How to Re-Whiten Teeth

Posted by writeradmin

I am getting a dental crown, but want to touch up my teeth whitening first. I can’t seem to get a straight answer on how to do that. Is there a certain number of weeks I need to whiten? What about amount of time each day? I want to do this right because I know the crown color is permanent.

Randalph

Dear Randalph,

When it comes to teeth whitening, how fast you whiten will depend on a few things. The first is obviously whether or not you are using professional teeth whitening. Over the counter whitening products are significantly weaker than what you get from a dentist. Some of them do work, but they just take longer.

The second factor is how long each day you whiten. If you are looking for speed, than I would suggest wearing your teeth whitening trays overnight. I only recommend this if you are having your whitening done through your dentist. This is because he or she should make you custom fitted trays you will wear that serve a dual purpose. They protect your gums from the whitening gel. They also keep the gel on your teeth.

Not all people like wearing their whitening trays overnight. If you are in that camp, then I suggest you just whiten for as long as you are comfortable each day. Obviously, the longer the time spent whitening each day, the faster you will get to the level of whitening you are trying to achive.

The final factor is how many days you whiten. This probably goes without saying.

The one aspect to this process that is more fixed in stone is the period of time you need to leave between when you stop whitening your teeth and when you should have the color of your crown designed. You want to leave at least a week between the two. Your teeth always whiten for about a week after you’ve stoped.

My big concern here is that your dentist could not answer this. If he or she is unclear about teeth whitening, I don’t know that this dentist is the best option for you to do your dental crown. It will require some advanced artistry to make a single dental crown look natural and match with the adjacent teeth.

This blog is brought to you by Arnold, MD Dentist Dr. Meredith Esposito.