Professional Bleaching Didn't Whiten my Teeth. Why? What Other Options Are There?

Typically, in office whitening procedures give you the best oppurtunity to whiten your teeth.  These procedures, such as Zoom Whitening, are shown to consitantly lighten teeth by 5-7 shades.  This being the case,  everyone does not obtain the same results with any bleaching procedure.  If your teeth are more on the gray side, you will not whiten very well.  These can be very difficult stains to remove.  Try using your bleaching trays for a week (1-2 hours at a time) and see if the results improve.  If you still are not pleased with the results the only other option for you to consider is porcelain veneers.  This is a much more costly procedure, but you have much more control over the desired color.  Good luck.

Most in office bleaching does whiten everyone's teeth a few shades whiter than what they were in the beginning. I am sorry you did not achieve any change at all. It could have do with the stains or the color of your teeth or age, but I have never NOT seen it  work somewhat. The one system that we have seen work on the hardest to whiten teeth is KOR Whitening...it is a deep bleaching system.  We also use Rockstar Whitening and Zoom and achieve good results on most patients.  That being said, this did not work for you so my suggestion would be to go with veneers,  If your are happy with the shape of your teeth and you only want to change their color, I would try non prep veneers like lumineers which requires very little or no reduction of the tooth surface. If  you are unhappy, you can always have them removed. If your teeth are large and you do not like their proportion, veneers are a great solution for you! They are expensive but will give you the smile you have always wanted.  Make sure you consult t with more than one cosmetic dentist because this involves a lot of money on your part.

My experience is in office bleaching results do not please everyone.  The maximum results possible usually require repeated applications especially if your teeth  are quite discolored or have grayish tones.  Everyone's teeth vary in the difficulty required to bleach and the amount they will lighten.

There are many systems on the market that can be used for in-office dental visits, and most of them work fairly well.  Each dental office feels that the system they use is the best, and I am no exception! We use the patented Deep Bleaching technique, and I think one of the most important aspects is the combination of in-office and take-home whitening.  And, once the home-based whitening products are used, the fit of the tray is incredibly important, so all of our whitening trays are made by a dental lab that ONLY makes whitening trays, so they are the experts!

Another thing to consider is your perception of the "whitening" of your teeth after treatment. Patients often expect their teeth to become "Hollywood White" with just one session of whitening, and unless the teeth were fairly light to begin with, this may not be possible so quickly.  Your dentist probably recorded your "starting shade", and I am sure there was some change, just maybe not as much as you had expected or hoped.  Having said all of this, there are some patients that do experience less-than-stellar results from whitening, and this is usually due to the particular make-up of that person's teeth.  In my experience, though, using the system we use in our office, we have always been able to satisfy our patients in achieving the bright smile they hope for!

 

Without knowing what system was used and the method applied, I can't comment on why it didn't work. Having said that, in office treatment is a great "start" to whitening, but rarely enough by itself to satisfy most people. Take home products are needed to continue the process, and how much and how strong for how long depends on each person. It is best to find someone that knows how to do the KöR system for best results.

In office professional whitening does not whiten  every one's teeth and not as white as one would like it to get. So some patients get great results, some get OK results and some get none. However , about 80% get great results, 15 % OK results and 5% do not get the result they need with using only one system. They may need to try different systems or combination there of. 

WHY? simple ! teeth are not the same even in the same mouth. Look into your own mouth, some teeth are darker, some lighter, some grayer, some yellower . Some teeth have been stained with well water, medicine, systemic disease.... I wish there was a "one size fit all" solution for this.