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Archives for June 2022

Pain with Teeth Whitening

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I’ve been whitening my teeth for several weeks with a home whitening kit. The last few days, though, I’ve started having a zing of pain that lasts for several seconds and then stops. It is always on the tooth where I had a dental bonding repair quite a few years ago. Could the teeth whitening be eating away at the dental bonding?

Nadia

Dear Nadia,

teeth bleaching trays

Teeth Bleaching Trays

I am sorry for the pain you are experiencing. The good news is I do not think teeth whitening is damaging the dental bonding. There has never been any evidence that whitening gel does any damage to bonding agents and it both have been around for a while, as well as used together. The more likely scenario is that a part of your dental bonding has come off leaving part of the tooth exposed and sensitive.

I am assuming that you are doing this home teeth whitening under the supervision of your dentist. My recommendation is you pause the whitening for a few days, call your dentist and let him know what is going on. He can track down where the exposure is and place a protective agent there to re-cover the spot. Then you can continue with your teeth whitening as you normally would, but this time pain free.

You should be aware that dental bonding doesn’t last as long as something like porcelain veneers. For something like a small chip repair, that is fine. Just know that you will need to replace it at some point or it will begin to pick up stains. When it does, teeth whitening won’t fix it. The whitening agents only work on natural tooth structure. The bonding will just have to be replaced.

I hope this helps.
This blog is brought to you by Duluth, GA Dentist Dr. David Marion.

Can I Get Implant Parts Online?

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I have snap on dentures. I often have to replace the male retention caps. At this point, I am having trouble affording even the basics in this economy. Last week I had to choose between food and replacing my retention caps. My dentist charges $25 per cap. So a set costs me $100. I just can’t do this anymore. I looked online and you can get four for $20 for the whole set. That is quite a markup. I tried to order them online, but you have to be a dentist for them to send them to you. Is there any way for me to get these?

Larry

Dear Larry,

Snap on Dentures

You have three good options here. First, would just be to talk to your dentist directly. Let him know your situation. While it is true that dentists need to mark up some things to help with overhead, this will be such a minor boost to his overhead that he should be willing to work with you on this. If he doesn’t, here are two other things you can try.

Call around to some other dental offices and talk to the staff. Most dentists and the people who work for them are compassionate. It’s normally the staff that orders these and not the dentist directly anyway. They just use his information on the orders. Start with dentists who offer affordable dental implants. They are more willing to work with people on tight budgets.

If both of those things fail, I looked on Ebay. They do sell them and some of the overseas sellers do not require you to be a dentist to purchase them. The only downside to this option is you’ll have to know how to pop them into your denture as well as exactly what you need. There are varying strengths and resistance on these items.

This blog is brought to you by Duluth, GA Dentist Dr. David Marion.