How white can I get my teeth

How white can I get my teeth
How white can I get my teeth?

It is something of a myth that natural teeth are absolutely dead white. The teeth of a young person soon after they have appeared in the mouth can be close to perfect white, and they also have a degree of translucency which adds to their visual appeal, but they still have a degree of colouration in them.

The pigmentation of teeth varies from person to person much like that of the eyes or hair, but as a general rule our teeth are fairly white when we are young but tend to get progressively darker with age. This is due in part to more tooth substance being gradually laid down inside the teeth which gradually diminishes the size of the cavity in the middle of the teeth where the nerves and blood vessels are, (the pulp), and gradually increases the density of tooth substance making the teeth look darker.

The second reason teeth darken with age is due to absorption of stains over time due to smoking, or from food and drinks like tea and coffee.

Dentists use a shade guide to determine the right colours to make artificial crowns to match in with natural teeth, and such a shade guide is very useful when you set out to whiten your teeth as you can see the amount of improvement. Teeth generally have slight shades of yellow, pink, grey, or brown in them, and the actual hue doesn�t change as we get older, but rather the shade of the hue darkens. The whitest teeth are probably a shade B1 on the usual shade guide, and this is very white with just a faint hint of yellow. Another common shade found in natural teeth is a light greyish one and this would be C2 or C3 on a shade guide.

When you whiten your teeth they often go much whiter to begin with, maybe up to 5 shades, but then gradual settle down and end up about 2-3 shades whiter. So an older person with grey teeth due to smoking may start at C4 and expect to end up as C1-C2. This may not sound that dramatic, but indeed it is an extremely noticeable difference, and anyone with teeth the shade of C1 would be very happy.

Similarly someone starting out at B4 with quite yellow teeth may expect to reach B1-B2 after a period of teeth whitening treatment. The �rebound� effect is inevitable and is probably partly due to some dehydration that occurs during the teeth bleaching process.
This is reckoned not to be harmful but it does mean that you might want to take that into account. Severe dehydration is most likely to occur with �power� or �laser� whitening carried out in the dental chair, since a much more concentrated bleaching agent is used together with a powerful light.

This dehydration accounts for the postoperative hypersensitivity of teeth often experienced for a while after power whitening. This effect is much less noticeable with home whitening treatments that are gentler in their action, especially with non-peroxide systems like Zero Peroxide.

The aim then, of whitening your teeth, is to make them lighter in colour, brighter, and more attractive looking. They should still look natural though, and not dead white like granny�s false teeth, otherwise they will look artificial too. If you choose a reliable whitening treatment that aims for up to 5 shades whiter and includes a shade guide with the kit or treatment, then you should be very satisfied with the final result.
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