We have patients come in quite often asking if they should whiten their teeth. That is not necessarily a question we can answer for you. The main reason you should definitively not whiten your teeth is if you have areas of untreated decay or infection present in your mouth.
Whitening your teeth is a very personal matter. If you are unhappy with the shade or color of your teeth, then yes!
There are certainly some things to be mindful of when you whiten your teeth. Whitening should not be done more than 3 to 4 times a year. Once you complete your initial treatment, whether in the dental office or at home, you can expect to want to “touch-up” the shade for a couple of days, a few times a year. If you choose to whiten more often, you may cause the enamel (the outer layer of teeth) to become more translucent and the substructure to show through giving you a more yellow color. It is also possible to cause erosion of the enamel by whitening too often, which will actually cause teeth to stain more easily and eventually need further dental treatment.
At QCDA, we offer 3 ways to whiten your teeth:
1-OpalGo is the quickest and easiest product. The package comes with 10 sets of upper and lower pre-filled trays. You wear one set of trays per day for 10 days, 15-60 minutes per day depending on the strength purchased.
2-Opalesence custom trays is a very effective home treatment product. You will have custom whitening trays made in our office and have 8 tubes of gel included. Most patients use these trays for 7-10 days, wearing them from 2-4 hours per day.
3-Zoom In-Office Whitening combines the powerful whitening gel with a violet light. This requires a quick consult visit and then will take about 2 hours of your time in our office for the procedure. You will leave our office with significantly whiter teeth and custom made trays for touch-ups at home.
For any further questions or if you are interested in any of the three whitening products we offer here at QCDA, contact the office! To schedule an appointment with Dr. Meghan Stenvall or learn more about teeth whitening in Charlotte, North Carolina, call 704-542-6533 today!