Teeth whitening problems can arise as a result of various causes. You may already have sensitive teeth because you are genetically predisposed. Whitening your teeth may make them even more sensitive. Or you may excessively use an aggressive whitening chemical, thereby eventually destroying the enamel that covers your teeth.

Teeth Whitening Problems

Indeed, the bulk of all problems from teeth whitening come from incorrect usage of whitening kits at home. There are also whitening toothpastes and mouthwashes available, but those are not so dangerous because they don’t contain hydrogen peroxide or any other aggressive chemical substance. The teeth whitening kits such as the strip and the tray systems are the ones that are the most dangerous to use.

When you go out and buy a whitening system for use at home, make sure that you buy one that has a seal of approval from the American Dental Association. This guarantees you that you have a safe whitening kit that will probably not damage you if you use it correctly. Also be sure that you whitening kit doesn’t have a hydrogen peroxide concentration that is way too high. A concentration of 10% will suffice. You certainly never want a concentration that is higher than 15%.

Be sure to follow the instructions of your whitening kit to the letter. If you use whitening gels on your teeth for too long, it will break down your tooth enamel beyond repair. In order to bleach your teeth, the stains in your enamel must be broken down to make the enamel transparent again. This allows your teeth’s natural whiteness to be revealed again. But you cannot prevent the enamel itself from being broken down as well. As long as the enamel break down remains insignificant, it will heal and recover again.

But it is possible for you to use your teeth whitening kit incorrectly. If you do and you damage your tooth enamel beyond repair, you will permanently have sensitive and painful teeth. You can prevent this by using your common sense. As soon as your at home teeth bleaching treatment is starting to hurt you, take a break from it. If it continues to hurt your teeth, you may have to quit the treatment entirely for your own sake.

There are a lot of products available these days that will help you regain your pearly white smile. The one you had when you were still young. Most products will contain hydrogen peroxide, an aggressive bleaching agent that is known for its capability to remove stains from teeth. However, the hydrogen peroxide must be used in a carefully controlled manner. If it is used incorrectly, then it will damage your teeth.

Teeth Whitening Dangers

Of all the teeth whitening dangers out there, not using hydrogen peroxide correctly is by far the worst danger out there. Think of the story of Mona Schlater-Hewlett. This 45 year old woman was in the middle of an aerobics class when a sharp, piercing pain floored her in a second. The pain came from her teeth. Just the night before, she had used an over the counter, at home whitening kit to bleach her teeth.

She used a tray system which is based on a 10% concentration of carbamide peroxide. There are many whitening kits out there that have much higher concentrations. The 10% concentration she was using is usually considered to be pretty low. This particular whitening kit has the seal of approval of the American Dental Association.

Schlater-Hewlett decided to take a break from her teeth bleaching for a month before she tried it again. She even used desensitizing gel before and after her whitening treatment. But the piercing pain remained. Eventually, she had to get veneers for her teeth. This was quite a costly operation. You’ll understand that she will never try teeth whitening again.

Mona’s story is a rare and extreme case. But it is not as rare as you might think. There has been a scientific study where 100 people bought and used over the counter whitening kits that had a 15% concentration of carbamide peroxide. Of those 100 people, 50 experienced moderate sensitivity. A staggering 1 in 25 had the same piercing pains that Mona Schlater-Hewlett had experienced.

So when it comes to teeth whitening, make sure you are informed before taking the plunge. Always look for whitening kits with low concentrations of hydrogen peroxide. Always follow the instructions to the letter. And in the case where your dental sensitivity gets out of control. cease your bleaching treatment immediately!

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 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.

As a matter of fact, if you take your time to look around and inform yourself before you buy, you won’t even come near that figure. A lot of over the counter whitening products are much cheaper than that. Then there are the whitening kits that contain a hydrogen peroxide gel for you to whiten your teeth at home. Those are a little more expensive. Usually a few hundred dollars. Lastly, you can have your teeth whitened at the dentist’s office. This is the most expensive at $500 at the very least. It’s also the most effective.

Teeth Whitening Side Effects

But what of the teeth whitening side effects that come with all these various products and services? Certainly, you won’t have to worry about getting any undesired side effects from whitening toothpastes and mouthwashes. Those are completely harmless. If you’re lucky, they might make your teeth whiter by one or two shades. And the only side effect you’ll have from them are a fresh breath and a pleasant aftertaste.

The real danger lies with the products that use hydrogen peroxide to make your teeth whiter. It’s the hydrogen peroxide where the real results come from. This bleaching chemical is used in whitening kits at home. The dentist also uses this in his whitening treatments.

Hydrogen peroxide works in making your teeth whiter, by getting into your teeth’s enamel. The enamel is the tiny film that covers your teeth, thereby protecting the underlying tooth from harm. The stains that make your teeth yellow are in the enamel. Hydrogen peroxide breaks down the stains in your enamel, but also the enamel itself. If hydrogen peroxide is used in concentrations that are too high, your enamel will be damaged beyond repair.

If used correctly, the stains will be broken down and your enamel will heal until it reaches its former strength.

A number of temporary side effects that you could develop, are the result of accidentally swallowing some hydrogen peroxide. This can lead to temporary irritation of soft tissues in the mouth, nausea and headaches. The worst side effect you could suffer from teeth whitening, is that your enamel becomes too damaged. If that happens, you will be stuck with sensitive, painful teeth forever.

A lot of people today have heard of ways to make teeth white again. But there are so many ways of doing it and the prices vary a lot from one product and/or service to the next. And then there is the whole issue of teeth whitening safety. Are all those whitening kits such as the tray systems and the strip systems even safe? If you’ve looked around on the web, there is no doubt you have stumbled on some stories of people telling about the problems they’ve encountered with teeth whitening.

Teeth Whitening And Safety

There are various whitening methods available. Not all of them are equally safe. The most harmless products there are, are the whitening toothpastes. These do not have the hydrogen peroxide chemical in them. Hydrogen peroxide is a very aggressive chemical substance that is known to successfully bleach a person’s teeth. Provided it is used correctly. If not, it might very well do serious damage to your teeth.

Although these toothpastes can never cause any significant damage to your teeth, they are not very effective either. If you want to go from yellow, stained teeth to having a pearly white smile, you’re going to need to get your teeth at least 10 shades whiter. You will never be able to pull this off with toothpaste.

When you are serious about whitening your teeth, you’re going to have to use some whitening kit that uses carbamide peroxide. Carbamide peroxide is basically hydrogen peroxide and urea. The urea acts as a binding agent for hydrogen peroxide. By itself, hydrogen peroxide will quickly deteriorate. The urea is just there to extend hydrogen peroxide’s lifespan.

The gels that come with carbamide peroxide based whitening kits will release their hydrogen peroxide onto your teeth. The hydrogen peroxide is what makes your teeth whiter. But if used in incorrect amounts or if it is used for too long, you can do some serious and irreversible damage to your teeth.

When buying whitening kits, always check to see if there is a seal of approval, a license, a certification from a well known dental association. This ensures that the product you are about to use is safe, just so long as you follow all usage instructions to the letter!