Deep bleaching?

LadyE

Does anyone have any experience of the above?

Over the last couple of weeks Ive had root canal treatment on my front teeth (banged my teeth and needed it done) - dentist said tooth can become discoloured now that they are dead, am Im really nervous about this happening. Would deep bleaching help this when it should happen?

Any idea of price also

thanks

eth0_

Surely he told you you'd need to get a crown on the tooth...?

Big_G

Front teeth that are root canal treated do not necessarily need crowns in every case. In fact, the only case where a crown is indicated because of root canal treatment is back teeth.

LadyE

He did indeed say something about a crown (but I dont know exactly what one of these are ) - deep bleaching was mentioned too?

What does that involve? And cost?

ballsymchugh

lady e, have done internal bleaching a few times. when you get the root canal filling done, leave it go dark. it may not look great for a few weeks, but it's best to let it just go through the phases.
the root filling is sealed in and the bleaching agent is put inside the tooth for 5 days. it breaks down the pigment that causes the tooth to go dark in the first place. if it's not completely done after 5 days, it can be redone, really until your happy with it. it does work very well. after that, you just have the filling put on it.
the benefit of it is there's no more drilling to do, as in prep for a crown or a veneer, so the tooth is pretty sound. the only drawback is if the root filling isn't sealed in properly, you can get root resorption, but any decent filling over the root filling will be fine.
and it's waaaaaay cheaper. the price, i've no idea in ireland though!!

LadyE

Oh god..even more nervous about it going dark!

What time frame are we talking here, weeks, months..years?

I didnt realise that deep bleaching was inside the tooth itself.

ballsymchugh

just a few weeks. but think long term. a few weeks vs the rest of your life. it's really not worth worrying about! really!!

LadyE

ballsymchugh wrote: »

just a few weeks. but think long term. a few weeks vs the rest of your life. it's really not worth worrying about! really!!

So this darkening of the tooth will happen in a few weeks???

ballsymchugh

before i shoot myself in the foot, everyone is different!!

but what i've dealt with in the past, it does happen pretty soon. that's if it's not dark already.

G86

Hey

I'd root canal on my front two teeth 8 yrs ago, and had a white filling done, it took about 3 yeas before it started getting darker. The only thing is that I just had that filling redone and it doesn't look good at all as the teeth are still dark, so I'm going for whitening(trays). I'd say a crown is your best bet though.

georgieporgy

LadyE wrote: »

Oh god..even more nervous about it going dark!

What time frame are we talking here, weeks, months..years?

I didnt realise that deep bleaching was inside the tooth itself.

Ballysmchugh is referring to "internal bleaching" which is a common procedure for whitening up individual non vital teeth (ie teeth that have had root canal).
Deep Bleaching is something entirely different. It means whitening all your teeth plus the dark one. It does not include internal bleaching and it works very well for most cases but you have to be interested in whitening all your teeth. If you only want the dark one lightened then it's not the treatment of choice. I would prefer to do it beforethe tooth got too dark and then touch up periodically if you notice it getting darker in the future.
The fee is a little more than the cost of one crown. It takes 2 weeks.

georgieporgy

G86 wrote: »

Hey

I'd root canal on my front two teeth 8 yrs ago, and had a white filling done, it took about 3 yeas before it started getting darker. The only thing is that I just had that filling redone and it doesn't look good at all as the teeth are still dark, so I'm going for whitening(trays). I'd say a crown is your best bet though.

regular whitening with trays will not give the same good result as deep bleaching (which uses 'super sealed' trays - a small but important detail which makes all the difference). But it will help somewhat and teeth vary a lot so you may be lucky. If the teeth have big visible fillings or are crooked and don't look nice , then crowning can be a good choice. But if the teeth look good except for being dark, then bleaching is a better option.

G86

georgieporgy wrote: »

regular whitening with trays will not give the same good result as deep bleaching (which uses 'super sealed' trays - a small but important detail which makes all the difference). But it will help somewhat and teeth vary a lot so you may be lucky. If the teeth have big visible fillings or are crooked and don't look nice , then crowning can be a good choice. But if the teeth look good except for being dark, then bleaching is a better option.

I don't think my dentist does deep bleaching though, I think I'm going to have to get a second opinion. My teeth aren't dead straight at all (had braces but they moved a bit after) and I also have fillings so maybe crowns WOULD be better, he seems very reluctant to over me those though.

georgieporgy

LadyE wrote: »

He did indeed say something about a crown (but I dont know exactly what one of these are ) - deep bleaching was mentioned too?

What does that involve? And cost?

You don't know what a crown is? The dentist drills off approx 1mm of the outer surface of your tooth (all round- front back top and sides), then replaces that with a porcelain 'crown'. If done well it can look very nice and if done badly it can look very bad :pac:

LadyE

Think Ill go with the crown, better start saving so

Ill be raging if I get it done and he does it badly imagine

Big_G

Maybe I can elaborate a small bit about this issue...

Teeth can discolour due breakdown of blood or tissues in the root canal because of those tissues dying. This can also be as a result of some of the chemicals used to disinfect the canal system reacting with each other.

The way I approach these cases is with internal (or non-vital) bleaching. This is bleaching the tooth from the inside. Normal (or vital) bleaching bleaches the tooth from the outside.

There are risks associated with internal bleaching, particularly that of external root resorption, which usually results in loss of the tooth. We minimize this risk by sealing the root canal system correctly before bleaching.

Internal bleaching will almost always result in a colour change. The question is whether this colour change is enough. If it is not enough, then I discuss the option of crown or veneer with a patient. Bleaching is a more conservative treatment, and only when it fails to meet expectations should the tooth be cut in order to change its colour.

Hope this helps.

LadyE

Thanks a million for the reply Big G (and indeed everyone else) - gives alot to think about anyway.

Would you know the approx vs. internal teeth bleaching?

(Am I correct in saying that external bleaching would have any effect at all?)

gipi

LadyE,
I'm about to start external bleaching of a root canal filled front tooth that's gone very dark (it was darker than the darkest reference on the colour scale!!), so I will let you know how I get on!

The reason I'm not having internal bleaching at this time is that the tooth has actually been root canal filled twice (an abscess developed over 15 years ago so it all had to be done again) so the dentist doesn't want to interfere with the tooth any more than he has to. He did say that if the external bleaching isn't successful then we'll try the internal procedure.

gipi

As promised LadyE, an update to my last post.

I had external bleaching on a very discoloured tooth that has been root canal filled twice, and the results after 2 weeks were amazing!

I had a mould made of my front teeth, and a single "toothguard" was made for the tooth. I injected 15% bleach into the guard and wore it overnight for 2 weeks, when I returned to the dentist for a review. Both the dentist and I were delighted at the results, the tooth now looks like its neighbours, and there was no need to drill into the tooth at all.