Whitening, or bleaching, is a treatment intended to lighten the colour of teeth. The procedure can be undertaken from either the outside (external bleaching) or from within the pulp cavity following root treatment (internal bleaching). Both treatments are essentially cosmetic and while widely practised, bleaching has had a difficult history.
Following a previous legal ruling it was unlawful to supply, and therefore use, whitening products that released more than 0.1% hydrogen peroxide. That concentration of hydrogen peroxide, which is the active bleaching agent, was virtually useless for whitening teeth.
Over the years bleaching agents that release a much higher percentage of hydrogen peroxide have been widely used on many hundreds of thousands of patients who have clearly benefited as compared to other techniques to lighten a tooth’s colour, such as crowns or veneers. These latter are destructive of tooth tissue whereas bleaching/whitening is not.
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