If whiter teeth is something you’ve always dreamed about, you are not alone. At Russo Dentistry, our focus on aesthetic dentistry lends itself to patients who want healthier, brighter smiles.
There are different ways to getting whiter teeth. It varies by patient depending on what kind of stain is present. More specifically, teeth become discolored from either internal and/or external staining. Internal and external staining are treated differently.
Getting whiter teeth with external stains
External staining is most common in patients that drink coffee, red wine, use tobacco, etc. and can be treated effectively with abrasives such as whitening toothpaste. The one drawback of using abrasives is that it causes your enamel to thin which therefore shows the layer below your enamel called dentin, which has a yellow/orange color resulting in teeth that appear more yellow. So when treating external staining, it is important to use the least abrasive approach to preserve existing tooth enamel.
Getting whiter teeth with internal stains
Internal staining is different and often times patients with similar habits and diets develop staining inside the enamel because teeth are porous. Internal stains need to be chemically dissolved in order to appear whiter. For these patients, I use in office power bleaching procedures such as Zoom whitening.
For teeth that will not whiten by either method there are other options available. We encourage you to visit our cosmetic dentistry page and learn about your options.
The more you know, the more educated you are in your decision making!
Smile,
Justin Russo, DDS
919-890-5417
