I had dental bonding done 5 days ago in order to make my teeth look straight. I was so excited to have a straight smile and wanted to take really good care of them. I was brushing with baking soda, but I think that was a mistake because now they’ve turned yellow. Will teeth whitening help fix this? I feel horrible about this.
Nancy
Dear Nancy,
I would not actually consider this your fault. Part of any type of cosmetic treatment is the dentist telling you how you care for them, including what NOT to do. Unfortunately, baking soda is very abrasive. It has scrubbed off the polish on your dental bonding, which is allowing it to pick up stains. You will find the same problem if you use over the counter whitening toothpastes. These have an abrasive in them that scrubs stains off, but actually damages the surface of teeth, even more so with cosmetic work such as your dental bonding.
Unfortunately, teeth whitening only works on natural tooth structure, so that will not be a good solution for you. There is good news, though. Because you have only had these for five days and your dentist didn’t give you post-operative instruction, I would just ask him to re-do the polish for you. If it helps, you can show him this blog post so you don’t feel like you’re on your own in asking this.
Once you have that re-done, a great toothpaste for anyone with cosmetic work is Supersmile toothpaste. It has a special ingredient that removes stains chemically without damaging natural or cosmetic tooth structure. I highly recommend it.
Something to consider in the future is porcelain veneers. Your composite bonding will last a few years, but not much longer. Well cared for porcelain veneers can last a lifetime. They are more stain resistant than even your natural teeth. I wouldn’t get it now as your bonding will be fine for a while after your dentist fixes this one issue. Just start saving so when the time comes to replace your bonding, you can upgrade to something better and longer lasting.
This blog is brought to you by Hoffman Estates Dentist Dr. William Becker.