Whitening a darkened tooth

Today a 31 year old female presented for an external bleaching. The case was interesting in that a maxillary central incisor presented with much darker staining due to a previous root canal therapy treatment completed at a different office. The goal of the external bleaching performed today was to not only to lighten all of the teeth, but to attempt to gain a few shades of whitening for this darkened tooth in particular. The teeth were properly isolated with liquid dam material. At the beginning of each cycle of bleaching, the darker central incisor was bleached for 4 minutes. Then bleach was added to the remaining teeth and the teeth were bleached for 12 minutes. Two cycles were completed. Upon completion the central incisor had lightened several shades. The patient had little post-op sensitivity. She was happy with the esthetic results.

N.D., New York University College of Dentistry

Categorised in: Dental Student Experiences

This post was written by Dr. Jeffrey Dorfman