How do Lasers Whiten Teeth?
Although we see many references to “laser teeth whitening”, in fact lasers are not used to directly whiten teeth. The professional teeth whitening choices are basically:
- In-office procedures lasting about an hour; or
- At-home kits with custom-made trays used in your own time.
The best-known in-office teeth whitening system is Zoom!®. They use a bleaching gel that is painted on the teeth (after the gums and other soft tissue is protected). Then a light, often referred to as a laser, is shone on the gel to speed up its work. Dr. Sands uses the Zoom!®. system and it has a blue light, not a laser.
What Actually Whitens Teeth is Oxygen
The bleaching agent in the gel is either hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide. As it soaks into the tooth enamel, it breaks down chemically and releases oxygen molecules into the teeth. Dark pigments have long chains and light pigments have short ones. The oxygen breaks up the long pigment chains, thus removing the dark color from the teeth. This is called oxidation.
Traditionally, some type of light has been used to activate or speed up this chemical breakdown process. This has become controversial, as many dentists say that the light does not actually do much. These lights can be halogen, plasma arc, or other types of light and they are all in the blue range. However, they are not lasers.
Dental Lasers For other Purposes
Lasers are used in modern dentistry, and there are two types used:
- Soft tissue lasers; and
- Hard tissue lasers.
Soft tissue lasers are effective in gum work, whether to treat a gummy smile or to remove decay and debris before a dental crown or white filling procedure.
Hard tissue lasers are less often used, but they can modify tooth enamel to slightly reshape a tooth. This might be done in neuromuscular dentistry to improve your bite or in cosmetic dentistry to enhance your smile. And of course it might be done for both purposes at once.
If you would like to know more about tooth whitening, please call or email us today for a free consultation. Dr. Sands offers top-quality dental services to the Beverly Hills, California area and we hope to meet with you soon.
This entry was posted on Sunday, November 14th, 2010 at 2:58 am and is filed under tooth whitening. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
