Many patients use the term bleaching for the procedure for whitening teeth. However, dentists do not use bleach to whiten teeth. Bleach is used to whiten clothes and in Dentistry bleach is used in cleaning and sterilizing root canals, not to bleach teeth.

          Teeth are made of salt crystals much like table salt. Everyone has done the experiment where you hang some yarn into a glass of salt water and large salt crystals form on the yarn as the water evaporates. The crystals are white. What makes teeth yellow or dark is the stuff that gets stuck inside the salt, not the salt.

          Dental bleaching involves soaking teeth in a liquid that goes into the tooth and dissolves everything that is not part of the crystal. The result is that the tooth is left with it's natural white color.

          The first step is to be sure that there is nothing wrong with your teeth. A comprehensive examination is done with complete x-rays. Impressions are taken of the upper and lower teeth and plaster casts are made that are exactly the same as the patient's mouth. Very precise clear rubber covers are made that fit to the patient's teeth extremely well. The dentist then checks the fit of these covers and provides the patient with detailed instructions.

          The patient then places a small amount of the bleaching material into the covers and wears them for approximately 4 hours per day for two days. If there are no problems the patient then wears the covers for eight hours while sleeping for one week.

          The primary problem that might result is tooth sensitivity to hot and cold. If this happens we desensitize the patient's teeth for two weeks using a professional strength fluoride instead of the bleaching material. The bleaching procedure is again resumed with a four hour per day schedule.