At Hillsdale Dental Care in San Jose, California, Dr. Roge Jacob and Dr. Magdalena Azzar offer a full scope of general, cosmetic, and restorative dental services to help you maintain a healthy, luminous smile for life.
Professional teeth whitening remains the gold-standard solution for achieving whiter, brighter teeth, with millions of people relying on it for amazing results.
To keep your teeth as bright as possible after treatment, it’s essential to understand how they become discolored, how teeth whitening works, and what you can do to maintain your results.
Dental discoloration refers to changes in tooth color due to external staining (extrinsic) or internal damage (intrinsic) that darkens your teeth from their natural color. Numerous habits and conditions can lead to darker, dingier teeth, including:
The most common reason for tooth discoloration is the things we ingest. Enamel-staining foods and drinks include coffee, tea, red wine, chocolate, berries, and soy sauce.
Tobacco products are associated with many health hazards and aesthetic issues, including dental discoloration. Teeth yellowing happens far more often — and more quickly — in smokers than it does in people who don’t.
Injuries to your mouth and teeth can lead to damage that causes color changes, which may result from trip-and-fall accidents or collisions in sports.
Poor dental hygiene often leads to cavities and tooth decay; sometimes, tooth discoloration is a sign of decay-related enamel damage.
As you get older, the layer of enamel that covers your teeth starts to thin, making the yellowish layer underneath (dentin) appear more pronounced.
Teeth whitening uses dental bleaching agents to lift extrinsic stains and brighten your smile. Store-bought whitening kits come in the form of gels, strips, toothpastes, and mouthwash.
Professional teeth whitening uses higher, controlled doses of bleaching agents in fitted trays, often accompanied by LED light to activate the gel, hasten the stain-removal process, and improve your results.
At Hillside Dental Care, we use the Opalescence® Boost teeth whitening method to help our patients get a whiter, brighter smile. After applying a protective barrier to your gums, we use a brush tip to apply the gel. Once the gel is active for the appropriate amount of time, we simply rinse it away.
We can repeat the process to help you reach the level of tooth brightness you desire. We also offer a less intensive take-home version, but your results will emerge more gradually.
Once your teeth are as bright as you want them to be, the following tips can help you keep them that way:
Avoiding tobacco products helps reduce the amount of yellowing your teeth go through. After your teeth whitening procedure, abstaining from smoking, vaping, or chewing can go a long way in preserving your results.
To keep your teeth optimally white, stay on top of your daily regimen of twice-daily brushing and once-daily flossing.
The foods and drinks mentioned above will easily lead back to the familiar stains you just had removed, so abstain from them for a week or two after your treatment, or, if you can, reduce their consumption altogether going forward.
See our team as needed to monitor color changes and issues with tooth sensitivity after your whitening treatment, and always keep your twice-yearly dental appointments.
Regular teeth cleanings and exams keep plaque and tartar at bay, helping you maintain your luminous smile indefinitely.
Getting a brighter smile is a common goal for many people. Once you’ve reached that goal with a professional in-office whitening treatment, you’ll want to retain your fresh, new smile for as long as possible. To find out how we can help, schedule a visit at Hillsdale Dental Care in San Jose, California, today.
