Abstract
Tooth bleaching is a common treatment for the amelioration of the aesthetic of discoloured teeth. In this context, there are two common approaches that employ concentrated solutions (30–40 wt.%) of either hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide as bleaching agents. However, there is an ongoing debate on the possible adverse effects of these different treatments on tooth health, such as variation of the enamel structure, surface morphology, and chemistry, which also affect tooth sensitivity. In the present work, a study on the effect of the two bleaching agents, a 35 wt.% solution of hydrogen peroxide and a 30 wt.% solution of carbamide peroxide, on the permeability and surface morphology of enamel is reported. The investigation was carried out on replicas of incisors obtained after different treatment times and for several patients, employing scanning electron microscopy to study the morphological features of the treated teeth. The significance of the analytical study was corroborated by a statistical analysis of the results. The collected data suggest that hydrogen peroxide treatment increases the enamel permeability, and this could be related with tooth sensitivity, whereas the carbamide peroxide solution increases the formation of precipitates on the tooth enamel.
Highlights
Tooth bleaching of vital teeth has a major aesthetic and psychological impact on dental practice and offers a conservative treatment option in the management of discoloured teeth [1]
The other one proposes that hydrogen peroxide, with a high oxidative power, may dissociate into water, oxygen, and some free radical species, such as hydroxyl radicals (HO·), that are capable of degrading complex longchain organic chromophore molecules, which are responsible for tooth discoloration [2,10]
The samples collected before any treatment (T0, vide supra) were considered as the control group in order to assess the variation of enamel permeability
Summary
Tooth bleaching ( referred as whitening) of vital teeth has a major aesthetic and psychological impact on dental practice and offers a conservative treatment option in the management of discoloured teeth [1]. In-office bleaching procedures are usually employed in the case of severe discoloration or when a rapid treatment is desired [2]. In-office bleaching is usually performed with high concentration of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2, 30–35 wt.%) [2,3] and of carbamide peroxide (35–40 wt.%) [4,5]. The other one proposes that hydrogen peroxide, with a high oxidative power, may dissociate into water, oxygen, and some free radical species, such as hydroxyl radicals (HO·), that are capable of degrading complex longchain organic chromophore molecules, which are responsible for tooth discoloration [2,10]
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