Teeth Whitening – Carrollton, TX
Teeth Whitening Options for a Smile You Love
A sparkling white smile is the key to great looks and strong self-confidence. Teeth whitening solutions at Celebration Family Dental of Carrollton can help you maintain the pearly white shine of your smile. Apart from being the most economical cosmetic dentistry treatment, professional teeth whitening is an effective and safe way to brighten your smile. The results can be dramatic or subtle depending on the whitening method you choose. Professional whitening systems work faster and protect sensitive tooth surfaces and gums better than over-the-counter whitening products. Before suggesting a whitening treatment, we will thoroughly examine your teeth to make sure that your tooth discoloration is not the result of a dental condition that needs attention. Keep reading to learn more about professional teeth whitening in our Carrollton, TX dental office.
Why Choose Celebration Family Dental of Carrollton for Teeth Whitening?
- Quick In-Office Whitening Treatments
- Custom At-Home Whitening Options
- Friendly, Gentle Dental Team
Why Do Teeth Become Stained or Yellow?
Unfortunately, there are many reasons for tooth discoloration, including:
- Age
- Heredity
- Developmental defects in the enamel
- Certain medications such as particular antihistamines, antidepressants, and tetracycline (an antibiotic) in childhood
- Tobacco
- Foods and beverages such as red wine, berries, turmeric, coffee, and tea
- Blunt force trauma to the teeth
- Poor oral hygiene
Also, there are different types of stains: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic stain occurs in the deeper layers of the teeth, while extrinsic stain affects the outer surface of the teeth.
How Does Teeth Whitening Work?
Professional whitening agents (either carbamide peroxide or hydrogen peroxide) contain oxygen molecules that penetrate the enamel to break up and remove both intrinsic and extrinsic stains. At Celebrations Family Dental of Carrollton, we offer two options, both of which will brighten your teeth by 5-7 shades:
- In-Office Teeth Whitening - In-office teeth whitening treatments provide quick results by making use of the most powerful whitening solutions available. When you visit our dental office for a whitening treatment, we first cover your root surfaces and gums with a protective barrier. A thin plastic retractor will be used to hold your cheeks and lips away from your teeth. A teeth whitening gel is then applied and left on for about an hour. The results will be seen immediately when the solution is removed.
- Take-Home Teeth Whitening - This is an effective way to whiten your teeth in the comfort of your own home. First, we will make a mold of your teeth to fabricate two flexible, thin plastic trays (one for each row of teeth), and these can be filled with a whitening gel and worn over the teeth.
How Long Will Your Results Last?
In general, professional whitening results last up to three years, but this will depend on your habits and how often you consume foods and beverages that stain your teeth. Many people prefer to touch-up their results once a year to keep their smile looking its best and, since you can simply re-use your custom trays, you’ll only need to purchase refills of inexpensive whitening gel.
Also, Dr. Shekhadiya wants you to love your smile as long as possible and will discuss the best ways to make your results last after your procedure!
Understanding the Cost of Teeth Whitening
What your teeth need is likely to be very different than someone else’s pearly whites. Even when stains are the problem, their location and severity will often lead to different treatment plans among patients. As a result, there is no set cost for teeth whitening. Our skilled cosmetic dentist will need to perform a thorough consultation to determine how best to eliminate your surface and/or deep-down discoloration. Once this is established, a formal estimate will be provided so that you and our team can begin to work toward finding a solution that will help you save money as you work toward a more vibrant smile.
Factors that Affect the Cost of Teeth Whitening
During your consultation, you can expect that we will base your total cost on the severity of your tooth stains, where they are located among your teeth, and whether you need additional preliminary treatments. What this means is that gum disease treatment or other similar services may be required if decay or infection are found among your teeth or gums.
Types of Teeth Whitening: What Do They Cost?
There are different types of teeth whitening that you can choose from when looking to brighten your smile. Each has a different price point that will vary depending on the factors listed above; however, you can begin to formulate your decision with the help of the following breakdown:
- In-Office: It is not uncommon for an individual to spend between $400-500 on professional in-office teeth whitening.
