Dental Implants and Teeth Whitening

April 30, 2019 9:59 pm | Published by
I have two dental implants that are visible when I smile. If I want to whiten my teeth is that still possible or will it damage the dental implants? Kathy Dear Kathy,
Dental implant diagram

Dental Implant Illustration

You can absolutely whiten your teeth if you have dental implants. The only unfortunate thing is teeth whitening only works on natural tooth structure. That means your teeth will whiten but the implant crown will not. To make the teeth match, you’ll have to have the implant crown re-made. Obviously, that is a smidge easier if you have a screw-retained porcelain crown rather than a cemented crown, but you can replace either one. It’s important you get your teeth whitened first. This way when your cosmetic dentist creates the porcelain crown, he or she will be able to match it correctly.

Options in Teeth Whitening

Traditional Take-Home Teeth Whitening

This will use a tray that your dentist will custom-fit to your bite. You’ll take that home and place the professional strength whitening gel he’ll provide for you and wear the tray for a minimum of twenty minutes a day. You’ll do that until you reach the level of whitening you want.

One Appointment Teeth Whitening

If you are in a hurry, you should consider in-office whitening. One well-known brand is Zoom Whitening. This will whiten your teeth completely in just one appointment with your dentist. It uses a special light to activate the whitening gel to work faster. You’ll want to wait a week after the procedure to have your porcelain crown made because the color will “calm down” a bit and reach its permanent state in about a week. I hope this helps. I wish your implant dentist would have warned you to whiten your teeth before getting your dental implants so you wouldn’t have this added expense of replacing your crowns. This blog is brought to you by Portland Dentist Dr. Mo Saleh.
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