man's portrait in the dental office

Tooth bleaching is a popular cosmetic method for whitening teeth. This allows patients to determine the color of their teeth themselves for the first time. Tooth bleaching is suitable for both young people who want whiter teeth – often following an aesthetic ideal – and older individuals whose tooth color has significantly changed over the years.

How does tooth bleaching work?

Tooth whitening can be performed both at home (“home bleaching”) and in the dental office (“in-office bleaching”). However, it is important that it takes place under the guidance of a dentist to ensure safety and effectiveness.

The process typically involves the application of a bleaching agent to the teeth. This lightens the tooth color without causing structural damage to the teeth or existing fillings.

For home bleaching, impressions of your teeth are taken, and the dental technician then creates bleaching trays for the upper and lower jaw based on the models. These trays have cavities into which you can insert the bleaching gel. This gel is then used at home for a few hours daily, depending on how bright you want your teeth to be (between 5-7 days). The advantage of home bleaching is the slower and thus less painful application, which you can regulate very well yourself at home.

For in-office bleaching, the assistant in the office applies a high-concentration bleaching gel to your teeth after covering the gums with a special material. The gel is applied in 3-4 sessions and renewed each time. The advantage of in-office bleaching is that tooth whitening is effective and fast (within 2 hours in the office). The disadvantage is that the high-concentration gel may also cause more severe pain during and up to one day after the treatment for patients with sensitive teeth.

Possible side effects of tooth bleaching and their solutions

Although bleaching is considered safe – as far as is scientifically known, the treatment does not cause microscopic damage to teeth or fillings – some patients may experience tooth sensitivity during or after treatment. This arises from the fact that the bleaching gel must naturally penetrate the tooth interior to whiten. However, in the tooth interior, there is a living nerve in each individual tooth. This means that the bleaching gel can cause sharp and throbbing pain during and up to one day after the treatment for patients with sensitive teeth.

Individuality of results

The effectiveness of bleaching and the bleaching results can vary from person to person. While some patients achieve excellent results, others may require additional measures to achieve the desired shade of white. First, the bleaching will be repeated 2-4 times in the office to achieve whiter teeth. This almost always works. Otherwise, ceramic veneers or composite fillings can be applied to the outer surfaces of the teeth for a perfect smile.

Special cases: Whitening root-treated teeth

Individual root-treated teeth, which are often darker than all others, can also be whitened. The prerequisite is that a thorough root canal treatment is carried out beforehand to remove all bacteria. The tooth can then be whitened from the inside in 2-4 short sessions and adjusted to match the other living teeth.

kotschy mikroskop lupe

You can only treat properly what you can see. The microscope allows us to precisely examine and treat teeth and gums with up to 20x magnification. We therefore give our patients a 10-year guarantee on microscope-based treatments (except root canals).

ddrkotschy garantie logo