Whitening Toothpaste

[2sp_]

How does whitening toothpaste work?

I have crowns of 4 of my front teeth after an accident with a milking cow...

If I were to use a whitening toothpaste, would I end up with all my other teeth sparkly white, but the crowns still being the odd shade of beige that mother nature feels I should have?

[LoftyLottie]

Well, whitening toothpaste virtually does nothing, so no!!

[RATTER15]

No because whitening toothpaste will not make a blind bit of difference to your teeth in my opinion.

Ive been using it on and off for years, dont waste your money.

[LoftyLottie]

If you have your teeth whitened professionally, then I have no idea what would happen to the crowns. Best to ask a dentist. My crown has discoloured more than my teeth and I use that smokers toothpaste (powder) a couple of times a week to clean it!!!

[LoftyLottie]

Well Ratter and I agree about whitening toothpaste!! 'o)

[2sp_]

Thanks for your answers!

I'll ask the dentist next time I'm there. Not a huge issue, was just pondering the benefits.

[Prudie]

I agree, nothing over the counter works. Surely your beige crowns are as your dentist intended !

[2sp_]

The crowns were made to match the rest of my manky off white teeth! Only recently started thinking about it - I blame adverts on the telly!

[Prudie]

I know I've tried them all, logically they can't make them whiter than I was born with although they will remove stains!

[Clanad]

To answer the first part of your question... whitening toothpaste is infused with a mild peroxide solution... usually about 3%. It might even help a little except it quickly becomes diluted with saliva and doesn't stay in the mouth in contact with the teeth nearly long enough.

The same peroxide is used in many of the whitening "strips" and some of them actually provide a noticeable lightning of the front teeth, but the strips stay attached for several minutes each time... as does your dentist's treatment.

There was a frenzy of whitening teeth in Europe and England during Victorian times, but unfortunately they used common bleach... did a fine job but destroyed the tooth enamel and the users went to their graves with terrible ttoth problems such as abcesses.... Ah! vanity!

[2sp_]

Don't really fancy bleach in my mouth!

I'll just keep my manky teeth. They work just fine.

[Jules001]

I recently had several nights where I couldn't sleep and so lay awake pondering all sorts of things and one of these thoughts was that if you had your teeth whitened and had crowns, would your crowns stay the same colour as they are porcelain and so would look out of place with your other teeth. I was due to see my dentist at the time and so asked him, he said that that the crowns would be unaffected by the whitening process so would look out of place with your other teeth as they 'colour match' the porcelain crowns to your existing tooth colour.

[karenmac60]

If you use any whitening stuff that actually works it will only get your crowns back to 'as new' condition in that they will be whatever shade they were when the dentist fitted them -which will be the shade your teeth were when you got the crowns. Your teeth may not have been at their whitest then though, so in theory they could get a lot whiter and your crowns would no longer match. Unless you are willing to get the crowns replaced with a lighter shade and maintain the whitening process with the rest of your teeth then yes, you are better off leaving them as they are.

[boxtops]

what happens with the cow, 2sp?!

[DTCwordfan]

really! - this is an example why one should drink milk from a bottle or carton and not directly from the cow's udder.

[2sp_]

boxy - I was milking her at the time. Last cow in the herd to go through the parlour, smallest and most crabbit of the bunch.

Don't really remember much. One minute I was putting the cluster (milking machine) on her udder, next thing I'm lying on the parlour pit floor with a burst top lip.

On investigation I/she had broken my four top front teeth. If she had hit me a inch or so higher she would have caught my nose and caused serious damage. The inside of my mouth was like mince for weeks and I had to have all my food through a straw! I'm very lucky as I only have a small scar. Did give me whiplash at the time too.

Didn't put me off milking though. Went back to the parlour that afternoon and carried on as normal.

[sophie_1003]

I use the Sensodyne daily whitening toothpaste everyday and on occasions use it more specifically on the teeth that get stained and I find it does make enough difference for me to feel better about my teeth but it is very expensive.