I am about to get a dental crown on a front tooth and I want to so some teeth whitening ahead of time. I’ve been told the crown color will be permanent so I want to make it a better color. I asked my dentist some questions he couldn’t answer and I’m hoping you can so I can start moving forward with my needed (and wanted) procedures. Here are my questions:
1. How many days will I need to whiten?
2. How long each day?
3. Is there a time period to wait between whitening and crown or can I do it immediately?
Thanks,
Penny
Dear Penny,
I am a tad concerned that your dentist was not able to answer these questions. Doing teeth whitening is the absolute most basic cosmetic procedure. Any dentist should be able to do it and understand the principles behind it. If yours does not, and it doesn’t sound like they do, they are certainly not going to be able to provide you with a beautiful crown. This is especially true with when it comes to a crown on a front tooth. These are the most difficult to match perfectly because of their exposure to light when we smile which reveals all the subtle variations in the tooth.
How Teeth Whitening Works
The first thing you need to decide is do you want them to be as white as they can as quickly as possible or do you want more control over their level of whiteness? If you want them very white very fast, I would go somewhere that offers Zoom Whitening. This will allow you to whiten your teeth in just one appointment. If you want control over the color, then go with the at-home whitening. This will use the bleaching trays you see above.
Your dentist will custom fit these trays to your particular bite then provide you with the whitening gel to place in the trays while you wear the trays.
Now, here is where your first two questions come into play. While there is not a quantitative answer, there is a basic principle. The longer you wear them each day, the faster your teeth will whiten and the fewer days you will need to continue. I would wear them for as along as you can tolerate with twenty minutes being the bare minimum to adequately penetrate the tooth each day. Many patients who do tray whitening prefer to sleep in the trays.
Your third question is the easiest. I would give between one to two weeks from the time you stop whitening until your crown is designed. This is true no matter which type of teeth whitening you decide on.
I hope this helped.
Seriously consider finding a more advanced cosmetic dentist for your crown.
This blog is brought to you by Ahwatukee Dentist Dr. Harveer Kaur.