graves and plaques: long-term exposure for overnight use and short-term exposure, which should be removed after approximately thirty minutes.
Bleaching plates are made of polyethylene material to which hydrogen peroxide has been applied. They are mostly placed on the front teeth, with plaques on them, but plaque placement can also be difficult if they don’t stick as needed. Similarly, if a part of the plates impregnated with hydrogen peroxide passes onto the gums or lips, tissue irritation may develop, as well as allergic reactions to any of the components of the plates, as they are accompanied by flavour enhancers and substances that facilitate the stickiness of the plates to the teeth.
Bleaching graves are used in combination with special bleaching gels, which most often have two types. Both hydrogen peroxide-containing gels with short exposure times are common and should not be held on teeth for more than thirty minutes or carbamide peroxide-containing gels. They act as a night bleach to be kept on your teeth for at least five hours.
Bleaching graves can be both universal in size and shape and individually tailored. Because not all people have a jaw that is standard in shape and size, universal graves can very often not work either. If the jaw is very narrow or wide, or if the teeth are protruding, the tomb will not fit them. As a result, bleaching gel may not get to individual teeth, and the desired effect will not be achieved. Similarly, without the tomb fully adjacent to your teeth, gums can also be so traumatised as they are not isolated and can be irritated by the bleaching jelly. To make the bleaching process more comfortable, you can order and purchase an individually customized bleaching grave, which is made at a dental clinic based on the patient’s oral shape and dental condition. The individually tailored graves tend to be thinner than universal, so the teeth are fitted better as well as providing gum insulation.
After using night bleaching graves, they should be removed, your mouth rinsed with water and your teeth cleaned in thirty minutes. Otherwise, brushing your teeth immediately after removing the tomb will rub off the top layer of the enamel, irritating it and making it more susceptible to pigments, as well as contributing to the development of tooth sensitivity.
Whitening gels to be filled in cemeteries can be ordered both on the internet and purchased in dental clinics and also in shops where beauty products are available. It should be borne in mind that the first use of bleaching graves may cause difficulties in correctly dosing the bleaching gel, unless it is already incorporated in the grave, it should be done by itself. Most often, the amount is exaggerated, which can result in injuries to gums as the gel acts on soft tissue, causing chemical burns and unpleasant feelings. To avoid this, it is advisable to purchase an individually customized bleaching grave and to lay a very small amount of jelly on it. As the tomb pushes against its teeth, the gel will align smoothly, covering all its teeth.
It is important to clean and thread teeth before using bleaching plates and graves, because bleaching their lining makes no sense. However, there are also plaques that are recommended to be placed on unbrushed teeth to better adhere to them. If required by the specificity of the plaques in question, they will stick weaker to newly brushed teeth, as better adhesion requires a pelicle, a layer of protein formed on teeth similar to an application. It appears within ten minutes of cleaning teeth and serves as a protective layer. If teeth become sensitive during bleaching, plates or tombs can be used every other day. It’s also recommended that you fade one jaw first and then the other so your teeth are in the same shade. Often the teeth in the lower jaw are slightly darker than the upper ones.
In the dental office, teeth are whitened with high-concentration hydrogen peroxide gel, which allows for a distinct immediate effect. Before bleaching, the colour of the existing teeth is fixed by choosing the most appropriate tone to be obtained after bleaching. Depending on the technologies used, gel is activated by laser or intense blue light spectrum, which accelerates exposure to bleach.
Bleaching your teeth to a specialist is less likely to get gum irritation or other dental health problems, as your dentist can assess your teeth for cracks, their necks exposed, or any gum hanging. Sensitive areas can be insulated with special material, creating a barrier that will significantly reduce the risk of traumatising soft tissue and exposed necks. Once the required soft tissue closure has been carried out, a gel is applied to the teeth and the patient spends between one and a half and three hours in the bleaching process, depending on the whitening system chosen. The bleaching process is repeated on average every three times for about ten minutes, but there are bleaching systems that whiten teeth every six times for eight minutes. If you get the tone you need faster, your dentist can stop bleaching faster.
Often bleaching is also done before dental prosthetics if the front teeth are prosthezied, with venirs or crowns laid. This is necessary to keep teeth in a uniform tone, but it should be noted that if there are already large seals, veneers or crowns in the front teeth area, teeth whitening is not recommended as crowns, veneers and seals do not bleed. If your teeth are bleached without thinking that one of them has a long-held seal, it may be that after bleaching half your tooth may stay the same shade it was while the others have lightened.
If all the prerequisites are met and the appropriate concentration of bleaching agent is chosen, and the condition of the teeth and mouth allows bleaching, the teeth will not be damaged, but they may remain sensitive. This can be observed at any type of bleaching, including using plaques and tombs with bleaching gel, as well as when whitening toothpastes are used. In most cases, sensitivity persists for only a couple of days, but can continue for months or even years if the tooth enamel has been too thin and unsuitable for bleaching. As a result, the basic tooth mass is irritated and remains in a hypersensitive state. In itself, tooth whitening does not make that enamel thinner, but it can become more fragile. If there are cracks in the tooth, there is also a risk that some part of it may break. Similarly, the tooth can also be necrotized, or die from itself, because bleaching substances have penetrated the nerve of the tooth through cracks, resulting in it being lifeless.
