wwyd? issue with crown, fillings, and whitening

[elphaba826]

I recently had a root canal and temporary crown placed on one of my upper, front teeth after a previous filling had fallen out. I've wanted to get my teeth whitened for a while, but kept putting it off. Now I'm pregnant (due in August), so definitely can't get it done until then. That's fine, but the only problem is that I'm scheduled to get my permanent crown put on next Tuesday. From what I've read they say you should whiten your teeth before getting a permanent crown so they can match the color. That's not an option for me!

From what I can see, my only choices are to have them guess at which shade my teeth will be after whitening, have a mismatched tooth for a few months, and run the risk of it still not matching even after whitening. Or, I could get the crown replaced to match later on, but that seems like it would be very expensive.

To complicate things, I also need a couple small fillings in between my other front teeth. I'm getting those done the same day as the permanent crown fitting. Will those fillings cause a problem with whitening too? Will I end up with spots?

I want a nice, pretty, white smile after finally getting up the nerve to get all my issues taken care of once and for all, but it looks like it might be too much hassle in the end.

 

[Gordon]

Not heard of any contraindications for whitening due to pregnancy. Anyone else? Mike? Lincoln?

If you go ahead with fillings and permanent crown then they're not going to match after the whitening is done, unless you're really lucky.

I'm a bit concerned as to why you're needing so much work done on your front teeth, have you changed your drinking habits recently? More sodas?

 

[annie778]

Personally I don't approve of having dental work done that is much lighter and then matching your other teeth by bleaching into eternity. You do realise for example that with bleaching you should not drink coffee, tea or red wine if you want to maintain the result? I think it's nice to have bleaching as an option but not as something that becomes a regular chore. It's so boring having to regularly put aside an hour to sit around not talking or eating or drinking.

I did have some tooth bleaching last year. I have crowns on my front teeth and they did not stand out because they are well colour matched to natural and my natural colour is quite light so I was just trying to get rid of coffee stains etc. In fact my smile looked great aside from a composite filling in a side tooth that never quite bleached as much as the others but it still looked good. I've managed to lose the rest of the bleach which was in the fridge and somehow got thrown out...

I am not sure I'm convinced it's good for the teeth. At the time (right after the bleach) it made my teeth temporarilly a bit transluscent so I could see that there is a hairline crack on a lower incisor which I'd never seen before. I didn't have sensitivity but remain to be convinced that it's good for enamel long term. It's not something I'd want to do on a long term basis, but I'm reasonably lucky that aside from that composite veneer I like the colour of my teeth and crowns.

But as to your dilemma, you shouldn't really go too many shades lighter than your natural teeth so as long as the crown and fillings are not darker than your natural teeth you should be ok.