Best ways to whiten teeth

 

 

December 9, 2019

At Coastal Dental Care, we enjoy helping our patients to achieve their oral health goals. For many, a healthy and white smile is the desired outcome. In recent times, teeth whitening has become increasingly popular among our patients.

For this reason, we outlined the best ways to whiten teeth at Coastal Dental Care. We also discuss the treatment procedure for you and what causes your teeth to discolour.

What is teeth whitening?

Teeth whitening is a popular procedure to improve the condition of discoloured teeth. In-chair whitening is an overall safe procedure which is generally conducted by your dentist. Teeth whitening involves bleaching your discoloured teeth to lighten their colour with the overall goal to enhance your smile.

Patients who have their teeth whitened often tend to maintain their oral health more frequently.  After experiencing the advantages of the teeth whitening, this often prompts patients to take better care when flossing or brushing their teeth.

What causes discolouration?

Over time, the surface enamel on your teeth begins to crack or erode and exposes dentin. Dentin is the dense interior of your tooth underneath the enamel. As a result, stains and plaque begin to anchor in the damaged areas of the teeth leading to discolouration.

Your teeth can become discoloured if you:

  • Regularly consume staining foods and drinks such as berries, tea, coffee or alcohol
  • Excessively smoke
  • Have an oral disease

If you are considering any teeth whitening treatment you should consult with your dentist first. Your dentist may not advise teeth whitening treatment if you:

  • Are pregnant
  • Have sensitive teeth
  • Portray cracks in your teeth
  • Have gum disease

Best ways to avoid discolouration at home

Drink with a straw

When consuming liquids such as tea or coffee, drinking through a straw can help prevent the liquid front passing onto the visible, front surface of your teeth. As a result, this helps preventing your teeth from staining.

Rinse after every meal

To ensure your teeth are clean, rinse after every meal. If you can’t get to a bathroom or sink, take a sip out of a glass of water and swish it around in your mouth. This ensures you dislodge and swallow any loose food that is in your mouth or stuck in between your teeth.

Using whitening toothpaste

Brushing your teeth with a whitening toothpaste helps removing surface stains from your teeth due to the abrasive elements it contains. However, it won’t actually change your natural tooth colour. This means, it may help your natural colour to come through but it won’t make your teeth any whiter. Read more about common teeth whitening myths in our blog.

Brush with an electric toothbrush

Electric toothbrushes are known to provide a better quality clean than manual toothbrushes. When it comes to plaque removal, it usually depends on the quality of your brushing rather than the toothbrush you may be using. However, studies found that rotating electric toothbrushes remove more plaque than manual toothbrushes. To find out more, read our electric vs manual toothbrush comparison. As a result, we recommend using an electric toothbrush with rotating head to prevent your teeth from discolouring and reduce plaque build-up.

Best ways to whiten teeth at Coastal Dental Care

At our Coastal Dental Care practices, we offer two types of teeth whitening treatments that are available upon request.

In-chair whitening

All Coastal Dental Care practices offer Philips Zoom! in-chair teeth whitening. This treatment has been proven to whiten teeth by up to eight shades.

This treatment procedure is straightforward and takes between 60 minutes to 1.5 hours to complete.

Once you are seated in our surgery chair, your dentist will apply a hydrogen peroxide gel to your teeth which is broken down by an LED heat lamp. This enables oxygen to enter the enamel and dentin to remove the discolouration, without effecting your teeth.

Take-home whitening

If you prefer to whiten your teeth at home, we have take-home whitening kits available for your convenience.

Our take-home whitening kits contain a higher concentration of bleach than other over-the-counter alternative products. As a result, you can achieve a similar result to the in-chair procedure at our practices.

However, results can take up to two weeks to appear, compared to a single session visit with an in-chair treatment.

Teeth Whitening at Coastal Dental Care

Our practices are conveniently located across the Gold Coast, northern NSW and Redland Bay. Book your teeth whitening appointment online at our practices today!