If the condition of your teeth allows you to do this by whitening your teeth to a specialist, you can get up to eight to eleven shades lighter teeth in one and a half to three hours. In addition, teeth can be whitened even if they are already naturally light. It should be assumed that stronger strong bleaching agents will be used in this case, which may be more harmful to the enamel of teeth.
Cough syrups paint too!
The colour of teeth is determined both by the effects of external pigments on their enamel and by physiological characteristics. External pigments are chromatogenous substances or substances that attract colorants such as coffee, tea, beet, carrots, berries, red wine, etc. The teeth are also coloured by cough syrups as well as the use of iron preparations, smoking and marijuana use. For this reason, you should not smoke for at least three days after bleaching, whether done at home or by a specialist, and you should also follow a so-called white diet, as teeth are highly susceptible to pigments after bleaching. Coffee (including coffee with milk), teas and other colourful products and beverages should be discarded. Water, dairy products (when choosing yoghurt, you should watch for added colorants), as well as other colourless or white-colored dishes are allowed. As teeth also become porous after bleaching, toothpastes should be used, which reduces tooth sensitivity and contains hydroxylapatite crystals – they form tooth enamel, so help to artificially fill the microgaps that occur in teeth during bleaching.
The second cause of dental pigmentation is physiological dental aging processes. They become darker with years because the basic mass of the tooth — dentine changes over time to become a secondary dentine, while the enamel of the tooth stays thinner. As a result, teeth gain a yellower tone, but they are very good at bleaching — because the enamel is thin, bleaching agents easily penetrate the base mass of the tooth and effectively fade it. It is also easy to fade teeth that have stained because of smoking and regular coffee drinking.
Tooth whitening, both in a specialist’s office and at home using plaques and tombs, and the use of whitening toothpaste, is not suitable for pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and children up to eighteen whose teeth have softer enamel. Teeth can be traumatised by bleaching because as a teenager, teeth are still mineralising and soft. Similarly, tooth whitening is not suitable for people with genetic tooth defects or hypomineralisation, resulting in not enough minerals in the tooth enamel and fragile in itself. When considering tooth whitening, it should also be noted that it does not succumb to the so-called “tetracycline teeth,” which are present in people who have taken antibiotics containing tetracycline during childhood and adolescence when teeth are still forming. Exposure to antibiotics results in a bluish-brown pigment forming in the inner structure of the teeth in the dentine, which persists throughout life. Since it is impossible to fade the pigment, the alternative to getting a white smile is putting on dental veneers or crowns. Dental veneers and crowns are also the only alternative to teeth that have changed colour as a result of injury, because their canals have resorted or closed themselves, with their teeth no longer passing light and no transparency. If, on the other hand, the tooth has been treated for channels other than the nerve of the tooth, resulting in it becoming grey, it can undergo internal bleaching. During it, the place where the nerve was opened, putting bleach in it for a week. If the result has already been obtained with the first bleaching time, it shall not be repeated, whereas if the tooth has not yet become light enough, the process may be repeated three more times. It is true that there is a risk to the particular type of bleaching: bleaching may result in the erosion of the root of the tooth from the inside. However, such a reaction is very rare – this is evidenced by sudden stab pain, which means that bleaching must be stopped immediately.
The true colour of teeth resulting from bleaching appears two weeks after the procedure, however teeth whitening should not be done in the dental office more than once every two years. To maintain the resulting tone, it is recommended that you visit a hygienist regularly who will remove the sword and coloured pigment. It should also be remembered that a beautiful and white smile is based on day-to-day dental care. You shouldn’t expect your teeth to keep the white tone forever unless cleaned and threaded, nor visit a hygienist on a regular basis.
Whitening toothpaste contains most commonly sodium bicarbonate, or drinking soda and charcoal. They are the easiest and cheapest way to improve the tone of your teeth, but it should be noted that no less harmful. The effectiveness of whitening toothpaste is determined by its abrasiveness — the larger it is, the whiter the teeth will become. However, over-abrasive toothpaste can damage tooth enamel, so the abrasiveness rate indicated on the toothpaste tube should be followed. It is usually marked with the letters RDA and should not exceed one hundred units. It should also be noted that whitening toothpastes should not be used for long periods of time as they scratch the tooth enamel, which makes it much more susceptible to pigments. The effects of whitening toothpaste can also increase the sensitivity of teeth and, over time, reveal tooth necks and recede gums. Especially when a very hard toothbrush is used at the same time as strong-acting whitening toothpaste. Toothbrushes should be super soft for guards using whitening toothpaste. It is also important to follow the right technique for brushing teeth.
Drinking soda is the most popular way of whitening teeth at home, but it has a very aggressive effect. Soda particles contained in whitening toothpaste are specially processed and small in size, while drinking soda used in food is highly abrasive and scratches enamel, resulting in teeth becoming increasingly susceptible to pigments. Not least popular, but even more damaging to dental health is the combination of drinking soda and lemon juice. The juice, acting as acid, peels off the top layer of the enamel, while the abrasive effect of the soda literally scrapes it.
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