TLC Dentistry

2/160 Mudjimba Beach Road, Mudjimba, QLD, 4564

So let’s talk about whitening

- Posted in General Dental Care by

enter image description hereWhitening seems to be everywhere, with beauty salons offering it and whitening bars popping out in shopping centres. It seems not only dentists can provide whitening treatment now. So the question is, are you really better off getting your teeth whitened professionally by your dentist?

The answer is YES and most definitely.

Before we whiten your teeth, we always check and make sure there are no holes in your teeth. If there are, whitening gel can travel through the holes, reach and kill the nerve of the tooth and leaving you in pain and needing root canal treatment, which is expensive, and could be avoided.

We also recommend having a scale and clean before you start whitening treatment. The clean is to remove any tartar and stain on your teeth, which could be due to smoking, tea or coffee. This brightens up your teeth before whitening even starts. It also makes whitening gel work more efficiently now that it can be in direct contact with tooth surface.

Now you are gonna ask how long the effect of whitening lasts.

Well, it depends on your eating and drinking habits. If you a heavy smoker, or drinks lots of black coffee, or eat quite a lot of beetroot, your teeth will pick up stains quickly and whitening will wear off faster. You can always purchase some whitening gel and top it up at home.

Here are also 5 tips to help you keep your pearly whites nice and shiny.

Minimise drinking teeth staining drinks such as tea, coffee and red wine in between meal times. It is better to have them with food, so that the concentration can be diluted. After smoking, tea or coffee, rinse with water before the stain can set. Make an appointment with your medical doctors to discuss ways to quit smoking. Brush your teeth morning and night to prevent plaque and bacteria building up and creating a yellow coating on your teeth. If the colour of your teeth is that of a deep brown or yellow, it may be because stains are embedded deeply inside your teeth. In such situation, come and talk to us, as you may find that porcelain veneers could offer you a better result than whitening alone.

We do give a dam

We do give a dam

- Posted in High Quality Dental Treatment by

If you’ve had a root canal treatment, then you would know what I’m talking about here. A rubber dam is a thin, rectangular sheet, usually latex rubber, used isolate the operative site (one or more teeth) from the rest of the mouth. There are several reasons why it is necessary during a root canal treatment. Firstly, during root canal treatment, small intricate instruments are used to remove the infection from a tooth. A rubber dam can prevent these little instruments falling into the back of your mouth. This way, your throat is well protected. Secondly, the medication that is used during root canal treatment should always stay in the confinement of the tooth that’s being treated. It stings if it gets in contact with cheeks or gums. Rubber dam protects the rest of mouth from being exposed to various medicament. The thing is, a rubber dam is important in other dental procedures too. At TLC Dentistry, we use a rubber dam when we place fillings. A lot of the times when we place new fillings, we need to remove old silver-colored, aka amalgam fillings. As we all know, amalgam contains mercury and it is best not to ingest any. So having a rubber dam means that all of the old amalgam gets pulled up into the suction lines and away from your body, along with any vapor that could be created during the procedure. So this is during removal of old fillings, what happens when we place new fillings then? Nowadays, we frequently place white fillings. White fillings glue to teeth by ways of chemical bonding. The glue that holds a white filling to a tooth will only work if the tooth is dry. A lot of things can contaminate the working area, like saliva, blood, even the moisture from your breath. When the tooth is not completely dry, the glue won’t work and the tooth would be sensitive to temperature and biting after the filling is placed, and the filling can fail prematurely. At TLC Dentistry, we place a rubber dam on your teeth when placing new fillings, so that we can make sure that the fillings that you have paid for and lied in the chair for are going to look good, feel good and stay in your mouth for many years to come.