The many “faces” of professional teeth whitening

Hi, everyone.
Welcome back to my channel.
My name is Dr. Kahng.
I am a cosmetic dentist in the Orange County area.
And today I wanted to talk about five of the most common discolorations that you can see on a tooth.
Now since there are five different types of discolorations and you may not be interested in all of these five different types, I have created chapters for you to easily navigate this video.

In this video, I’ll be covering five of the most common reasons of discoloration in your tooth that I commonly see as a dentist, and suggestions on what you can do either at home, or what you can ask your dentist to do about the tooth.

Before we move forward don’t forget to hit the subscribe button. So you don’t miss any of my future videos on cosmetic dental procedures.

Surface (Extrinsic) Stains

The first most common reason for discolored teeth are actually stains that accumulate on the outside of your teeth. I call these extrinsic stains. These stains may occur from having habits such as drinking coffee every single morning, wine every single night or smoking cigars or cigarettes. These are all things that can leave stains on the outermost surface of your tooth. so if it looks like most of the teeth in the arch are discolored it may be an issue with extrinsic staining.

Now, what can you do about extrinsic stains or stains that accumulate on the outer surface of your tooth?

Well, the first thing you can do is quit the habit.

Stop drinking coffee or stop drinking as much coffee in the morning.

I find that this is an unrealistic expectation for a lot of people.

And so what you can do on the other hand is just keep your teeth as clean as possible.
What this would entail is going to the dentist at least every six months so that we can polish off those stains before they get absorbed into your teeth.

Personally, that’s what I would recommend because alternatively you could use a whitening type of toothpaste. I generally don’t love whitening styles of toothpaste. I find that they are quite abrasive and can do more damage than good. And so I think the easiest thing a patient can do is to get regular cleanings and get those stains removed professionally and safely.

Internal (Intrinsic) Stains

Now let’s say you don’t have any of those habits and you keep your teeth relatively clean. Well, you may have some intrinsic discoloration in which you would need to whiten the teeth.Intrinsic stains are stains that are within the tooth as opposed to on the outer surface of the tooth. The way that those two relate is that extrinsic stains that are not removed regularly can seep into the tooth and cause them to become intrinsic stains or stains that are layered within. The intrinsic stain cannot just be abraded away or cleaned off or polished.

It needs to be addressed with a hydrogen peroxide type of product, a whitening product. That type of product will go into the tooth and will whiten it from the inside out. I did want to make that distinction between an extrinsic and an intrinsic stain, because I find that most patients don’t realize there is a difference in those two stains, and there is a different way of lifting each type of stain. So if your tooth shade is naturally on the darker side from inside, it really does need to be whitened rather than just cleaned from the outside. As far as teeth whitening options, there are a few.

You can either do it at home or you can do it professionally.

At home, a lot of people start with Crest White Strips or something that is over the counter.
Over the counter products are around 6 to 7% hydrogen peroxide. Whereas things that you can get in the office are much higher concentration and can be more effective in a shorter amount of time.

Personally, one of my favorite ways to whiten is to use custom whitening trays. I think that they are a great investment because you can use them throughout your lifetime to whiten your teeth and to maintain the color. Even after whitening the color will actually go back to the original color, especially if your habits remain the same. And so it’s important to have a tool to maintain throughout your lifetime.

Now for my patients who have never whitened their teeth, and they’re around 50 to 60 years old, sometimes these Crest White Strips or over the counter options just aren’t strong enough to penetrate deeply into the tooth. Remember, that you have years and years and years of staining that have accumulated within the tooth. And those are much more stubborn than the teeth of a teenager. And so what you can do is come into the office and we can do an in-office whitening treatment for you.

Just keep in mind that in-office whitening is the fastest that you can possibly whiten within that timeframe.
We are using the highest concentration of hydrogen peroxide. Just keep in mind that you may need multiple sessions of professional teeth whitening to get to your desired color. I always like to equate it to getting your hair bleached. If you have dark hair like mine it often takes multiple sessions to go to blonde.
Whereas if you’re already a brunette you can probably get to blonde a lot more quickly than someone like me.
Same thing goes with your teeth. If you have very, very dark stubborn stains it’ll take multiple sessions for you to get to your desired color.

Single Tooth Discoloration

Now let’s go on to discoloration type number three, where only one tooth is discolored in the entire arch.
What could possibly be going on with that tooth?

