Local Dental Care - Tooth Whiten

Yellow Teeth Embarrassing You? Not After Tooth Whitening!

I don't know what your favorite color is, but when it comes to your teeth, I bet it's not yellow!

Yellow teeth can be caused by many things, but cigarettes and coffee are the top offenders. Just as a cigarette filter picks up a yellow stain, so do smokers' teeth. Coffee can stain your shirt - and your teeth. So can tea and cola.

In fact, almost anything that can stain fabric or dishes can stain teeth too. Any highly-pigmented food or beverage can leave its mark on your pearly whites. (Something to think about the next time you order curry!)

But there's good news if you want to brighten your smile! Tooth whitening actually works best on yellow teeth. While grey or bluish discolorations can be very difficult to remove, most yellow stains disappear quickly with teeth bleaching treatment.

After teeth whitening, you'll want to try to maintain that brilliant white smile by minimizing your exposure to stains. You can still enjoy coffee or tea, but it's better if you drink them relatively quickly and rinse afterwards; sipping coffee slowly throughout the day will add more stains to your teeth.

+Jim Du Molin is a leading Internet search expert helping individuals and families connect with the right dentist in their area. Visit his author page.

Who Wants Whiter Teeth?

Tooth bleaching is a way to lighten teeth without bonding material to the teeth, or removing any sound tooth structure. In this respect, it's one of the most conservative cosmetic procedures. It's an "old" procedure, back in vogue.

How does professional tooth whitening work?

First, the tooth is isolated with a rubber dam. This protects your gums and tongue, too. Then the tooth is cleaned thoroughly. Your tooth may or may not be pre-conditioned to help the teeth whitening products penetrate.

The tooth is covered with gauze, and the teeth bleaching solution is carefully applied. A heat source "cures" the bleach and hastens the process. These steps are repeated several times, depending on the appropriate level of whiteness you want to achieve. The color of adjacent teeth will be considered too, so you'll look natural (there is such a thing as too white).

A professional tooth whitening session takes 30 to 45 minutes - and there you are. After three to five sessions, the tooth really shows the difference.

Does professional tooth bleaching work for everyone?

The success of the procedure depends in part on what caused the tooth staining in the first place. Surface coffee, tea, and tobacco stains that resist cleaning can be bleached away (the stains will reappear over time if you continue to indulge, of course). Antibiotic staining - from tetracycline, for example - is a bit harder to treat with simple teeth bleaching. Alternatively, a jacket or porcelain veneers may be called for. The idea is to be very selective about which tooth is a good candidate for the procedure.

+Jim Du Molin is a leading Internet search expert helping individuals and families connect with the right dentist in their area. Visit his author page.