Can you use teeth whiteners if you have had dental restoration?

Can you use teeth whiteners if you have had dental restoration?

If you pay attention to the Kardashians and other Hollywood celebrities, you can’t help notice that famous people have fabulously white teeth. That’s because, most celebrities have spent $2,000 to $4,000 per tooth to get veneers, a procedure where a dentist drills small holes in a person’s natural teeth and then bonds a small, thin shell of porcelain to bond with the natural teeth. So the beautiful white teeth you are looking at with a celebrity is not their natural teeth.

Most people can’t afford veneers, and so seek to imitate the effect with whiteners, made of hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide. The peroxide penetrates through the enamel and typically will whiten a tooth from 2 to five shades.

Can whiteners be used for those with dental repairs 

A question commonly asked of dentists, is can I use a whitener if I have had dental repairs?

And the answer is, whiteners are not suggested for those who’ve had dental repairs such as a crown. Crowns are created in a lab, and the color, which was closely aligned with your other teeth, was set in the lab when they were created. Therefore, no amount of whitener will change the color of your crowns.

The same goes for dental implants. Their color was set at the time of creation in the lab, and no amount of whitener will ever change their appearances to become whiter.  If no dental restorations have been done, whitening for the natural teeth is painless and should be looked into before opting for dental restorations.

Are White Teeth Better? 

In fact, some dentists will admit that contrary to popular perception, the natural shade of our teeth is a very pale yellow, rather than the pearly whites celebrities exhibit with their veneers.

What to do instead 

If you’ve had dental restoration, be cautious of smoking, coffee and other dark beverages and brush and floss frequently.