Teeth Whitening
A brighter smile contributes to a more youthful appearance. Teeth whitening improves the colour of your teeth, making them up to several shades brighter.
The Natural Colour of Teeth
Teeth can be a naturally brilliant shade. Over time, teeth can darken due to the build up of staining on the surface and deeper within the layers of your teeth. Habits such as smoking, tea, coffee, red wine or spicy foods can cause particular staining.
Our experienced dental team can help to restore the natural brightness of your smile by providing dentist guided tooth whitening techniques and hygienist-led professional plaque and staining removal.
By gently and effectively removing the external and internal stains that have built up we can help your teeth to achieve as bright a result as they can naturally achieve.
Why Whiten Your Teeth?
Categories of Teeth Whitening
Surface Whiteners
As the name suggests, these whitening agents improve tooth colour by tackling surface stains. They use special abrasives to essentially scrub the stains off of teeth. Most products in this category are toothpastes. Surface whiteners don’t penetrate deeply into the tooth, and their whitening ability is limited to surface stains only.
Bleach
While surface whiteners address stains that are on the exterior of the tooth, bleaches alter the colour of the tooth itself. Many tooth bleaching products are peroxide-based, which is why bleaching should only be done under a dentist’s care. While we want your smile to be brighter, we also only want you to bleach your teeth safely and correctly.
Depending on your teeth, you may need vital or non-vital bleaching. Vital bleaching whitens natural teeth that have become stained or have darkened with age. Non-vital bleaching lightens teeth that are not considered ‘living’ teeth, such as crowns.
There are three ways to apply peroxide-based products to the teeth:
- The bleach is applied directly to stained teeth and activates with the use of a special light.
- The bleach goes into a custom-made mouthguard that a patient wears for part of the day.
- The bleach is mixed in toothpaste and applied to the teeth during brushing.
Teeth Whitening at Hutton Village Dental Practice
Let us know if you are interested in brightening your smile. We are happy to book a consultation with you about teeth whitening and explain how to get the best results from our whitening kits.
Dentist guided at-home whitening kits involve taking a high accuracy impression of your teeth to craft a set of custom-made trays. We will show you how to place whitening gels in the trays to wear whilst asleep or for periods during the day.
The amount of time needed to whiten and achieve ideal results will vary depending on how deeply the teeth were stained to begin with. Our experienced dental team will guide you on how soon you should expect to see results.
We can achieve brilliant whitening results when teeth have had more severe staining, which may have been caused by previous trauma or if the tooth enamel was damaged or tarnished when developing at a younger age. Your dentist can discuss with you if your tooth whitening plan may require more advanced techniques to achieve a brilliant looking smile. This could include a combination of traditional whitening with internal non-vital whitening, resin-infiltration or microabrasion treatment.
Boutique Teeth Whitening Kits
At Hutton Village Dental Practice, we believe in providing our patients with the best teeth whitening treatments possible. We offer teeth whitening kits from the award-winning brand, Boutique. Ask us about Boutique teeth whitening at your next appointment.
Though it does last for a while, teeth whitening does not offer permanent results. The same habits that caused stains in the past can gradually cause new stains over time. As long you take care to keep your custom-made whitening trays in good condition, you can whiten them again as needed. Discuss maintenance of your tooth whitening with your dentist and we can guide you on keeping your smile at its best.
Results from Our Teeth Whitening Kits
During our consultation, we’ll discuss how many shades brighter you can expect from our whitening kits. The degree of whiteness achieved will vary from patient to patient and with the type of bleaching process chosen. As long as patients use the home teeth whitening kits as directed, they will see results.
Though it does last for a while, teeth whitening does not offer permanent results. Over time, your teeth will slowly become discoloured, and you can whiten them again as needed. Some lifestyle choices (like drinking coffee and tobacco use) will accelerate how fast your teeth lose their new whiteness.