A patient came to see us unhappy about the general colouration of his teeth and especially the white flecks on his two front upper teeth. They had been present since he could remember and it always bothered him especially when he looked back at photos of himself.
We discussed all his options which ranged from tooth whitening, composite bonding, special etching polish and porcelain veneers.
He initally wanted to take the least invasive path, so we started with professional tooth whitening. There are two types of tooth whitening. In-office and the professional tooth whitening kit. He opted for the professional tooth whitening.
This involved taking impressions of his teeth and making custom fit whitening trays. The custom fit trays are then loaded with the tooth whitening gel and placed in the mouth for 40 minutes. This process is repeated over 10-14 days.
Once we had whitened his teeth to as light as they could go we reassesd the white flecks. In some cases tooth whitening is enough to blend the white flecks, but in his case although there was a huge improvement in colour the white flecks were still there. So we went onto the next step which involved special etching polish.
This involved polishig the white flecks with a special etch which in many cases will remove the discoloured / stained fleck. However in this instance the white flecks were still present.
Our next step involved composite bonding. We carefully selected the shade of composite to his surronding tooth and masked the white flecks. This achieved the result that he wanted and he left for home smiling from ear to ear!
