Hey! I'm Frankie, and welcome to my dental advice blog. I'm a foodie and I love sweet treats, but I also love my teeth! It can be hard to keep your dental health in top condition when you've got a sweet tooth, but it's not impossible. Over the years, I've learned tons of great advice from friends, family members and dentists, and I'd love to share it with you. My blog is here to give you all the tips and tricks you need to stay free of decay and other tooth problems without giving up all your favourite foods and snacks.
Whether caused by dental caries, fluorosis, trauma or just age, everyone has dental staining of some kind. Because of this fact, teeth whitening processes have come a long way in the last few decades, with many new and efficient methods of tooth whitening now available. But what are some of these new methods? And how can they help whiten your teeth?
Whitening Toothpaste
Most whitening toothpastes differ from normal toothpastes in that they contain more detergents, abrasives and often some hydrogen peroxide, carbamide or another bleaching agent, which lightens tooth colour. Though tooth-whitening toothpaste is the least effective method in this list, it is a simple and very affordable way to make your smile a few shades lighter.
Whitening Rinses and Over-The-Counter Strips
Like whitening toothpastes, whitening rinses and strips are also common at-home whitening techniques. But unlike toothpastes, whitening rinses contain bleaching agents stronger than those often found in pastes (like hydrogen peroxide, for example) but can whiten your teeth a further 1 to 2 shades in up to 3 months. On the other hand, over-the-counter whitening strips work by applying and holding a film of peroxide gel on one's teeth for a certain amount of time, allowing for longer periods of contact than whitening rinses, and hence often much more noticeable and rapid changes.
In-Office Bleaching
Out of all tooth-whitening procedures available, professional bleaching techniques are one of the most matured techniques by far and offer a quality of product far superior to any other on this list. By usually utilising either carbamide peroxide or hydrogen peroxide, standard in-office professional bleaching can whiten your teeth by a chosen number of shades, often all the way up to seven! The effectiveness of this procedure can also be improved by utilising more recent innovations such as light-accelerated bleaching or nanoparticle catalysts, which uses nanoparticles of titanium oxide to provide the same whitening effects as a standard whitening procedure with lower concentrations of hydrogen peroxide, which decreases the chances of tooth hypersensitivity developing.
Internal Bleaching
Unlike other in-office tooth bleaching techniques, internal tooth bleaching is special in that it can bleach the internal tissue of teeth. The staining of dentin, which is the hard, calcified layer of tooth beneath the enamel, is a common type of staining, which is often left unaffected by most other tooth whitening techniques, as they offer only a superficial whitening capability. The internal bleaching procedure can be performed on root-canal-treated teeth by filling their pulp chamber with a whitening agent such as peroxide or sodium perborate tetrahydrate, which then whitens the tooth from the inside!
Share25 July 2018
