Whitening Touch Up Tips

I had my teeth whitened a few years ago and am in need of touching my teeth up. I’m getting a dental crown on a front tooth and want my teeth white again before I get the crown done. I asked my dentist how much I’d need to whiten to get it back to where it was  and he couldn’t tell me.  Do you have any advice for me? I’d really like to have a color I’m comfortable with so my crown can match it.

Ollie

Dear Ollie,

Though the answer isn’t concrete, your dentist should have been able to answer to you. A lot of it depends on how much teeth whitening you do each day and how white you want them to get. If you only whiten for around twenty minutes a day it will take more weeks to get really white than if you wore the trays longer. My suggestion would be to wear the trays as long as you can tolerate. Overnight would be ideal and most effective. What it boils down to is the longer you can wear the trays each day, the faster your teeth will whiten to the color you want.

One thing to be aware of is that your teeth will continue to whiten for one to two weeks after you stop bleaching. Because of that you will want to let those two weeks pass before your dentist matches your crown color.

I do have a concern, though, which I’d like to bring up. Teeth whitening is a very simple procedure. Your dentist should have been able to give you the same basic information that I did. Matching a dental crown to a front tooth is very advanced. I’m concerned that your dentist may be in over his head.

Even an expert cosmetic dentist will take at least a couple of try-ins on the crown in order to get it to match. Make sure your dentist is willing to do a temporary try in on your crown and will not bond it on permanently until you feel it matches your other teeth perfectly. He should be willing to do that no matter how many try-ins it requires. If he is not willing to, then I would go to a dentist who will.

This blog is brought to you by a compassionate dentist in Nashville, Dr. David Wickness.