Teeth Whitening Top 3

The Chemical Process in Tooth Whitening

Tooth whitening is chemical process which seeks to correct the discoloration of the teeth. The objective of the main ingredient in a whitening gel is simply to remove the yellow, brown, or gray staining.

There are several procedures available to consumers, such as chemical whitening, surgery whitening and laser teeth whitening. We will focus on the chemical process involved in whitening the teeth enamel. Don’t worry, we will try not to get too technical here.

All bleaching activities involve the use of an “oxidant” or “oxidizing” substance. An oxidizing substance is a substance that release very active oxygen or chlorine. This oxygen reacts by attaching itself to any other material around it. For example, the most common bleaching ingredient in detergents is an oxidant called sodium hypochlorite.

It produces active chlorine. The most common bleaching substance for hair coloring is hydrogen peroxide, which releases oxygen. Hydrogen peroxide is also the active ingredient in the disinfectant known as “agua oxinada”. If you had used this disinfectant, you may have seen the way it fizzes when applied to the wound. The fizzing is due to the production of bubbles of oxygen gas.

A whitening gel has glycerin and flavoring. But the active ingredient is carbamide peroxide and its chemical formula is CH6N2O3. This white crystalline material is also known as urea peroxide since it is actually hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) mixed in urea. The first documented use of carbamide peroxide as a teeth whitening agent was in 1989.

Its usual concentration in a whitening gel is ten percent. This means that a 100-gram of the whitening gel contains ten grams of carbamide peroxide.

Let us first visualize a yellow stained tooth. It also has light brown spots. These are due to that layer of hardened foreign material covering the tooth enamel. In fact, some of it has already blended with the enamel. It cannot be removed by scratching it off. And, obviously, your toothbrush is helpless against it.

When the gel is applied on the teeth’s surfaces, the active ingredient, carbamide peroxide breaks down to produce the hydrogen peroxide. The hydrogen peroxide breaks down again to release the oxygen.

The oxygen reacts with the discolored material on the teeth. The stain may be hard but it cannot ignore the active oxygen. The stain chemically changes and it loses its dark color. This process is not instantaneous. This is why the dentist keeps the gel on the teeth for several minutes to allow the gel to breakdown and do its work. To speed up the process, a laser light is sometimes trained over the affected teeth.

Then, the gel is rinsed off. The process is repeated for as many times as needed and the whole session could last for about two hours, depending on how stained your teeth are.

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