Well, the first most common reason a tooth may go dark is that it has a root canal in it. And a root canal tooth can turn dark over time, because it has lost its blood supply. It’s kind of like when a leaf falls off a tree and eventually the leaf will change color, because it’s no longer connected to the tree and has lost its supply.

The second most common reason a tooth would be discolored is if the nerve supply has become calcified or what we call obliterated. And the reason it turns dark is very similar to a root canal in that it’s lost its blood supply. There can be quite a few reasons a nerve will calcify in a tooth and sometimes it’s hard to back trace and figure it out. But most of the time it’s due to some sort of trauma or a traumatic event.
Maybe you hit that tooth when you were a child. Initially the tooth may look fine, but over the years you’ll see that the tooth has lost its vitality.

Now, when a tooth goes dark due to a previous root canal, there are a few options that you can look in to.
Most of the time you would need to go to a dentist to get these done. The first is to do an internal bleaching procedure, which means the dentist will open up the tooth again in the same way that a root canal was done, and put a little bit of bleaching agent in that little hole in the back of your tooth. They will let that bleaching agent sit in the tooth for a few days. And then when you come back, they’ll take the bleaching agent out.
This is a really easy, effective, and inexpensive way of turning color back from inside out.

Another option you can discuss with your cosmetic dentist is to cover that tooth up from the outside, with either a veneer, a crown or some sort of bonding. Now, when it comes to a calcified tooth, your options are a little more limited. Only because it hasn’t had a root canal yet. And so an internal bleaching procedure is not possible. Sometimes I’ll refer this type of procedure over to an endodontist, which is a root canal specialist, so they can see whether it is possible for them to perform a root canal.

But a lot of the times patients opt to keep things a little more conservative.

When it comes to a calcified tooth, I will try to correct it with these two methods.

The first is to try and whiten as my much as possible.

It could be an in-office procedure or a custom whitening tray is also great. And inside the custom tray you can put the gel only on the one tooth and hopefully that’ll get that tooth to whiten or brighten up so that it blends in with the rest. Most of the time, if it’s a bottom tooth, that is enough, but if it’s an upper tooth and it’s front and center in your smile, a lot of time it is not enough to get it to blend in with the rest of the teeth. In those cases, we can opt to cover up the tooth instead, with either a veneer, a crown, or some sort of bonding.

So those are the top two reasons a single tooth may be discolored in your smile.

Now, one additional reason, maybe you’ve had some bonding on that tooth done in the past and that bonding is changing color and staining. May be as simple as replacing that bonding.

So ultimately it is really important to go to your cosmetic dentist and have the tooth evaluated to see the reason for the discoloration.

Tetracycline Stains

The fourth type of discoloration is from tetracycline staining. Which is a permanent type of discoloration on the tooth where the teeth turn brown, gray or yellow.

This type of staining occurs when antibiotics are ingested during a developmental period of your teeth. And they’re very, very difficult to remove. .

The first and most conservative way to reverse these stains is to do KoR whitening. KoR whitening is the strongest and most effective whitening system that I’ve ever used.  And I think most dentists would agree that it is the best whitening system out there.  It is an entire system that includes using whitening trays at home for around two weeks and then coming in for an office procedure. I think this is your best bet when it comes to reversing those stains conservatively, but there are no guarantees that your teeth will respond well. And this type of whitening is often times three times more expensive than a traditional whitening session.

If you’ve already tried whitening with KoR and you didn’t get the results that you wanted, your next step is to cover up the surface of the teeth with either veneers, crowns or fillings. Most of the time you’ll have to remove some of the discoloration by drilling out the little discolored parts and filling them in. It’s not the most conservative option, but it can provide great results and really, really enhanced the smile.

White Spots

The fifth most common discoloration that I see commonly are actually white spots. White spots show up for a number of reasons on teeth. The number one reason being after braces, where a patient did not keep up the best oral hygiene.A tell tale sign that there has been demineralization of the enamel, which is the white spot, from braces is when there is a little square on the center of the tooth from where the bracket used to be. What’s happening in that instance is that plaque was accumulating around that bracket, and demineralizing the enamel around it.

Demineralization is a precursor to a full blown cavity, and it’s where the enamel starts to soften because the minerals have come out of the enamel surface. Making it a little weaker and more susceptible to a full blown cavity. In my experience, I’ve had a lot of success reversing these white spots with a treatment from DMG called Icon. It is a conservative treatment and it only takes about an hour, where the patient comes in and we go through a series of chemical processes where we infiltrate the tooth and build it back up so that it is more resistant to becoming a full blown cavity but also optically blends in with the rest of the tooth. It’s really quite cool.

