Teeth Whitening is one of the most common aesthetic requests that patients have.

Generally, most people think of whitening as simple bleaching of teeth but how teeth need to be whitened depends on the cause of the staining.

Stains are either:

Surface Stains

Internal Stains

Stained Decay

Filling Stains

Cracks

Root Canal therapy stains

 Today I will talk about Whitening Stained Decay

Not all tooth decay is stained or discoloured.

The worst types of tooth decay eat through your teeth so rapidly that the cavity remains white.  Tooth decay that is going very slow stains and goes black.  Particularly if you drink a lot of tea or smoke. Obviously, you can only whiten tooth decay by repairing the tooth with either a filling or ceramic restoration.

In some cases, the teeth may need to be temporarily filled and then bleached and then have the final fillings placed to match after they are whitened.

Risks;

In some mouths, fillings themselves will stain.  Stained fillings are not bleachable.  They must be replaced to correct.

Changes in colour in the bleached teeth may affect the match of the whitened teeth to the filling.

Whitening is about $500 – $750 depending on how it is done.  Your health fund will pay nothing toward Teeth Whitening.  You can find out more about teeth whitening here or give the Harris Dental team a call on 07 4158 5813  to make an appointment.