#2 Are You a Good Candidate?

Before you decide whether teeth whitening is right for you, you need to know you're a good candidate. Not everyone is and the reasons why may surprise you.

Stains on teeth appear for lots of different reasons. They could be caused by age, diet, lifestyle, and even certain medications. But more importantly, stains can be limited to the surface of the tooth enamel, or they can go deeper and penetrate tooth enamel tissue.

The teeth whitening process generally produces the most satisfactory results on surface stains caused by age, consumption of stain-including food and beverages (cola, coffee, tea and blueberries), and smoking. Deeper stains that affect tooth tissues, such as those caused by tetracycline or fluorosis, may not respond as well to the whitening process but it will take much longer.

Something else you need to consider is previous dental work. Crowns, veneers, and caps don't respond to teeth whiteners. That's because most materials used to cover teeth, like porcelain and metal, are impermeable. When applied, the bleaching agents in teeth whiteners are not able to penetrate the manufactured tooth surface, making them mostly ineffective.

But that's not all. Since the colour of a crown, cap or veneer is usually matched to the colour (or shade) of existing teeth, teeth whitening will produce noticeable differences in the shade of the teeth without dental work. In other words, the patient's teeth will lighten but any teeth with existing dental work likely will not.

If you have tooth decay or gum disease, you may not be a good candidate for teeth whitening. If you are hypersensitive, you may not be a good candidate either as you may feel excessive discomfort during treatment.

Finally, while studies show that teeth whitening products are safe when used as directed, it is important to note that the effects on pregnant and nursing women of ingesting teeth whiteners have not been fully studied. So as a precaution, nursing and pregnant women are advised to refrain from the procedure until pregnancy and nursing have ended.

Now that you know what the teeth whitening process involves and you have an idea whether or not you're a good candidate, the next thing to figure out is whether you think it's something you can do yourself.