Teeth bleaching can help you achieve a beautiful smile that you wouldn't otherwise have, but you need to be smart about it. If you don't consult a cosmetic dentist, you can end up with undesirable complications from your teeth bleaching effects. Below are some of the potential complications.

Teeth Sensitivity

As the bleaching agent breaks down the discoloring agents in your teeth, it also opens up the pores on your teeth enamel. This exposes the dentin, the teeth layer under the enamel, to external irritation. In most cases, the irritation is only temporary and goes away by itself after a few days.

However, you can end up with serious dental sensitivity if you undertake unsupervised bleaching. For example, you can seriously damage your enamel if you leave the bleach on your teeth for a long time, use high concentrations of bleaching products, or bleach your teeth too frequently.

Soft Tissue Irritation

Dental bleaching products are formulated to work on the teeth, specifically the outermost layer of the teeth known as the enamel. Ideally, the bleach shouldn't come into contact with the soft tissues in your mouth, though a little contact isn't too damaging. However, you can experience some irritation if too much of the bleach comes into contact with your gums, cheeks, or lips. When you get supervised bleaching, the dentist uses various techniques, such as customized bleaching trays, to prevent gum irritation.

Gastrointestinal Irritation

Dental bleaching products can irritate your stomach if you swallow the bleach. This happens because the chemicals affect the lining of the stomach. The more bleach you swallow, the more gastrointestinal upset you might experience. The risk of swallowing bleach is particularly high if you use excess bleach and over-the-counter bleaching trays that don't fit you properly and don't contain the bleach as well as they should.

Uneven Whitening

Lastly, there is also the risk of uneven whitening if you don't consult a professional before bleaching. You can end up with uneven whitening if the bleach doesn't come into full contact with all the surfaces of your teeth, which can happen if you don't use customized bleaching trays. You can also have uneven whitening if you have dental fillings because the bleach will affect your natural teeth but not your fillings.

Bleaching at home is not bad, but you need to take extra care, and it's also best if you consult your dentist first. Contact a dental clinic like Pinon Hills Dental if you don't get the results you want after bleaching at home or if you suffer any of the complications above.