Can Teeth Whitening Help Uneven Color?

My daughter had white spots on her teeth after her braces were removed. It was quite distressing for her, so I brought her to our dentist who suggested we do teeth whitening to fix it. We opted for Zoom Whitening because that could fix it in just one appointment, but the teeth are still uneven. Should I have done the regular teeth whitening?

Brenda

Dear Brenda,

Unfortunately, you’ve been given bad advice. I’m guessing your dentist is a fairly decent bread and butter dentist but hasn’t invested any time in understanding the cosmetic side of his field. This treatment tends to make the white spots even more obvious.

When you use teeth whitening, it whitens the teeth evenly. It wouldn’t have mattered if you used Zoom or take-home teeth whitening trays. The Zoom whitening would definitely have whitened her teeth, but the color is still uneven because the spots on her teeth were whitened along with the rest of her tooth structure.

White spots on teeth are signs of decalcification, which are the early stages of tooth decay. This happens when the patient had trouble brushing thoroughly around all those metal wires and brackets of her braces. Her orthodontist should have warned her about this and encouraged her to really get in there.

The Solution to White Spots After Braces

There is a product known as Tooth Mousse which has had some success in treating this problem. In fact, it can remineralize the spots.

Another option would be microabrasion. However, this tends to make the teeth look creamier. It’s not my recommended treatment.
There is a third option.

I’d recommend dental bonding. This is done by removing the soft spots and then covering them with a composite resin.

One word of caution. Don’t let your current family dentist do the bonding if you decide to go this route. He doesn’t have enough understanding of cosmetic procedures. This requires some skill and artistry as it has to be done free-hand. Plus, he’d need a thorough knowledge of color theory to get the tooth color even throughout the tooth. I don’t think he has this skill.

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