- At-Home: Although a person will perform the whitening at home, the use of professional, high-grade trays and bleaching gel tends to cost between $200-300.
- Store-Bought Trays: Someone who wants to avoid the formalities of a dentist can pay around $100 for store-bought trays that are one-size-fits-all.
- Whitening Strips, Gels: An individual who is looking for the cheapest method of treatment will only spend $20-30 on teeth whitening strips or gels.
Fast Teeth Whitening VS Inexpensive Teeth Whitening
While you might lean toward a teeth whitening option that is inexpensive, you’ll soon find that your investment is wasted because of the mediocre results you will achieve. Cheaper is not always better. When it comes to your smile, you don’t want to skimp on quality. The reason is not only that you will miss out on a vibrant, beautiful set of teeth, but you run the risk of possibly damaging your pearly whites and causing painful sensitivity.
Choosing a cosmetic dentist to help you with the process may cost more, but you’ll worry less about possible damage to your teeth. Instead, you can focus on the longer-lasting results you’ll achieve using high-quality products that are designed to target even the most stubborn stains. What you will find is that your investment leads to showstopping results that help you to feel more confident.
Options for Making Teeth Whitening Affordable
Since your dental insurance is unlikely to pay for teeth whitening treatment, our team will work to identify an alternative way for you to pay. While the option of paying in full by cash, check, or credit card is an option, there is also flexible financing with CareCredit.
By choosing this option, you can enroll in a plan that is low-interest or no-interest and avoid any surprise fees. Instead of paying out of pocket upfront, you can pay it off over time.
Teeth Whitening FAQs
Teeth whitening is a very popular procedure among people who want to improve their smiles. If you’re interested in pursuing this cosmetic treatment, you probably have a few questions that you want to have cleared up first. We care about helping our patients make the choices that are truly right for their grins, so we have provided helpful answers to some common teeth-whitening questions below. Contact us if there’s anything else that you want to ask.
Does Teeth Whitening Damage Enamel?
Under normal circumstances, the answer is no; as long as the enamel protecting your teeth is healthy, you do not have to worry about it being damaged during a professional teeth whitening procedure. That being said, there are some risks associated with having teeth whitened if you’re already suffering from a cavity. The treatment could cause significant discomfort in the decayed tooth as well as other problems. For this reason, our team will need to carefully examine your smile for existing issues before determining whether it’s safe to move forward with the whitening process.
Does Teeth Whitening Work on Dental Crowns?
Professional teeth whitening is highly effective when it comes to brightening your natural teeth, but unfortunately, it does not have quite the same effect on dental crowns. Simply put, dental crowns aren’t as porous as tooth enamel, so the chemicals used for the whitening treatment can’t penetrate them. As such, the best way to handle a stained or discolored crown is to have it replaced.
If you want to maintain a beautiful, stain-free dental crown, it is highly recommended that you avoid habits that can lead to stains, such as smoking or drinking an excessive amount of dark-colored liquids.
Does Teeth Whitening Hurt?
If you’re worried about experiencing discomfort during the teeth whitening process, you’re not alone; plenty of patients share the same concerns. Fortunately, one of the benefits of having professional whitening performed is that there’s a team that can personalize the treatment according to your needs, reducing the odds of sensitivity occurring.
Do you have unusually sensitive teeth? If so, please inform our team when you visit our office. We can personalize our approach in order to keep you comfortable while we’re brightening your grin.
Does Teeth Whitening Qualify for FSA?
Depending on who your employer is, you might have a Flexible Spending Account – FSA for short – that can be used to help pay for a variety of medical and dental expenses. While FSAs can be useful for helping you fit a wide variety of procedures into your budget, they typically cannot be used to pay for teeth whitening since they are only meant to cover medically necessary procedures.
That being said, you can use your FSA to help you pay for regular dental checkups and cleanings. Having a dental professional examine and clean your teeth on a regular basis can go a long way toward helping you maintain the results of teeth whitening for as long as possible.
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