InfoBarrel > Health > Surgery & Treatment > Dental

Teeth Whitening Enamel Damage

0 Comments | Rating: 0 | |

Are you sick and tired of your stained, yellow teeth? Join the club! Many other people who have reached a certain age have watched their teeth lose more and more of their natural, shiny whiteness over the years. It's frustrating to not be able to do something about it. You can brush your teeth as long and as hard as you want, but you can never brush out the yellow! The discoloration of our teeth is caused by years of consuming wine, soda, tea, coffee and cigarettes. Not everybody uses all of these, but most people consume at least 1 or 2 of these things!

If you've thought about whitening your teeth so you can have a pretty smile again, then you are sure to have noticed the many advertisements for teeth whitening in magazines and on the radio and television. There are so many products and services available today, you probably don't know what to choose! One choice you could make are either tray or strip systems for use at home. These teeth whitening systems have carbamide peroxide as their active ingredient. This is a very aggressive substance that will release its hydrogen on your teeth when you are using the product

These carbamide peroxide solutions should be no more than 10% concentrated. Anything above that will quickly increase the risk of you damaging your teeth and getting all sorts of nasty teeth whitening side effects.

Teeth Whitening Enamel Damage

When you are wise and you stick to the 'no higher than 10%'-rule, you are pretty much safe. The 10% solutions have gained a wide acceptance in the world of dentistry. Many consumers have used the 10% solution before you and their results are mostly satisfactory. Carbamide peroxide in low concentrations is unlikely to harm your teeth, unless you use it completely incorrectly.

So how exactly does this substance cause damage to your enamel?

Carbamide peroxide is just hydrogen peroxide plus urea. The urea keeps the hydrogen peroxide more stable to give it a longer shelf life and plays no role in the whitening process. It's the hydrogen peroxide that does the actual whitening!

When the hydrogen peroxide gets into your enamel, it will break down the discolored compounts therein. The byproducts are colorless and your teeth's natural whiteness is once again revealed.

If too much hydrogen peroxide were to get into your enamel at once, it would disintegrate your enamel and it wouldn't regenerate. This is why low concentrations have to be used. And the carbamide peroxide makes sure that only 50% of the hydrogen peroxide is released in the first hour. The other 50% is released in the hours after that.

This slow release process greatly decreases the chances of you sustaining teeth whitening enamel damage!