Teeth Whitening Enamel Damage

Are you among the many people for whom the years have not been very kind to your teeth? As we age, our teeth's natural whiteness starts to vanish. Usually, we first start seeing this in our late teens or early twenties. By the time we hit thirty, our teeth are significantly more yellow than they were when we were still young.

The normal process of wear and tear takes its toll from our teeth. The more wine, coffee, tea, soft drinks and cigarettes we consume, the more rapidly our teeth become stained and discolored. You can brush all you want, but you can never brush away the stains. This is because those stains are embedded in our teeth's enamel. This is a place where the brush cannot reach.

In order to get to those stains in order to get rid of them, we are going to need a chemical substance small enough to penetrate the enamel. The chemical that has become the standard in teeth whitening procedures is called carbamide peroxide. Carbamide peroxide is basically hydrogen peroxide plus urea. The urea itself doesn't have anything to do with the whitening process. But it greatly prolongs the life of the hydrogen peroxide, which decomposes in only a few hours all by itself.

When carbamide peroxide is applied to our teeth and gets in contact with the moistness inside our mouth, it starts a chemical reaction immediately. In this chemical reaction, the hydrogen peroxide is released. This hydrogen peroxide penetrates the tooth enamel where it breaks down the discoloration. What is left after the process of breaking down, are colorless byproducts. Your enamel is now once again transparant and it reveals the natural whiteness of your teeth.

Hydrogen peroxide is a very aggressive substance. You should be very careful with it. When you use a whitening solution with a hydrogen peroxide concentration that's too high, you run the risk of developing enamel damage from teeth whitening. The same goes for using the hydrogen peroxide for too long.

When you visit a professional teeth whitening dentist, he will likely have the experience required to safely apply the carbamide peroxide to your teeth. However, when you are using whitening kits in the privacy and convenience of your own home, you are going to have to read the instructions very carefully. Once you damage your enamel beyond repair, you're stuck with very sensitive and painful teeth permanently.