It's perfectly logical to make the connection between a white wedding and white teeth. You're going to be smiling a lot on your big day, so it makes sense that you want your smile to be as bright and white as it possibly can be. Depending on your chosen method, teeth whitening can take some time to achieve the final results, or it can be more-or-less immediate. So when is the best time to start whitening your teeth in anticipation of your walk down the aisle?
Dental Restorations
One of the most helpful first steps is to think about how much prior dental assistance your teeth have needed over the years. Do you have any restorations in your smile? This can include dental work such as veneers, crowns, bonding, or even large fillings. Although they might look like natural dental enamel, the restored surfaces of your teeth are in fact ceramic, zirconia, metal, or even composite dental resin. Why does this matter?
Dental Enamel
Whitening treatments are designed to gently bleach dental enamel, and this is the surface that they're formulated to be effective on. Dental restorations aren't so responsive to the whitening agent, so while your natural teeth will lighten, your restorations will not. Beware of using an at-home whitening kit when you have restorations, as the ultimate effect can be noticeably inconsistent. To err on the side of caution, someone with dental restorations should have their whitening performed by a dentist. This allows your dentist to target natural dental enamel, lightening it to the same shade as your dental restorations.
See Your Dentist First
Even though you might intend to tackle your whitening needs using an at-home kit, you should still begin by visiting your dentist. Professional teeth cleaning involves scaling and polishing, which helps to remove surface stains from your dental enamel. This is an invaluable process prior to whitening your teeth, as a home whitening kit can struggle to make a difference when teeth already have extensive surface staining.
At-Home Whitening
Although you might achieve satisfactory results using an at-home kit (especially with professional teeth cleaning before you begin the whitening process), there are a couple of things to remember:
- A whitening kit can take several weeks to achieve its ultimate results. Be sure to begin with sufficient time before your wedding ceremony.
- These ultimate results might not be quite as spectacular as you were hoping for.
For greater speed, efficiency and even predictability, it might be wise to have any wedding teeth whitening performed by a dentist. Your teeth can lighten by multiple shades during a single session, which removes a lot of the guesswork from the process. However, you should still allow for the fact that your teeth may be slightly sensitive for a few days after whitening, meaning it's something to be performed in the weeks before your big day, instead of mere days beforehand.
As long as you don't leave it until the very last minute, there are numerous ways to have a dazzling white smile by the time you walk down the aisle. For more information about teeth whitening, reach out to a local dental office.
