How to Whiten Dental Implants
Dental implants are a type of dental work installed by a periodontist to restore a missing tooth or teeth and provide an alternative for patients who have bridges or partial dentures. Because prosthetic teeth are designed to fill in a gap, they are produced in a color matching the other surrounding teeth, and if you choose to whiten your natural teeth, you may need to whiten the dental implants to match. Understanding the exact process of whitening porcelain is essential when attempting to whiten dental implants, since dental work cannot be whitened the same way as natural teeth. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Determine the material out of which your dental work is made, since dental implants and veneers may be made out of plastic or porcelain, and while porcelain does not change color over time, plastic may stain or discolor.
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Determine whether your dental work includes translucent veneers, since a translucent veneer is designed to show the color of the tooth underneath the prosthetic shell, and can be whitened using cosmetic tooth-whitening methods.
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Talk to your dentist before your choose to whiten natural teeth if you have existing dental work, since whitening porcelain is not possible and the dental work will need to be replaced to match the new color of teeth. Your dentist may caution you against whitening the natural teeth if the expense or risk of replacing dental work is great.
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Consider getting veneers to whiten dental implants, since veneers can be used to effectively cover the color on one or more teeth and the veneer color can be selected to match the color of dental work to the color of your other teeth without replacing dental implants or crowns.
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Choose porcelain for any new veneers or dental work, since porcelain never discolors and whitening porcelain will never be necessary unless you choose to whiten your natural teeth whiter than the color of your dental work.
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Blend the whiteness of your natural teeth so that the teeth surrounding your dental implants are closer to the color of the implant. This will effectively blend the color of the implants into the rest of your smile if you do not want to cover the dental implants with new dental work.
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Tips & Warnings
Plan ahead about how whitening of natural teeth will affect your dental work before you make any decision to whiten your teeth, and make sure you are happy with the color of your teeth before getting new dental work to match the existing tooth color.
