There are many ways to whiten your teeth — from whitening toothpastes and other products at home that can remove many surface stains to light-activated whitening techniques in a dentist's office. One of the in-office whitening methods is vital bleaching.   

Hydrogen peroxide and carbamide peroxide are two of the common ingredients used to vital bleaching. Bleaching teeth is an effective treatment for stained and discolored sound teeth. Vital tooth bleaching has the added advantages of being both less interventive and conservative of tooth issues. Alternative treatment, such as veneers, all-ceramic crowns and metal-ceramic crowns, by necessity require extensive tooth-tissue removal. Vital tooth bleaching, in common with most clinical procedures, is not without any risk. This risk is, however, low. Balanced against the risk of a tooth becoming non-vital after crowning, bleaching remains the initial treatment of choice to improve the appearance of discolored teeth. Although veneers and crowns can improve the appearance of discolored teeth, they can never reproduce the translucency and vibrancy of the intact tooth.

Bleaching has no adverse effect on tooth tissues. Studies on enamel hardness and the bond strength of resin composites to bleached enamel have failed to demonstrate any clinically significant effects of bleaching. There is less research available on the effects of bleaching on dentine bonding but the effect, as with enamel, would appear to be negligible.

In most patients the color of their bleached teeth will remain stable for periods of up to two to three years after which “top-up” bleaching may be required. The choice whether to bleach teeth or provide veneers or crowns depends on the restorative status of the teeth to be treated.