Teeth Whitening Safety

Video Transcript

I'm Dr. Joe Neely, I practice with the Barton Oaks Dental Group. We're going to talk about the safety of tooth whitening products. The greatest risk in tooth whitening product used is creating hypersensitive teeth. People that have a history of hypersensitive teeth need to solve that issue before they use any home bleaching products, especially home products that are hard to control. You can use the power zoom and laser whitening in office, and be particularly careful of covering up any areas where your enamel is thin or restructure is exposed, certainly covering up your gum tissue, more effectively than you can, a person with sensitive teeth can bleach using a home product. Bleach does not effect the strength of the tooth, but if you have a hypersensitive tooth because the enamel is very thin or you have exposed root structure, the bleach against those structures will cause an already hypersensitive tooth to react and inflame even more. If you do have sensitivity, there are fluorides and other desensitizing agents that are made to sooth the tooth, you can use your bleach less often, but you can't ignore a hypersensitive tooth. In terms of longevity of bleaching products, after the initial bleaching phase, which can last up to three weeks, there is no data on anyone who uses bleaching products for touch up more often than once a month. So, you want to be very, very careful after your initial bleaching, that you don't overdo your touch up.

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