Home Teeth Whitening Risks

Understandably, many of us are turning to home tooth whitening kits as a way to avoid the expense of visiting a professional. These kits make use of small tubes of bleaching solution, applied to the teeth for a set period of time. They are proven to work, and the effects can last for around six months at a time.

However, as with any at-home treatment, there are always dangers. Here’s a guide to the main teeth whitening risks and how to avoid them.

What Are The Risks?

Although some people worry that the bleach contained in whitening products may damage the teeth and gums over the long term, the evidence suggests that they’re safe to use. The main risk of at-home treatments is sensitivity in the teeth. In other words, you can find it painful to eat or drink hot or cold foods after treatment. In most cases this is temporary, but the severity varies from person to person.

How To Avoid The Side Effects

1) Always follow the instructions on the label. Never leave the product on your teeth for longer than the recommended time frame.

2) Pay attention to any sensitivity you may feel while the product is on your teeth. If they start getting sensitive, decrease the recommended treatment time, or even try avoiding it altogether for the next few days.

3) Start using toothpaste developed specifically for sensitive teeth if you experience an adverse reaction to the whitening product. Visit a dentist if it continues.

4) If you already suffer from sensitive teeth and/or gums, or any other dental issue, then it’s important to speak to your doctor before you even begin any at-home whitening treatment.

5) Never use any teeth whitening product for a continuous period of over 14 days. It’s important to give your teeth a break from the treatment to minimize teeth whitening risks. Only use the products once every six months at most.

6) Children under the age of 18 should not use whitening products while the teeth are still developing. Nor should pregnant or breastfeeding women.

7) If you need to whiten veneers, crowns, fillings or false teeth then whitening isn’t the answer. Instead, contact your dentist who may replace them with lighter-colored versions.

Thankfully, home treatments use a much lower concentration of bleach than professional options. This helps to avoid any teeth whitening risks, as long as you’re careful to follow instructions.

How to Keep Teeth White

Now that you’ve had your teeth whitened, you’ll want tips on how to keep teeth white over time. If you’re like most people, you don’t just want your pearly whites to shine simply for a special occasion but you want them to look their best around the clock while you work and play. There are several steps you can take right at home to make sure your teeth help make your smile a stunning one.

For example, you can make sure that you utilize frequent brushing. That’s the first step in learning how to keep teeth white over time. Even if you’re away from home during the day, take along a toothbrush and toothpaste. Don’t be a sipper of dark colas or coffee.

If you want a beverage that has a tendency to stain teeth, drink it but don’t nurse it along throughout the day. Flossing and regular check ups to head off potential problems are another important step in keeping teeth bright.

Finally, another way you can learn how to keep teeth white all the time is by using a whitener on a regular basis. Don’t wait until unsightly stains develop before you go searching for a whitener. The best way to protect your smile is always by going on the offensive rather than the defensive.

Working From The Outside In

Cosmetic dentistry is a medium which renews itself on an ongoing basis, and new discoveries are made all the time to make the processes involved faster, more effective, cheaper and safer. New innovations arrive on the scene regularly, and one of the newer methods to appear for teeth whitening is Internal Bleaching. This is not something that can be done on all teeth – indeed it may only be practised on devitalized teeth that have been party to root canal surgery and have become stained by fluids leaching in.

This process brightens teeth from the inside out. It involves drilling a hole into the tooth’s nerve area – the “pulp chamber” – and then cleaning inside the tooth. The root canal is then sealed and filled with a rubbery substance. A peroxide gel is then placed into the pulp chamber and works from this position to bleach the teeth from the inside out. This bleach can be left inside the teeth for several days and the patient left to go about their business – for this reason it is often referred to as “walking bleach”.

At the moment, no treatment like this exists for living teeth – but science continues to work on ways of making surgery and other treatments more effective. Therefore it cannot be too long before the treatment options for people looking to whiten their teeth develop still further and allow more diversity and better effectiveness in cosmetic dentistry. It will be interesting to see what is next.

This Treatment Is Not For Everyone

As popular as teeth whitening has become, one thing that needs to be remembered is that it cannot be used by everyone. This comes as a disappointment to many, as the natural reaction to seeing the results of a successful treatment is that most people will consider having it themselves. However, there are some people who cannot, and must not have the treatment – because even if it works for them, the side-effects will be of a negative kind and will potentially cause more harm than having no treatment at all.

People under the age of 16 cannot have teeth whitening surgery. The fact of the matter is that at this age the nerves of the teeth are enlarged, and any treatment of the nature of tooth whitening will irritate those nerves or cause them to become hyper-sensitive in the medium term. Without question, this will result in pain and can be damaging to the future health of the teeth. There is no point in having a bright, gleaming smile if you are in so much pain that you cannot flash it.

Additionally, pregnant women and those who are lactating should not have the treatment. The active ingredient of the tooth-whitening agent can be absorbed and, while harmless to adults, can be harmful to an unborn child if passed through the placenta or to a newborn if taken through feeding. Even in the case of over-the-counter treatment with a less powerful formula, it is advisable to avoid treatment until such time as a baby has been weaned so that the danger is absolutely zero.

Can It Work Too Well?

Of all the concerns about the effectiveness, safety and affordability of dental treatment one that you rarely hear before the teeth whitening procedure is “Will this work too well?”. This is understandable. No-one is rushed to hospital after breaking their leg worried that the surgeons will do the job so effectively that their leg will be too good after the operation. “Good” is what we are looking for, so better is, well, better – isn’t it?

It may be so, but when it comes to teeth whitening, there are people who have had the treatment and then been shocked to see just how white their teeth now are. Jokes abound – if they switch the light off they have to close their mouths, and so on. In this case, the surgery definitely can be too effective. Quite apart from anything else, it’s like the hair dye job that aims for blonde and comes out the other side into silver. It’s worked too well, and it looks unnatural. Now everyone knows you spent money to look like that.

Take a real poll of the success and effectiveness that other people have had from their teeth-whitening treatment. Go by word of mouth, check consumer sites online and use message boards to find out which companies other people have used and what they thought of their treatment. You can never be a hundred per cent certain of the success of your treatment in advance – but you can inform yourself to a level of confidence.