Our Surrey dentists do not recommend teeth whitening for children for a few important reasons.
Parents often express concern when they notice that their children's newly erupting adult teeth do not look as white as their baby teeth. They wonder if a course of teeth whitening may be the solution.
However, our dentists never prescribe teeth whitening for children, and they have two important reasons for declining to do so.
1. The adult teeth are probably a perfectly normal colour.
The reason adult teeth appear particularly yellow beside baby teeth is that they have significantly more dentin in them. Dentin, the layer of the teeth just under the enamel, is yellow, and so it makes the adult teeth look significantly more yellow than the remaining baby teeth.
Once all the baby teeth have fallen out, they darker colour of the adult teeth will be much less obvious.
2. We don't have enough data on the impact of whitening products on developing teeth.
We really don’t know how teeth whitening might affect teeth that are not yet finished growing and developing, because there isn’t enough data available.
Rather than run the risk of adverse side effects for children, our dentists only prescribe teeth whitening for patients in the late teen years, and adults.