08/03/23
A lot of people have dental crowns or caps to help cover up or fix broken or decayed teeth. However, as time goes by and your teeth stain or start to suffer from discoloration, you might want to have them whitened. But can dental crowns be whitened?
In this guide, we'll cover all you need to know about whether or not dental crowns can be whitened and the best steps and methods to follow if you have one or more dental crowns and want to have teeth whitening.
Before we look if dental crowns can be whitened, it’s important to have a basic understanding of what dental crowns are. Dental crowns, also known as caps, are little tooth-shaped pieces of porcelain or composite that are installed over broken or decayed teeth.
You can almost think of dental crowns like little hats or covers for your teeth when they get damaged in some way. They provide a shield around the outside of the tooth and protect it from damages, while giving the appearance that all of your teeth are intact and healthy.
There are lots of reasons why people may need dental crowns installed, including:
As we can see, there are plenty of reasons why someone might need dental crowns, and lots of people all over the globe have them, but can you whiten crowns? Unfortunately, the answer is no, it’s not really possible to whiten crowns.
As explained above, crowns aren’t made from the same material as your teeth. Instead, they’re usually made of porcelain, and the chemicals used for teeth whitening simply don’t have the same lightening and brightening effects when applied to this material.
This is why, when installing crowns, dentists have to be very careful to match the color of the crown with the color of your existing teeth so that it doesn't stand out or look strange. And, over time, as your real teeth lose some of their whiteness, the crown may start to look out of place.
If you're planning to have your teeth whitened before getting a crown, the dentist will usually wait until the whitening procedure is complete and then pick a crown to match. And it can be a good idea to undergo whitening before a crown installation.
So, it's not possible to whiten a crown, but can crowns change color just like natural teeth? Well, like almost any material, it is possible for porcelain crowns to gradually stain over time. This is especially true if the crown is exposed to the likes of tobacco smoke, red wine, and coffee.
However, crowns discolor at a much slower rate than regular teeth. So, you may find that your regular teeth start to stain or turn slightly yellow relatively quickly, while the crown still looks more or less the same color as it did when it was first fitted.
This can cause a problem for people with crowns, as the crown starts to look more and more different to the other teeth, and this is clear to see whenever the person laughs or smiles, which can lead to self-confidence and image issues.
Fortunately, even though it’s not really possible to whiten crowns, you can undergo general teeth whitening treatments in order to lighten your teeth, get rid of stains, undo discoloration, and help your natural teeth blend much better with any crowns that you have. Here are just some of the whitening options available to you:
Even though you can’t whiten crowns, it’s perfectly possible to keep the rest of your teeth white and bright to match them. However, since crowns are made in a specific shade, it’s really vital to ensure that you whiten your teeth correctly with the best possible products so that they blend well with the crowns and don’t look strange. Choose the right whitening option for you and take care to get the best results.