White Spots on Gums After Elgin Dentist Whitening- Is it an Emergency?

I’ve been seeing my Elgin dentist for a lot of different work. We’re basically doing a full mouth reconstruction, but a little bit at a time. I’ve always been leery of doctors of any kind, so this has been quite the experience. At any rate, we got through most of the big stuff, including some crowns on my back teeth. The latest was a round of whitening. I did the in-office kind and they gave me some trays to take home for boosts later if I wanted to. I was supposed to let the color stabilize after for a few weeks, and then we were going to tackle my front teeth. Well, after going home and looking at the color of my teeth, I still wanted to go whiter, so I used the trays that night and the next day. This is the third day and my teeth hurt, but the most concerning part is that I see white spots all over my gums. I don’t know if this somehow relates to the work my Elgin dentist did or if I’m having a reaction to the bleach. Any ideas? I’m a little afraid to go back to him if he caused the problem, but I’ll go see an emergency dentist if need be.

Thanks,

Sharon

Dear Sharon,

This probably isn’t anything that your regular Elgin dentist did and there’s no need to see an emergency dentist, but you should stop whitening. The in-office treatments are very potent and some people have tooth sensitivity from that alone. But, you added more whitening treatments on top of it right away, so it’s not surprising you’re having some discomfort. For this, just stop the whitening. Take an over the counter pain reliever and nurse them along until you feel better. Be careful that you’re not using an abrasive whitening toothpaste and use a soft brush to clean. If you decide to do more whitening in the future, you may want to consider doing a fluoride rinse prior to starting, to reduce sensitivity.

The white spots are probably marks of irritation from the whitener. If you aren’t careful and it stays on your gums, it will damage the tissue and leave a temporary white spot. It will heal in time, but you can do salt water rinses to speed up the healing. If it had happened during your in-office treatment, you would have noticed it right away, so this is likely something that happened during one of your in-home treatments. In time, if you go back to doing the in-home treatments, just be sure to wipe away any excess gel when you put your trays on.

If the pain gets worse instead of better or it lingers for more than a couple weeks, then you might want to see an emergency dentist or head back to your regular Elgin dentist.

This blog is sponsored byElgin dentist, Dr. Steve Sirin.