TEETH WHITENING, does it work? Simply put, YES absolutely it does. But why has it become so popular?
Our smile is one of the most valuable assets we possess and a positive attitude about our smile can increase our self-esteem and make us more inclined to smile leading to increased levels of overall happiness. Studies have shown that smiles that are considered beautiful have 3 main components: nicely shaped full lips, straight/aligned teeth & whiter/brighter teeth.
In studies looking at attitudes regarding whiter/brighter teeth it has been shown that having whiter teeth is perceived to make you look:
• ~5-10yrs younger
• ~20-50% more attractive
• more successful & employable
• thinner!
It is no wonder then that interest in TEETH WHITENING has significantly increased over recent years and has become one of the most commonly requested procedures.We are going to get a little nerdy with the rest of this post.
One of the most frequent questions we get asked by our lovely patients is ‘WHY ARE MY TEETH THIS COLOUR?’
Now as dentists we LOVE teeth of all shapes, sizes and colours…diversity makes the world a beautiful place but in order to answer this question it is important to understand that everyone’s teeth are unique, like a fingerprint in fact.
Let us look at the structure of teeth. You can think of a tooth like an onion, there are several layers to it. The core holds the nerve and blood supply, this is then covered by a middle layer of tissue called DENTINE, and finally the outermost layer, protecting everything within called the ENAMEL.
ENAMEL is very hard, only a very thin layer, and made up of billions of mineralized crystal structures...which are POROUS in nature and give it the white characteristic. DENTINE is softer, makes up the bulk of the tooth, is yellow in colour, and is also POROUS.
So tooth shade depends on the THICKNESS and the INTENSITY of colour of each of these layers, and how the light is then reflected and refracted through the different layers back to our eyes.
Anything that can affect the thickness of these layers or that can penetrate through the porosities can change the shade of our teeth. So what factors can do this? We will be covering this in our next post.
P.S Something to keep in mind is the importance of contrast when considering teeth shade. Our teeth will naturally look lighter/whiter in comparison to darker skin, hair and eye shades and conversely look yellow or darker relative to fair skin, hair and eyes. This principle is utilized by photographers and models all the time…fake tan, darker shades of lipstick, hair dye even dark clothes.
