Dental Implant Isn’t Whitening with My Teeth

I went to a new dentist to get teeth whitening done. My dentist doesn’t do any cosmetic work, so I switched to one who does. My teeth are getting whiter but my implant isn’t. Does that just take longer?

Laurie

Dear Laurie,

Diagram of a dental implant

I feel like your new dentist hasn’t done his due diligence. He must have done a cleaning and exam on you before making your whitening trays. He also should have realized either from discussing your dental work with you or from x-rays that you had a dental implant.

So either he didn’t check your dental history carefully enough or he doesn’t understand teeth whitening. If the former, he’s negligent. If the latter, he’s incompetent. Unfortunately, this means you will need to switch dentists again.

Teeth Whitening 101 is that the whitening gel will only work on natural tooth structure. While it will make your teeth whiter, it will have no effect on your porcelain crown. No dental work will get any lighter with teeth whitening.

When you first had your dental implant made, the crown color was baked into it and designed to last the lifetime of the crown. While it is possible for a dentist to add a stain to it to make it darker, there isn’t a way to lighten it.

Whitening Your Dental Implant

What you’ll need to do is continue your teeth whitening as planned. Once your teeth are the level of whiteness you desire, you’ll need to replace your implant crown.

A decent cosmetic dentist can match it perfectly to your natural teeth. I will admit to being a little concerned that your new dentist may not fit the bill. Make sure you look at his smile gallery to see that he gets natural-looking results.

Honestly, I think you’re better off just finishing out this treatment and then finding a new dentist to do the replacement crown. This one doesn’t seem to have your best interest at heart.

This blog is brought to you by Baton Rouge Dentist Dr. Steven Collins.