Teeth Bleaching

Smile

How important is your smile? Does it need to be perfect? A happy grin is a symbol of pleasure to the outside world. It shows an instinctual expression of friendship and positive self image. Not only does smiling brighten your whole appearance, it makes you feel good on the inside too.

Ideally, you want your smile to look its very best, but even more important is to feel comfortable with your smile. When individuals resist smiling because of the fear of discolored teeth, then teeth bleaching will become an important social issue. Not everyone wears makeup, so not everyone will feel the need to dress up their teeth either. In making the decision to whiten your teeth, you have to decide how important white teeth are for your appearance.

White Teeth

The teeth bleaching process is a truly cosmetic procedure, with no added health benefit. It is no different than covering a pimple or lengthening your eyelashes with mascara. Natural teeth actually come in an array of colors; with perfect white not necessarily the real tooth color. The advantages in whitening your teeth arrive from the perception of a white tooth.

White teeth are youthful. They are eye catching and bright. As white is an inherent highlighter, when teeth are bleached they tend to stand out. Therefore, a white smile is seen as more brilliant and larger. White is also a symbol of clean, thus white teeth appear more hygienic and fresh.

Teeth Bleaching

There are many reasons that teeth become discolored over time:

• Genetics
• Stain producing beverages – such as red wine, coffee, tea, and colas.
• Smoking
• Natural aging processes

Medicines can also affect the color of your teeth. In particular, the antibiotic tetracycline is well-known to cause discolorations of the tooth enamel, especially in children. Fluoride over consumption while the teeth are forming will cause white patches in mild cases and brown areas or even pitting in severe cases. While both of these mostly affect children, other medications can cause slight color variations in tooth enamel, even in adults. Sometimes, only one tooth will be discolored. This can be caused by an infection, root canal, or trauma to the tooth. It is always best to have a single grey tooth inspected by a dentist to rule out any potential medical problems. Often, the one tooth can be bleached separately if needed.

Teeth bleaching will erase this accumulation of stains. Like tossing some extra bleach into your laundry, teeth bleaching products are the same process, only with less toxic chemicals. When teeth are being bleached, the chemical is a type of peroxide and certainly not chlorine. Although bleaching can still cause some irritation, it is not a hazardous procedure.

Whether the teeth bleaching procedure is performed at home or the dentist, the same basic process is performed. The bleaching chemicals are applied to your teeth for a certain length of time and they gradually remove the stain molecules from the tooth surface. Certain types of stains need different methods. So, if you are interested in teeth bleaching, it is always best to discuss it with your dentist, whichever method you choose.

Further Reading

At LoveToKnow Makeup, we have covered this topic in further detail. Depending on the information you desire, you may want to visit these other articles:

• Tooth Whitening – a brief summary of the different methods to whiten your teeth.
• Laser Tooth Whitening – a description of this common in office dental procedure.
• Tooth Whitening Product – a running tab of various brands of tooth whitening products and their basic descriptions.