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Tooth whitening is a method which enables us to lighten the colour of your teeth, to give them a more attractive colour and shine. This will improve the appearance of your smile. There are different tooth-whitening techniques, depending on the problem. We will therefore make a complete analysis of your mouth and smile before proceeding.
Thanks to teeth whitening, you can obtain and recover a bright smile.
At our dental clinic in Donostia, we start with a complete check-up of your mouth. We have to be sure that you have no tooth decay or leaky fillings that need attention before proceeding. We also check your gums for inflamation and treat gingivitis if required.
During the first appointment at JM Arizala, we talk to the patient about the appearance they hope to achieve and whether or not they need to whiten their teeth. Sometimes we come across severe cases of quite or very dark coloured teeth due to the fact that, as children, the patient was given an antibiotic. Here we must take account of the fact that, although whitening will improve the brightness of their teeth, should the patient wish them to be even whiter, they would also have to have porcelain veneers fitted.
We use two techniques: external whitening of the whole denture and internal whitening of devitalised, blackened teeth.
Whitening the smiling surface of your teeth means combining visits to the clinic with doing your own part of the treatment at home. It is important to have your teeth cleaned by your dentist at their surgery before starting the whitening process.
Here the tooth whitening process involves first of all taking impressions or moulds of your top and bottom teeth. These are used to make customised plastic trays to fit over your teeth, like the ones you can see in the picture.
Once ready, we give you a whitening gel for dispensing into the parts of the tray that come into contact with the smiling surface of your teeth. Our dentist, an expert in dental aesthetics and teeth whitening in Donostia, will explain how it’s done.
Every night you will have to slip the tray into your mouth and keep it in overnight, with the amount of gel established by the dentist and for exactly the amount of time indicated so as not to damage the enamel.
On removing your dental tray, it is important to clean it with water and one of the effervescent tablets prescribed at our clinic in San Sebastian. You must then dry it and put it away in the special box provided until the next day.
You’ll soon start to see the results and the treatment can be stopped after only a few weeks, when your smile will have become lighter and brighter.
Visit us at JM Arizala, our dental aesthetic experts will advise you.
Remember that the whitening gel makes your teeth a little more sensitive to hot and cold during the two to four weeks of your treatment.
While some patients hardly notice it, others find it more bothersome. Sensitivity tends to be greater in patients who have suffered episodes of inflamed gums or whose gums have retracted, leaving the roots exposed.
This sensitivity is usually tolerable, especially as it will only last for the duration of the treatment. We also give our patients toothpaste rich in fluoride to reduce the sensitive feeling.
However, if you avoid very hot food and drinks the treatment should give you no problems.
You must also remember not to eat or drink products that will stain your teeth during the whitening process. While the whitening treatment is underway, the ducts by which the whitening agents penetrate your teeth remain open. This means that they are also open to dark food colours that will prevent your teeth from whitening properly.
It is therefore very important not to ingest dark-coloured food such as liquorice, squid in its ink, red wine or dark-coloured beer. Patients can however drink white wine and lager.
In the case of coffee, it is better either to avoid drinking it all together or to drink it diluted in plenty of milk. You should avoid smoking where possible too. This applies both during the whitening treatment and for the two weeks afterwards. From then on you can return to your usual habits.
During this period, you should therefore avoid the following:
It is important to clean your teeth well before applying a home whitening product and after eating or drinking.
It is important to avoid the following medicines during your teeth whitening treatment and for the two weeks after it:
It is also important during your teeth whitening treatment not to brush your teeth or use a mouthwash containing chlorhexidine.
The best way to keep your teeth white is to ensure that both your teeth and your gums stay in very good health. Inflamed gums cause more plaque to accumulate on the teeth, making them look darker and showing irregular stains.
As usual, you must brush your teeth well and as often as recommended at the point where they meet the gums and for one or two minutes after every meal. Different brands of whitening toothpaste will help to prevent food pigment from sticking to the tooth surface and therefore to maintain their natural colour.
If you smoke and drink coffee, to keep your teeth whiter for longer, we recommend that, as well as using whitening toothpaste, you have your teeth cleaned every six months at our clinic, where we will remove built-up plaque with flakes of rubber causing no damage whatsoever to the enamel. This will allow you to boast a natural bright and shining smile.
In some rare cases, devitalised teeth darken and stand out from those around them. There is a specific treatment for whitening teeth in this situation.
The dentist will open your tooth or molar until coming to the product used to fill the devitalised area. After protecting the interior of the root with a plug, he will insert a whitening gel, which releases oxygen and whitens the tooth.
For the gel to function, it must not come into contact with the air, meaning that the tooth must be properly filled and the channel of access to the whitening gel completely closed.
The gel remains in place for a week, after which we will study the results at the surgery. In the event of wanting it to be whiter, we will replace the gel for a further week. Depending on how dark the tooth is, it will take from two to four weeks to whiten. Finally, once it has acquired the same colour as those around it, the tooth is given another filling in the same colour, recovering the attractive appearance of your smile.
Afterwards, we can also whiten all of your teeth, using the external whitening technique initially explained above.
While whitening will certainly lighten your teeth, in the event of wanting an even whiter result, we can also offer a treatment with porcelain veneers.
Don’t hesitate to contact us if you’d like to know more
You’ll find us at the Calle Ferrerías, 5, San Sebastian.
