History of teeth bleaching
The origins of teeth bleaching started as far as 200 years ago. It all begun with the problem of tooth discoloration that baffled dentists with numerous challenges. They would try various chemicals and methods to get rid of all kinds of discoloration. Despite highly innovative techniques in the early days most of the attempts did not succeed. These efforts were treated mostly as experimental and unpredictable. The problem was that the tooth color would return to its former state and sometimes with even worse condition.
The method of applying 35% hydrogen peroxide to bleach teeth had been around for nearly 100 years. Aesthetic dentistry drew a lot of interest even back in the late 1880s which involved dental recontouring, dental filling with gold and porcelain inlays.
Majority of early experimental attempts to bleach teeth were tested on non-vital teeth. Those days the composites were quite acidic and hazardous and needed to be treated at the patient’s risk.
One of the early teeth bleaching techniques that proved to be worthy was applying chlorine made from a solution of calcium hydrochloride and acetic acid.
There were several oxidizing solutions such as aluminium chloride, oxalic acid, pyrozone, hydrogen dioxide, sodium peroxide, sodium hypophosphate and cyanide of potassium that were applied directly or indirectly to work on the organic part of the non-vital teeth. These chemical agents were classified according to their strength level in removing stains. The best among them were pyrozone, superoxyl and sodium dioxide.
It was by chance that home bleaching was discovered in 1960s due to incidental finding. This home kit would consist of a custom-fitted teeth bleaching tray with 10% carbamide peroxide in it. The person then places the tray in the mouth and wears it for several hours to whiten teeth. Depending on the level of discoloration teeth whitening effect could take from a few days to months.
As this technique went through more research and vigorous improvement by dentists, it eventually managed to produce the desired results with minimal health damage to the patient.
There were also attempts to come up with a material that was strong enough to whiten teeth at the dentist’s office at the shortest time possible. One of the adopted techniques was to use a high intensity light, a method discovered by Abbot.
The difference between home-kit bleaching material and in-office treatment was that in-office bleach material contained more concentrated 35% hydrogen peroxide or 35% carbamide peroxide solution for speedier process.