Other reasons your tooth may have a white spot include fluorosis and hypoplasia. These types of things will have to be evaluated on a case by case basis. Sometimes when I see white spots that are very, very deep, Icon is not enough to reverse that white spot. What I have had success with, however, with these very, very deep white spots is using Icon as a part of my protocol and finishing up with a bonding sort of treatment in order to cover up that white spot and help it to blend in with the rest of the tooth.

Now, if this white spot is really deep and really stubborn, Icon may not be the option that is gonna work best for you. In this type of situation or if the white spots are on multiple teeth, it may be a good idea to get a consultation for something that can cover up the surface of the tooth, such as a veneer or a crown, maybe a composite veneer as well.

All right, those are the five most common types of discolorations that I see as a cosmetic dentist in my practice. If you are still watching this video, please hit the subscribe button and also comment down below, which section you thought was the most helpful, or which section you are dealing with right now.

As always, I appreciate you guys for watching these videos and I will see you next time.

Bye

Hi everyone, welcome back to my channel.

It’s me, Dr. Joyce Kahng, cosmetic dentist, and today I’m gonna talk about Crest Whitestrips.

Before we move forward, if you haven’t already, hit the subscribe button so that you don’t miss any of my future videos on cosmetic dental procedures.

Crest Whitestrips are an entry-level whitening strip.

It usually contains about six to 7% hydrogen peroxide, but I think this one is one of the stronger ones, it contains around 10% hydrogen peroxide.

Now, I’m gonna cut to the chase, do these work? Yes. Do they work on everyone? No.

So that is really what I’m gonna dive into today, and this is just a cosmetic dentist’s perspective.

On the surface, Crest Whitestrips are a great entry-level product.

If you are just beginning your whitening journey, it’s a great place to start to see how you react and how your teeth absorb the whitening product.

The good news is, Crest Whitestrips contain the same active ingredient as some of the products that we would use in the office.

The only difference is that because it’s an over-the-counter product, the concentration of that active ingredient is much lower.

In this box, you would get around six to 10% hydrogen peroxide, whereas in the office for a professional whitening procedure, you would get around 35 to 40% hydrogen peroxide, which is much stronger.

Now, this still works for a lot of people, but if you are not experiencing any results, it may be that this is just not a strong enough product to penetrate into the tooth.

But with most people, if they are diligent and they use them as directed, most of the time, they will see results.

If you are not aware of Crest Whitestrips at all, they come in these little packages.

And once you open this, there is a strip inside.

You lay the strip directly onto your teeth and it’s not custom fit for your mouth, so it will go over your gums.

That is one of the cons of this product is that it may irritate the gums, especially if you happen to have really sensitive gums.

I also want to mention that if you have any cavities, loose teeth, stains from medications, or pending treatment, you will not wanna use Crest Whitestrips.

Crest Whitestrips should only be used on healthy enamel.

So that’s a broad overview of the cons.

The pros are obviously that this is a very easy product to get your hands on.

It is quite affordable and they actually do work for a large number of people.

From my experience, I’ve noticed that the people who get the best results from an over-the-counter product like this are generally teenagers and 20-year-olds who happen to not have years and years of staining accumulating within their tooth.

As we go up in age, these stains compound against each other and become much more stubborn and much harder to lift.

So, if you are 70 years old and it’s your first time whitening, you’ll have to be very, very diligent with whitening.

And this product may not be strong enough.

This product, you’re only supposed to use two boxes of these a year.

So if you are limited to two boxes a year, that may not be enough for you to get really great results.

In which case, you’d wanna come into the office and have this done professionally instead.

Now let’s talk about what to do if you have fillings or crowns that are already on the teeth.

Like I said before, whitening strips are primarily meant for natural teeth, but sometimes you have a natural tooth and you have a small filling in that tooth.

What you have to keep in mind is that the strip is not going to change the color of the actual filling.

It’ll only change the color of your tooth.

So if you keep brightening your tooth, there may be a point at which you start to notice the difference between the filling and your tooth structure.

That is why if I’m ever doing any sort of composite bonding to the front teeth, I always have patients whiten first and then once they reach a color that they like that is easy to maintain, I’ll have them come into the office and then we match our bonding to that shade.

Next, let’s cover what you should do if you already have crowns or veneers on your teeth.

I did a quick Google search of this online.

It seemed to say that whitening strips are fine to use on crowns, veneers, and fillings.

However, as a cosmetic dentist, I would highly, highly recommend against this.

