Internal Tooth Bleaching

Tooth whitening has outgrown itself in marvelous ways. Although definitely a cosmetic dental procedure, it is by far much more popular than any other one, indeed, in some countries, tooth whitening is more popular than all other cosmetic procedures combined. It is a procedure that many of us feel is indispensable, and do not feel like our teeth are completely clean without them.

Whitening sessions

I am sure you have heard of the classic way of whitening your teeth, with a tray full of liquid that you bite into, or have it applied to your teeth, and then wait for it to remove stains. But what is the deal with internal whitening? What does that even mean? It is a procedure you can hear more and more about, but what does it entail, and is it an alternative to regular whitening sessions?

What it means

These types of whitening sessions are not the same kind of whitening sessions that you have heard about. First of all, they do not whiten all of your teeth, and, much like the name would imply, they do not whiten the outside of your teeth, but the inside of them. Why is this necessary?

Whitening the inside of your teeth becomes necessary after a root canal treatment. Often times, after the root canal treatment, there is residual blood and other fluids in the tooth that need to be cleaned out of their in order to restore the tooth to its previous state. The tooth may look black and dead if there is blood in the internal structures. By cleaning it, you get your old tooth back. This is done by scooping out the blood and stained internal structures like the dentine, and then the hole is filled with a rubber like substance. The substance is mostly just a synthetic dentine replacement material, but also has peroxide or sodium perborate tetrahydrate to help kill the germs and block the spread of bacteria. After this is done, the hole is sealed and the outside of the tooth will also usually be whitened to match the insides, and give the tooth a luxurious new look.

As you see, internal whitening is only used when teeth have previously been damaged, otherwise, with the insides of teeth remaining completely sealed off from the outside world, there is no need to whiten it, as the insides of the teeth never become discolored.

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