Before you whiten your teeth you should take a few things under consideration. Your general oral health should be good prior to considering spending money on whitening your teeth. I know this seems obvious. I only mention it because it has happened many times in my office. People come in inquiring about whitening their teeth but have not been to the dentist in years. Even after I advise them that they have significant decay and moderate periodontal disease they still ask about what type of tooth whitening system we use! I tell them that it would be like taking you car in to the local body shop to get a beautiful new bright red paint job. But when the technician advises you that they have found some significant rust and sections of body rot, you just tell them to paint over it!
It sure doesn’t make much sense does it? I have to remind myself that this is the same society that instead of eating right and exercising, we just go to McDonalds every day for twenty years, then when we are tired of being fat, we go to the doctor and have the fat sucked out with a stainless steel probe. Alright, I don’t want to get off on a tangent. But I do feel better now!
Let me also make one exception when it comes to whitening your teeth when you have other more urgent dental issues. That would be coordinating with your dentist a tooth whitening treatment along with needed dental restorations. The reason for this is simple. The dentist has multiple shades to choose from when preparing to restore a tooth. Colors range from a dingy yellow/grey to a bright white color. They usually are able to match your teeth very well.
Unfortunately, modern restorative material, such as porcelin or composites is not affected by tooth whitening. That means that a dingy yellow will stay dingy yellow even after 100 tooth whitening treatments. Because of this, the dentist may advise you to proceed with the tooth whitening procedure prior to getting the fillings or crowns done. Another method the dentist may use is to choose a shade of restorative material several shades brighter than your existing color. This method is normally used when the patient has severe decay but also plans to whiten after the restorations are complete.
You may have caught on to one more consideration before you choose to whiten your teeth. What if you already have dental restorations such as crowns, bridges, or fillings? You guessed it, what ever color they are now is the color they are going to stay. A less than ethical dentist would let a patient whiten their teeth first. Then after the persons teeth look like a checker board, they would advise them that if they want the crowns or fillings to match the new beautiful bright smile, they will need to be replaced.$$$
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