I went to see my dentist so I could get my teeth whitened. He knows I have bonding done on one of my teeth. He said I was a good candidate. Everything was going fine until today. I keep feeling this horrible zing on the tooth. It’s painful enough where it makes me jump a bit. It’s on the tooth with the bonding. I’m wondering if the bonding is being weakened by the whitening gel.

Casey

Dear Casey,

I’m glad you’re doing this under the supervision of a dentist. Too many people try to skirt the dentist to save money. Then, issues like this turn-up and they’ve got nowhere to turn for help.

The teeth whitening gel will not weaken your bonding. When bonding gets old and needs to be replaced a portion of it may just come off. If your bonding has been there for a while, it’s possible part of the coating has fallen off.

Tooth bonding is usually done on a chipped tooth, which means trauma and exposed parts of the tooth. This is a simple fix. Go see your dentist and let him know what’s going on. He can determine the exact source of the pain and put something there to coat the sensitive area so you can whiten your teeth without pain.

Just be certain not to whiten any further until you see your dentist. You don’t want to nail down what is going on.

Dental Work and Teeth Whitening

Whenever you have dental work, such as dental bonding, porcelain crowns, or even white fillings, the natural tooth will whiten. While the whitening gel will not damage your crowns and such, it won’t whiten it either.

The best course of action is to whiten your teeth, then when you’ve reached the level you want, re-do the bonding or white filling, to match your new color. Of course, this is only useful on work visible when you smile. If it’s on a back tooth, I wouldn’t bother with the expense, unless it will bother you.

This blog is brought to you by Dr. Jerome Cha.