The reason is because porcelain restorations, such as crowns and veneers, have a glaze on them that help make them look nice and shiny.

But with continued use of any over-the-counter or professional whitening products directly on that glaze, it can strip the glaze and make the crowns look dull over time.

The other thing is that similarly to a composite bonding, the whitening strip will have no effect on any porcelain restorations.

So there’s no point in putting the strip on the porcelain restoration.

Now, if you happen to have like for instance two front teeth with crowns and the rest are natural, I think that it’s a great idea to customize your whitening strip.

What you can do is actually take a strip like this, cut it in half, and then put one side around the natural teeth on the right and one side on the natural teeth on the left, avoiding the two front teeth.

I actually have a visual on how I do this on my Instagram Reels.

Now let’s talk about sensitivity, because I think the general consensus is that most people think there’s something wrong when their teeth are sensitive from whitening.

It doesn’t necessarily mean anything is wrong is you’re sensitive from teeth whitening.

In fact, sensitivity is one of those things that is an inherent part of the whitening process.

I would say most people are sensitive to teeth whitening.

But it should be transient and it should disappear within a few days.

Sensitivity is also one of those things that depends on the person.

Some people are just more sensitive to teeth whitening than other people and it doesn’t mean that anything is necessarily wrong, and it doesn’t mean that there’s anything necessarily wrong with the product.

Now, with Crest Whitestrips, the concentration is much lower, so you would expect for there to be much less sensitivity from usage.

But because Crest Whitestrips are not a professional grade product, they actually have additives in the strip to make them more heat stable for when they’re being transported from warehouses to CVS, to Target, to other drug stores.

And that is what makes Crest Whitestrips have a little bit more sensitivity, even though the actual concentration of the product is lower.

So if you happen to be one of those people that are just really, really sensitive to teeth whitening, it may be a good idea to switch to a professional grade product that doesn’t have those additives, but stay at a low concentration and use it a little more diligently.

It’ll take more sessions to get to the desired color, but there’s no point in torturing yourself and making yourself go through so much sensitivity in order to get there.

Overall, I think the most important aspect of using a lower grade over-the-counter product is just to be diligent and consistent to get those results.

Now, let’s say you’ve already used two of these boxes and you’re barely getting any results.

It may be a good idea to get a professional whitening done with your dentist.

They can use much higher concentration products that’ll penetrate the tooth more deeply.

But it may be that you have a type of tooth that doesn’t whiten as easily.

Some types of teeth whiten more easily than others, and I don’t think that people really realize that.

Yellow toned teeth tend to whiten a little bit more easily, whereas gray toned teeth don’t whiten as easily and require much more diligence.

With those types of teeth, even if you are using a higher professional grade product, it may take multiple sessions for you to start to see results.

And the last point I do want to make is that everybody has a different wall that they reach when they’re trying to teeth whiten.

Let’s say that you’ve been bleaching and bleaching and bleaching, and you whitened in the beginning, but you’re not whitening anymore.

It may be that your teeth just won’t whiten anymore than this.

So if you desire to be even brighter than that, it could be that you need to go to a restorative option, like putting a veneer over the tooth, because teeth whitening is not gonna get you there.

Anyways, I hope this video was helpful.

I really do think Crest Whitestrips are a great product, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all for every single person.

So I wanted to do this video to help clarify some of those things.

If you found this video helpful, please subscribe, and I’ll be back next time with another video.

Thanks for watching, bye.

Hi everyone it’s me Dr. Kahng cosmetic dentist and welcome back to my channel.

Today I want to talk about white spots those pesky white spots that are on your teeth what are they and how do you get rid of them if you want to watch stay tuned.

Before we move on if you haven’t already hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss any of my future videos on cosmetic dental procedures.

Now I recently did a white spot reversing procedure on an actress and when she saw the result she cried and she said I just didn’t even realize I could get rid of the white spot and I didn’t realize how much I hated it.

But the truth is white spots occur for different reasons so in this video I’m going to talk about what your white spot possibly could be and how we can treat that white spot.

When I talk to patients about their white spots I commonly find that they first try to whiten their white spots and you want to be very careful with teeth whitening or have an understanding of how teeth whitening is going to impact those white spots because they will all react differently depending on what the white spot is.

To keep this video simple there are three common reasons for white spots.

The first reason is hypocalcification of the enamel.

Hypocalcification of the enamel is where the enamel is missing enamel crystals and because those are missing it’s more porous and soaks up whitening solution like a sponge.

