Teeth whitening & gums

Bleaching techniques overview:

having a bright smile is everyone’s dream these days especially that the procedure become really popular, effective, affordable and almost harmless .Teeth whitening can be introduced in many forms that can be categorized in two main categories “dentist applied” and “home bleaching”. Dentist applied is simply when the application of the material is performed in the dental clinic using high concentrations of hydrogen or sometimes carbamide peroxides bleaching gels the process here take about one or two visits 30m-1h .

Home  teeth whitening in the form of trays (night guard), stripes or any other forms is applied by the patient after being prescribed by the dentist. Home bleaching agents usually based on carbamide peroxides solutions with varying concentration. For example tray or night guard bleaching technique the carbamide peroxide is in the form of gel that is retained on the teeth by the use of custom tray that is prepared by the dentist or a ready made tray that can be adapted easily by the patient  to the teeth . The patient wear the loaded tray every night from 3-7 days till the patient reach the satisfying color.

So after our fast overview about the dental bleaching forms available let’s talk a little about the causes of gum problems during dental bleaching procedures.

Why some patients have gums burning during and after teeth bleaching:

The bleaching process is mainly an oxidation process simply the free oxygen released from the peroxides inside the whitening gel breaks the large molecules of stains into smaller and lighter molecules. Unfortunately the contact of the oxidative peroxides with the gums can cause burning , Gum turn into dead white color as a result of oxidation  this is a temporarily harm and will be reversed in hours as we will mention afterword.

So how to prevent gums burning during teeth whitening:

First thing the patient have to be assured that minimal gums burning is normal during bleaching and can be managed easily or even prevented with a little effort.

During “dentist applied bleaching” the dentist usually isolated the gums in a way or another sometimes using some kind or resin that is painted on the gums or even rubber dam that cover the whole mouth and exposing only the anterior teeth that need to be treated.

In home bleaching technique the most important thing is to follow the manufacture instructions :

1-Using too much gel on the tray will cause the excess to ooze on the gingivae which will cause more burning so don’t overfill the tray and if any excess gel comes in contact with the gums remove it quickly to keep the burning minimal.

2-Also don’t exceed the application time advised by the manufacture or your dentist not to burn your gums also may cause teeth sensitivity.

3-last thing be calm i know that the gums looks very bad but don’t worry in a matter of hours it will retain it’s nice pink color so nothing to worry about and enjoy your nice looking smile.

last thing call your dentist if the burning last more than 24 hours.