Teeth Whitening - replacing Caps

joejoem

Hey,

I lost a tooth when I was younger in a hurling match. When I was 22 I had the tooth and three surrounding teeth capped so they were straight and matched. I told the dentist I wanted white teeth so he gave me a bleeching kit. To cut to the chase, I got the caps that match the teeth I have but I am not happy. A few years have passed and I would like to get it sorted. I will pay the money to get it done, I want my teeth to be white, the colgate add white. Is there a way to get this done with a dentist apart from the standard bleaching? Money isn't an issue.


Thanks

LookingFor

I presume your dentist gave you an at-home bleaching kit?

The other option is an in-clinic 'laser' bleaching.

I am sort of in a similar situation to you in that I am about to have veneers put on two of my front teeth, and prior to that I want to have my teeth whitened, so they are all an even, white, shade. I have tried an at-home bleaching kit provided by my dentist, and while I did see dramatic improvement, the results are not as good as I think they could be. I find that these kits given a slightly uneven shade - whiter towards the edge of the tooth, more yellow towards the gum line. Since these kits do a little each time you use them, I find that it would take a lot of use to bring up the shade of teeth towards the back..the shade does differ quite substantially between my front four teeth, and the rest. A lot of people would say I'm being very fussy, but I have friend whose teeth are white-white, from gum to tip and at least across all of his visible teeth (and he hasn't been to a dentist in years :rolleyes: ), so I know that better should be possible, and I'm hoping I can get that from an in-clinic bleaching.

joejoem

LookingFor wrote:

I presume your dentist gave you an at-home bleaching kit?

The other option is an in-clinic 'laser' bleaching.

I am sort of in a similar situation to you in that I am about to have veneers put on two of my front teeth, and prior to that I want to have my teeth whitened, so they are all an even, white, shade. I have tried an at-home bleaching kit provided by my dentist, and while I did see dramatic improvement, the results are not as good as I think they could be. I find that these kits given a slightly uneven shade - whiter towards the edge of the tooth, more yellow towards the gum line. Since these kits do a little each time you use them, I find that it would take a lot of use to bring up the shade of teeth towards the back..the shade does differ quite substantially between my front four teeth, and the rest. A lot of people would say I'm being very fussy, but I have friend whose teeth are white-white, from gum to tip and at least across all of his visible teeth (and he hasn't been to a dentist in years :rolleyes: ), so I know that better should be possible, and I'm hoping I can get that from an in-clinic bleaching.

Yeah I got an expensive at home bleaching kit, I had to get a mould of my teeth take for a gum shield to use at night. I would wake up after 3 or 4 hours in pain. i dont like bleaching kits, I think they are a temporary solution.

Like you I want the white white teeth from top to bottom. On some of my teeth I have a white patch in the centre and yellowish towards the edges. I'm told this is a calcium defect and its relatively common.

I was looking at this website for a dentist in Bulgaria

http://www.dentaprime.com/content-english/preisbeispiele.html

where I can go over for a weeks break and get veneers put on all of my front teeth for about €5000. Thats more along the lines of what I was thinking. A once and for all solution that doesnt involve bleaching.

Any opinions or advice?

LookingFor

I had the same kind of kit, except for day time. They are cheaper than laser bleaching, but I guess you get what you pay for. I would have the same issues with sensitivity with the at-home kit too, although I was only putting mine in for an hour, every other day.

Going abroad for treatment is getting pretty popular, and it may be more economical to do what you're suggesting. But I'm guessing some people might chime in here and say that you should be conservative about what teeth you treat like this, and limit the veneers to only those teeth that need them, rather than capping all your front teeth just because of colouring. Heck, my regular dentist is reluctant to even cap my out-of-shape teeth because he deems it unnecessary and invasive on what are technically healthy teeth (even if aesthetically unappealing) - hence I'm going to a specialist to get it done.

Unfortunately I've no experience of laser bleaching myself, and I'd also be interested to hear the experiences of any others who have had it. I'd be quite disappointed if even after laser bleaching my teeth were still just off-colour, or still uneven.

(I know there's a limit to the 'natural' whiteness of teeth, and only so far that bleaching can go, but having seen how much more consistently white my friend's natural teeth are, I'm thinking more should be possible, especially since I'm a non-smoker etc.)