How Do Cold Light Teeth Whitening? The Dentist Will Tell You Step by Step!

Cold light teeth whitening is a publicity that can often be seen in bus and subway advertisements. Just as how to keep your teeth beautiful and white is one of the most timeless topics a dentist will be asked.

01. What exactly is cold light teeth whitening?

Cold light teeth whitening is actually a relatively commercial title. Academically, it is called tooth bleaching. The word "cold light" makes the term tooth bleaching suddenly high-end.

From a principle point of view: bleaching is to use an oxidizing agent (such as hydrogen peroxide, carbamide peroxide) on the surface of the crown for bleaching. And in the process of oxidant bleaching, laser, infrared and cold light irradiation will also be used to increase the decolorization effect.

Therefore, cold light is actually only an auxiliary means, and the important thing is the effect of bleaching agent. This method is a more effective treatment method for teeth with relatively complete exogenous staining of the crown, mild to moderate fluorosis, and tetracycline teeth.

Some friends may be afraid that the "hydrogen peroxide" will "damage" the teeth. This seems reasonable, but it is actually too much to worry about: the concentration of hydrogen peroxide is low enough and won't cause permanent damage to the teeth.

02.Cold light teeth whitening step by step

After asking the patient's consent, I collected photos of the whole process of treatment to show you!

1. Before starting work:

   
   

a. Opening eye protection: It can keep the patient open continuously without getting tired, and prevent the eyes from being irradiated by strong light.

b. Clean the tooth surface: meticulous tooth surface polishing and sandblasting.

c. Gum protection: very important! The gums and tooth margins are coated with a barrier material to avoid direct contact of oxidizing agents with the gum tissue.

2. Key steps:

a. Apply "whitening agent": first apply a whitening agent (hydrogen peroxide gel) on the surface of the teeth.

Which teeth should be whitened? Dentists generally ask for the patient's request, and of course, the vast majority of people will choose the front teeth - because the back teeth can't be seen at all!

b. Tooth lighting: Use special lighting for about 20 to 40 minutes.

If you experience this kind of soreness and discomfort during the illumination process, you should report it to the doctor in time, and the doctor can adjust the time and intensity of the illumination according to the size of your reaction.

c. Repeat: After a treatment process is over, the whitening gel is sucked away, and a new gel is reapplied to the teeth that need to be whitened, and the light is continued. Repeat this about 2 to 3 times to completely absorb the whitening gel, remove the gum protector, and rinse your mouth.

After one time of light whitening, if there is no obvious discomfort, in order to make the whitening effect better, it is necessary to return to the clinic for more than 1 or 2 courses of treatment.

03. Is cold light whitening painful?

In the process of light exposure, the most common adverse reaction is to feel sensitive and sore. Especially for some people's existing tooth cracks, wear, tooth defects and other problems, the oxidant will stimulate the tooth nerve through these gaps and become sensitive.

Dentists also have preventive and remedial measures, however: such as covering cracks in teeth with blue gum resin before treatment begins. After the treatment, if there is a relatively strong allergic symptoms, a desensitizer will be applied to desensitize.

After the whitening is over, it is possible that the teeth will be sore and uncomfortable for about 2-3 days (this is also normal).

04. Is "cold light whitening" effective?

What everyone is most looking forward to must be the effect of cold light whitening. Speaking with facts, this is the comparison before and after our cold light whitening, the tooth color is whitened to a certain extent, and the patient is more satisfied.

05. What should I pay attention to after cold light whitening?

1. Stop eating foods that are easy to dye: such as tea, coffee, certain fruits (blueberries), etc.

2. It is not recommended to eat food that is too cold or too hot: this will make your teeth more sensitive.

06. Cold light whitening is not omnipotent

Not every "cold light whitening" effect is very good. For example, the original teeth are not too yellow, and they will only be slightly whiter after the treatment. There are also some severe fluorosis and tetracycline teeth, which cannot make the teeth uniform after whitening.

Therefore, we do not recommend that patients have high expectations for tooth whitening. The effect of cold light whitening is not once and for all. The whitening effect can be maintained for about 1 to 2 years, after which coloring will gradually appear.

Finally, whitening agents can only whiten your teeth, and have no effect on your filling materials, porcelain teeth, all-ceramic teeth, etc.

07. Are all kinds of whitening tooth stickers reliable?

Cold light whitening is a type of in-office whitening, and another whitening solution is home whitening - such as many products like "teeth whitening strips" that you can see.

The basic principle of teeth whitening strips is similar to the cold light whitening mentioned above, except that the relatively high concentration of peroxide is replaced with a low concentration, so that a lot of gum protection work can be reduced, so that whitening can be done at home .

The whitening effect of this kind of teeth whitening strips will be much weaker than in-office bleaching, and it will take more time, but it is undeniable that it is still effective to a certain extent. It is no problem for everyone to choose reliable and regular products to try!