I went to my dentist telling him that I’m not happy about the color of my teeth. He suggested Crest Whitestrips. I used them for a bit but then I started having some pain. I took a break from them but even a week later, one of my teeth was still hurting. I went to my dentist and he did a cold test. He said that indicated I needed a root canal treatment. Could this have happened from the Whitestrips? I just wanted to whiten my teeth, especially because my dental bonding on the front of that tooth is starting to stain.
Annie
Dear Annie,
It would be highly unlikely that Crest Whitestrips would cause a tooth to need a root canal treatment. We generally suggest that people use a dentist for their teeth whitening so that they have professional supervision of their treatment, reducing the chance of anything going wrong.
We don’t worry about that with Crest Whitestrips too much because it isn’t very strong. It’s just not potent enough to do much damage. The one thing which gives me pause is that you said you had a dental bonding repair. It’s possible that your dental bonding had a vulnerability like a small exposed part which allowed the whitening gel to get in there. Then it could cause some damage.
So you are aware, the Crest Whitestrips won’t whiten your dental bonding. In order to get that the color you want, it will have to be redone.
My suggestion is this. Get a second opinion on your root canal treatment. A cold test alone does not necessarily mean that you need a root canal. If you don’t, then get any exposed area of the bonding fixed, then have professional teeth whitening done. From there you can replace the bonding to match the new color of your teeth.
This blog is brought to you by an affordable dentist in Phoenix, Dr. Hillary Peck.