Risks/side effects of teeth whitening

Shortly after bleaching, unpleasant hypersensitivity of the teeth can occur, which is particularly noticeable with hot or cold food and drinks. The cause is that water is extracted from the tooth during the bleaching treatment. Only later is more water stored again, the hypersensitivity then decreases.

Furthermore, during the treatment, allergic reactions of the gums to the applied gel can occur. In this case the treatment should be stopped and the gel that has reached the gums should be rinsed off immediately. Alternatively, another chemical substance can be used for bleaching. Furthermore, it must be noted that during treatment with the chemical in the mouth, a not inconsiderable amount is swallowed by the patient with the saliva during and after the treatment and thus gets into the stomach. This can lead to irritation and inflammation of the stomach lining, nausea and vomiting and allergic hypersensitivity reactions.

How much does bleaching cost?

In the dental practice, care must be taken to ensure that the gums, tongue and oral mucosa are not affected by the hydrogen peroxide containing agent. The preparation for whitening the teeth is therefore very extensive and the bleaching costs are correspondingly high. In addition, there are different methods for dental accounting:

So-called in-office (or power) bleaching causes costs of approximately 250 to 600 Euros for the patient.

With “power bleaching”, high-dose agents are used. To protect the gums from possible damage, a cofferdam must be placed before the actual treatment. Then the bleaching agent is applied to the teeth and irradiated with short-wave light.

The application lasts between 15 and 45 minutes and can be repeated if the result is insufficient. – In order to achieve faster whitening effects, it is possible to irradiate the teeth with a laser during the bleaching process, this is called laser bleaching. The costs amount to about 600 Euro.

In the so-called “home bleaching”, a splint individually adapted to the patient’s jaw is produced in the dental laboratory. This splint is coated at home with a gel containing hydrogen peroxide and is placed on the teeth. As a rule, about seven applications, even five hours, are sufficient to remove slight discolouration.

The costs for a visible result with home bleaching (usually several applications are necessary) are about 250 to 400 Euros. Depending on the product chosen, the purchase can be more or less expensive. In addition, as already mentioned, a tooth splint must be produced in the laboratory.

Alternative bleaching methods

Not every bleaching has to be done by the dentist. Nowadays, there are numerous products available in pharmacies and drugstores that promise to whiten the teeth by very different methods. An important factor, especially with toothpastes, is an abrasive mechanism, which is based on the assumption that the discoloured surface of the tooth is removed by rubbing additives in the toothpaste, the discoloured surface of the tooth by daily brushing.

If at all, tooth brushing must be done over weeks and months with the same product to achieve a slight effect. There are also toothpastes and gels that have to be applied to the teeth and work on the same principle as dental bleaching. Here, substances are added to the toothpaste which remove the colouring from the tooth.

The effectiveness is limited, however, because the concentration of the chemical substances is limited in the case of freely available products. Here too, it must be noted that the effects, if they occur, are not permanent and must be repeated at regular intervals. If the user wears implants or crowns, it must also be taken into account that the whitening effects between real and artificial teeth are not necessarily identical and that cosmetically unattractive differences may occur.