Is it better to whiten your teeth yourself at home, or have the dentist do it? Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages, according to Dr. Jimmy Wu of Sutra Dental Spa in La Mesa, California. Here, he explains why.
What is happening with power whitening is that you are basically trying to whiten enough of the enamel as possible, as well as the underlying layer, or dentin. A concentrated whitening agent is applied to your teeth, and then some dentists use a laser light to heat the agent. The concentrate has about 35% hydrogen peroxide, which is why it is always done in the dental office and not at home. Power whitening systems take about one hour and are done in the dentist’s office.
The advantage of power teeth whitening is that you get results that last a lot longer than a home tooth whitening kit. Any time you are doing a whitening process with the teeth, doing it with a dentist can often be better as he will use a higher concentration of bleaching material.
The problem with this system, however, is that it can cause a lot of teeth sensitivity, and the results do not last as long as other in-house dental whitening procedures since the bleaching agent is not on for enough time to fully penetrate the tooth (although there is a higher concentration of the bleaching agent than a home kit).
After a power whitening treatment, you will see immediate results. Part of the reason for this is because the mouth is open for an hour during the procedure, making the teeth dry out and bleach easier. So, they initially will look a bit whiter. These types of systems do not work well long term, but they can give you a little boost.
The take-home whitening kits have a lesser concentration of hydrogen peroxide. But they usually work much more effectively because you are slowly bleaching the teeth, as opposed to bleaching them quickly.
Take-Home Kits
Take-home kits penetrate deeper into the dentin. The reason why there are often problems with the whitening process — either with the take-home or power whitening kits — is because only the enamel is easy to bleach or whiten. Whitening can be difficult or take longer before we reach the dentin area, which is normally yellow. So in order to penetrate into the dentin layer, a take-home whitening system is much better since you’re leaving the gel on there for awhile to slowly work its magic.
You can continue to use take-home kits for however long you want until you reach the desired results. However, some people may feel sensitivity if they have a lot of gum recession or root exposure. In that case, whitening or bleaching the roots of the teeth can be dangerous because the root surface is much more porous. And if the root surface has been exposed for some time because of gum disease or other problems, it is much more susceptible to cavities.
Note that if you are putting something acidic on areas with gum recession, you are creating an environment much more susceptible to getting cavities around the root areas, and with a much higher likelihood of tooth decay. So you have to be careful when you use a take-home system to not use it in areas with have gum recession.