These areas end up looking much brighter after teeth whitening like super super white.

The reason for hypocalcification in most cases is because of oral hygiene especially after braces or during braces when the plaque is not fully removed from the bracket.

If the plaque is not removed around the bracket on a daily basis it can cause demineralization of the enamel and so when the bracket is taken off at the end of braces you will see a little square white spot right in the center of your tooth.

Like I mentioned these white spots are like sponges and they will get even brighter with teeth whitening which may be quite alarming but another thing I want people to know is that if you try to whiten a tooth with one white spot there are most likely other white spots that are not quite as apparent just yet but those white spots also absorb the hydrogen peroxide and become more apparent after teeth whitening.

So what I want people to know is that teeth whitening did not cause the white spots the white spots were always there but they are just made more apparent with teeth whitening.

The second reason for a white spot is fluorosis where fluoride accumulates within the tooth during the maturation phase of tooth formation.

These are tricky to treat because the fluoride has basically become part of the hydroxyapatite molecule forming fluorapatite and what that really means for you is that if you try to whiten this type of white spot the white spot will become really bright just like in the first scenario but the surrounding tooth structure because it’s changed molecularly will not whiten as much so the contrast is even more so just be aware that that may happen if you decide to whiten your teeth.

The only whitening system that I would really recommend for somebody who has fluorosis or is attempting to whiten with fluorosis is the KöR whitening system.

The third type of white spot is from enamel hypoplasia where a certain type of antibiotic usually in the tetracycline family is taken during pregnancy or early childhood.

Similar to fluorosis this will molecularly change the hydroxyapatite because the tetracycline family chelates strongly to the hydroxyapatite molecules making it very difficult to whiten.

Now that we’ve covered the three main reasons for white spots how do we treat them.

One treatment method is called Icon from DMG.

It is basically a white spot reversing treatment that is very conservative.

The patient just comes into the office we will isolate the area so that none of the solution gets onto the gums and then we will treat the white spot through a series of different chemicals and let the white spot reabsorb and reinforce with resin.

Now in my experience there are some white spots that are so deeply ingrained in the teeth that this treatment will not fully cover it up in which case I have other methods to combine with this treatment.

So I use this treatment as the first go-around.

The pros of this treatment again is that we’re not having to drill the teeth and there’s no anesthesia involved and then afterwards I’ll see how much of the white spot has disappeared and then I’ll plan an additional restorative treatment to piggyback off of what we have already done.

Overall I think Icon is a really cool treatment because other than that there are two more treatment modalities that I think most people use.

The second most common treatment with a white spot is to microabrade it or to drill it away and to cover it with a composite bonding.

Now you can see why Icon is the preferred method because drilling away enamel always kind of hurts our hearts because once the enamel is gone it does not come back.

However it’s not the worst case because we try to keep the drilling very minimal and only around the white spot just enough so that we can cover it back up with composite bonding.

One thing you may want to know about composite bonding is that the filling material that is used to cover up that white spot will stain over time and so it does need to be replaced frequently depending on your habits at home.

So if you are drinking a lot of coffee or a lot of wine that composite may stain and need to be replaced.

Now let’s say that you want to whiten your teeth that composite will also not change color and become as bright as your tooth so just keep that in mind if you do want to do composite bonding you will probably want to whiten your teeth first and then match that composite bonding to the color of your teeth.

The third option are veneers those are coverings for your teeth and this is a great way to get a little bit more uniformity and an added bonus is that you can choose a color and a shape that is more flattering for your face and smile.

The nice thing about it is that the color is also stable so it will not be affected by teeth whitening and you do not need to refresh that little composite every single time it stains.

All right those are your three options.

I have other videos if you want to know more about veneers or composite bonding.

Most importantly I just want people to know that if you are living with a white spot on your tooth you do not have to live with it forever there are treatments that can help reverse or diminish the look of the white spot so that it blends in better with the rest of your teeth structure.

All right that’s it for this video if you found this video helpful please hit the subscribe button hit the thumbs up and I will be back next time with another video bye.

Hi everyone it’s me Dr. Kahng cosmetic dentist and welcome back to my channel.

Today we’re going to talk about three types of teeth that will not whiten well so if you’ve been struggling with whitening your teeth stay tuned.

Before we move forward if you haven’t already hit the subscribe button below so you don’t miss any of my future videos on cosmetic dental procedures.

Now if you’ve been whitening your teeth even whitening your teeth in a professional dental office and you’re not really satisfied with the results I have some news for you.

