Low temperature atmospheric pressure plasma application in tooth whitening

Abstract

Summary form only given. Current tooth whitening technologies utilize high concentration of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) gel and a high intensity light source to achieve tooth whitening effect. However, the high concentration chemicals may cause side effect on human bodies, meanwhile, the role of high intensity light source are controversial. Otherwise, some methods involve thermal treatment to accelerate tooth whitening process, without critical control of emitting thermal energy and power, which might cause damage of tissues. From the recent study, it has shown that the nonthermal atmospheric pressure plasma technology can be utilized in tooth whitening with no need of involving heat effect [1], which greatly enhances safety and minimizes risk of treatments. The mechanism of low temperature in tooth whitening was further investigated and discussed in this paragraph. The tooth whitening effects were achieved by self-constructed DC plasma system and the experiment conditions with and without H2O2 gel were compared. Some other critical experiment parameters such as treatment time and the gap between tooth and plasma jet nozzle were also adjusted and analyzed according to experiment design. From the experiment result, it is worth to be noticed that with increment of treatment time, tooth whitening effect were improved, however, the role of H2O2 gel in the treatment process was controversial. In the condition of high treatment temperature or lower gap between plasma nozzle and teeth, the H2O2 gel was coagulated on the surface of treatment teeth, and hard to be erased. Besides, it was discovered that similar whitening effect was achieved by utilizing this self-constructed DC plasma system without H2O2 gel involvement.