FAQs

When you bleach your teeth, the light shade you get for your teeth should last 6-12 months, some cases longer. Coffee, tea, cigarette; are all considered external stains and they discolor teeth and darken their shade sooner. So, if you smoke, drink a lot of coffee...... you may have to bleach them again sooner than the indicated period!

The only difference is the time element, in office bleaching, you get to see the result in one hour where the take home bleaching may take up to 2 weeks. The other element is the concentration of the bleaching gel, 35% in office vs. 10-15% take home.

Teeth get sensitive during bleaching due to the effect of whitening gel. As a strong chemical cleans & removes all residues including the smear layer covering the tooth surface the difference in concentrations (osmosis-principal) between inside & outside the tooth (fluid movement within the tooth causes sensitivity/pain- Hydrodynamic theory).

No, Bleaching does not whiten an existing prosthesis (crown/veneer/..) or fillings, it affects only natural teeth. In fact if you had your existing crown/veneer for quite some time you could notice your teeth shade has become darker than prosthesis shade (because porcelain doesn't change its color) so bleaching will restore color-match between teeth and crown/veneer by whitening only your natural teeth.

Smile is a social message we send every day and could affect your self esteem! improving your smile will require full cosmetic analysis including size, shade, alignment of front teeth, lip support, and smile line (width, height..), after we obtain all above information, then we generate a treatment plan (perspective computer images) unique to you and fit your need to achieve a satisfactory cosmetic enhancement.

Porcelain veneers are usually done in two visits, fabricated by lab tech. using porcelain (procera or impress or..), results are more stable (permanent) and they're more expensive. chair side veneers are done in one visit, less expensive, the material is micro filled composite, results are not as stable as in porcelain (strength- color) they're subject to color change over long period of time.

An Implant is a two-part prosthesis used to replace a missing tooth, support a denture (Overdenture), and anchor a bridge. First part is called fixture (implant itself) goes into the bone (looks like a screw); the other part is called abutment, interlocks with the fixture and used to support the crown of the implant. Most of implants require two stage surgery others one stage, they may vary in their approach but all have the same basics.

Yes, an implant is a permanent replacement, but as in any prosthesis (crown, veneer, bridge) it is subject to plaque accumulation, calculus, and gum disease called peri-implantitis, which could be terminal and cause loss of an implant. It is extremely important to maintain a good oral hygiene after surgical placement and restoring the implant, in fact long term success lies on good oral hygiene, more than 80% of failure cases were reported due to poor oral hygiene!. Some failure cases were reported due to body rejection (possibly- unknown).

To replace a missing tooth, we usually use implant or bridge or denture. In bridge condition, a fake tooth (pontic) is attached to two crowns held by one or more anchor teeth (abutments). Anchor tooth is usually the tooth adjacent to the edentulous area (missing tooth). So to prepare a bridge we have to use anchor teeth, where implant does not need any support from adjacent teeth (we don't cut any tooth) and that gives implants superiority.

Inlay, Onlay are prosthesis to replace only portion of the tooth either within the tooth called inlay or may extend to cover one or more surfaces (outside) then they're called Onlay. They can be metal or porcelain or even resin where crown cover the entire tooth (badly damaged or root canal treated).

White fillings are called composite fillings, composite is a resin restorative material either micro or macro filled to add strength, or it could be both micro and macro called hybrid. They're used to restore decayed teeth within reasonable sizes, chair-side veneers, and indirect inlays. They are as strong as silver fillings (amalgam) with superiority of tooth colored and less tooth preparation.