Teeth whitening in Pinellas Park
Teeth whitening and teeth bleaching are quick and simple ways to whiten and brighten your teeth and improve your smile. Contact our team at Florida Dental Centers Pinellas Park to brighten your smile today!
Teeth whitening
Professional teeth whitening in a dentist's office in Pinellas Park, also called teeth bleaching, is a popular cosmetic dentistry procedure your teeth bleaching dentist can perform using a variety of different tools and techniques.
Alternatively, you can also perform teeth whitening at home yourself using trays custom-made by your dentist. These allow you to apply a powerful gel to your teeth while you're awake or sleeping.
In addition, a variety of home-use products for teeth whitening are also sold in most drugstores and grocery stores for self-application. These include over-the-counter teeth whitening gels, strips, chewing gums, paint-on films, mouth rinses, and toothpastes. (Note that whitening toothpastes containing peroxides don't remain on the teeth for enough time to have much of a whitening effect.)
At Florida Dental Centers Pinellas Park, your Pinellas Park teeth bleaching dentist will let you know whether to use an at-home teeth whitening system under his or her supervision or have him or her provide you with an in-office bleaching.
Types of Stains
There are two main types of stains, or tooth discolorations, and different tooth whitening systems eliminate either one or both of them.
The first type is surface stains, or extrinsic stains. These commonly occur due to colored compounds accumulating on the tooth enamel. The factors causing these stains are usually environmental or behavior and may include being exposed to copper, iron or other metal salts, smoking tobacco products, or consuming heavily pigmented foods and beverages, such as dark fruits, coffee, tea, sodas and red wine. Poor dental hygiene can also exacerbate these stains in terms of severity and color. Brushing your teeth with a whitening toothpaste can sometimes be enough to help effectively eliminate these discolorations, though not always. They may also only be partially effective in removing surface stains and won't be effective at all in removing the other type of tooth discoloration, known as intrinsic stains.
Intrinsic stains are located inside the teeth, either within the tooth enamel or in the dentin underlying it. These can be caused by systemic factors like genetic disorders, aging, or issues with tooth development following their eruption into the oral cavity. They may also be caused by the use in childhood of certain antibiotics or after using antiseptic mouth rinses for a prolonged period of time.
In-Office Teeth Bleaching Products and Procedures Available Through Your Pinellas Park Dentist
There are a variety of teeth whitening systems you can obtain through your dentist in Pinellas Park, including custom-fit trays that deliver whitening gels to your teeth. You can either use these at home or have your dentist apply them in-office. If your dentist applies a peroxide gel to your teeth to whiten them, he or she may also use a light or laser in order to enhance or accelerate the whitening process.
Alternatively, your dentist may perform a power-bleaching procedure which makes use of concentrated hydrogen peroxide solutions applied to the teeth for up to a half hour. The dentist may or may not include light activation in this treatment as well.
Instead of whitening your teeth for you in-office, your dentist might recommend a dentist-supervised, at-home teeth whitening approach. Options for these include professional products supplied and possibly applied by your dentist and non-professional products supplied over-the-counter at stores and applied yourself at home.
The teeth bleaching cost of over-the-counter products is generally the least out of all the options for teeth whitening in Pinellas Park, but they also tend to come with a trade-off in time compared with in-office treatments or even treatments your dentist provides for you to perform at home. Over-the-counter bleaching systems take approximately two weeks to achieve the same level of whitening as a dentist-provided, home-use tray system achieves in seven days and an in-office whitening achieves in a single, one-hour session.
Be aware that teeth whitening treatments may make your teeth become sensitive to extremely cold or hot temperatures. They can also cause short-term gum irritation. If you experience any of these side effects and they don't disappear within several days, visit your dentist in Pinellas Park as soon as possible.
Make sure you always follow the directions on any teeth whitening product you use and any instructions your dentist gives you for using such products. This way, you avoid doing your teeth and gums any harm from the treatment. If you feel extreme sensitivity or if your mouth develops sores, stop using any teeth whitening products immediately and contact your Pinellas Park dentist.
Call us at Florida Dental Centers Pinellas Park today to meet with a cosmetic dentist in Pinellas Park to help determine what the best course of teeth whitening treatment is for you. Then, get started right away on getting the smile you've always wanted.