The truth is some people whiten more easily than other people so while most people wonder what is the best whitening solution what is the best product it’s oftentimes not as much about the product it oftentimes comes down to you and your teeth.

In addition to that not everybody is capable of whitening to the same degree if you’ve been whitening your teeth a lot and you feel like you’ve hit a plateau and you’re just not whitening anymore you may have hit a wall whitening may not take you to that final result that you’re envisioning in your head so we have to be really realistic about the power of teeth whitening.

Today I want to talk about three different types of teeth that I see that simply just do not whiten easily.

Now that doesn’t mean that you cannot whiten them you may get results from whitening but you will not get the same amount of results as the person next door.

For all three of these situations I would suggest using a different type of whitening because of how stubborn these teeth generally are and that is the KöR whitening system.

More than likely something like a Crest White Strip which is over the counter and much lower concentration is not going to be very effective on these types of teeth.

The first type of tooth is a tetracycline stained tooth.

This type of staining occurs when an antibiotic in the tetracycline family is taken during pregnancy or early childhood.

The tetracycline antibiotic family chelates strongly with the hydroxyapatite molecules making it very very stubborn and difficult to whiten.

That is because traditional teeth whitening is usually done with a hydrogen peroxide based product which bubbles and oxygenates and lifts those dark stains out of the teeth.

However if the tetracycline antibiotic has chelated with the hydroxyapatite molecule it becomes one with the molecule making it very very difficult to lift.

What you should know is that not all tetracycline stains are to the same degree some are easier to lift than others depending on when it was taken and how long the antibiotic was taken and if it is in the enamel or just the dentin.

If this topic interests you I can make an entire video on tetracycline staining so let me know in the comments below if that’s something you guys are interested in otherwise I’m going to move on to the next type of tooth that is very difficult to whiten which is the gray tooth or the translucent tooth.

People who have translucency in their tooth often complain that it makes their tooth look like it’s see-through or that it’s gray-toned.

Some people are born with more translucency within their tooth than others and I find that translucency to a certain degree is very pretty.

A lot of dentists love to see translucency but I find that patients don’t really love translucency reason being that no matter how much you whiten the translucency makes the tooth not look as white.

I do hear from a lot of people that they believe that the teeth whitening is what caused the translucency in their teeth and that’s a myth.

People are born with translucency it’s just a matter of how well you can see it oftentimes if the teeth are darker or stained the translucency is not as apparent but as you continue to whiten the translucency almost becomes more obvious and it may seem like the teeth whitening caused the translucency when it was really always there.

A good way to check as to whether you have translucency in your teeth is to take a cotton roll and put it behind your two front teeth then shine a light and see how much of the translucency you can see when there is something behind there.

Now if you have translucency in your teeth but you don’t love it can you still whiten them yes teeth whitening will still be effective however the translucency may become even more apparent to you because instead of having dark stained teeth with translucency now your teeth are lighter with translucency which I think most people still prefer.

However the point of me going over this is that if you’re imagining having really really bright teeth from teeth whitening it’s just not going to get there a veneer or a covering for the tooth might be a better option in order to give that look that the patient is going for.

The third type of tooth that will not whiten very well is if you have a root canal or if you have a calcified canal.

If a tooth has a root canal in it it tends to turn dark over time and the best way to lighten it back up is to do internal bleaching that is where the dentist goes in through the back of the tooth puts in a little pellet of whitening solution so that the tooth can whiten from the inside out.

In the scenario of a dead nerve or calcified nerve or root canal you may notice that that one tooth is just a little bit darker than the rest so oftentimes if you have one dark tooth a single dark tooth somewhere inside your smile usually has something going on with the nerve.

In the case of an obliterated canal or calcified canal there is no opening because there is no root canal and so internal bleaching is not possible in this type of case what you can do is get a custom tray made and you can apply whitening solution just to that one tooth so you can catch it up to the rest of the teeth.

Now oftentimes you won’t be able to catch it up all the way but if it’s on the bottom most people are fine with that because it just ends up blending in just a little bit better.

However if it’s on a top tooth most people do end up getting some sort of covering just to blend it in to the rest of the teeth.

Okay so those are the three types of teeth that I see as a cosmetic dentist that do not whiten easily.

It’s funny because I see people’s teeth and just tell whether they’re going to be receptive to teeth whitening but I wanted to explain why you may be struggling if you haven’t been seeing results with teeth whitening at home.

If you found this video helpful hit the subscribe button and I’ll be back next time with another video bye.