Risks of Teeth Whitening - Which Health Hazards Are Involved?

Dental bleaching is also known as teeth whitening. It is the method of making a person's teeth whiter through breaking down the stains in the teeth's enamel. It are these stains that are making your teeth appear yellow and dark. Breaking down the stains causes the enamel to become fully transparent again. This allows your teeth's natural whiteness to shine through. It gives you that pearly white smile you had when you were a kid. When a person ages, the mineral structures in the enamel change.

But it's not only the aging process at work here. Substances such as tobacco, caffeine drinks, soda drinks, tea, wine are all guilty of making your teeth darken over the years. There are a lot of ways in which a person can bleach his or her teeth. There are strips, pens, gels, lasers and natural bleaching methods. A lot of these products use oxidizing agents such as hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide. It are these aggressive substances that are primarily the cause of teeth whitening risks.

Teeth Whitening Risks

A big risk with teeth whitening is getting chemical burns with products that use a high concentration oxidizing gel. If the gel's oxidizing agent comes into contact with unprotected tissues, you can get overly sensitive teeth from this. There is also the risk of over bleaching your teeth. This is known as hyperodonto-oxidation or over white teeth. Sometimes, teeth rebound and lose their bleached effect. This most often happens with treatments where your teeth are made very many shades whiter in only very little time. A good example of quick teeth whitening are intensive treatments at the dentist's office and also hydrogen peroxide based whitening kits at home. Usually after a short and intensive treatment, after only a week half of the whiteness if lost again teeth whitening for kids.

Teeth whitening at home treatments often reduce your tooth enamel. However, most whitening kits provide gels with low concentration hydrogen peroxide. The concentration is low enough that people using it at home can never significantly damage their tooth enamel. Not even if their expose your teeth to it on a daily basis for a few months. When using a hydrogen peroxide based gel to bleach your teeth, you run the risk of temporarily increasing the sensitivity of your teeth. You can also experience mild irritation of the gums and other soft tissues in the mouth. This usually happens at the start of the whitening treatment. The sensitivity always disappears within 3 days of stopping the treatment.