Hello Dr. Hall,
Can teeth be bleached to match the color of the eyeballs or is this unrealistic?
– Birte in Michigan
Dear Birte,
There seems to be no end to the creativity in these questions that I get. Thanks for a very creative question.
Whether or not you could get your teeth as white as your eyeballs depends on how white your eyeballs are. It’s possible, but there’s a limit to how white you can get teeth with bleaching.
But on the general question of matching a color with teeth bleaching–if you want to match some color, porcelain veneers is a better choice, because the results of bleaching are unpredictable. Bleaching will lighten the teeth, but how much depends on factors that are outside our control.
That’s why when you’re having combination cosmetic dental treatments, it’s best to do the tooth bleaching first, then you match the other dental treatment to the bleached teeth. So if you have dark teeth but you only want to do six porcelain veneers, you bleach the teeth first, let the color stabilize (which takes a couple of weeks), and then veneer the front six so that they blend with the new color of the teeth further back. If you did the veneers first and the bleaching later, you wouldn’t be able to match the colors.
– Dr. Hall
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About David A. Hall
Dr. David A. Hall was one of the first 40 accredited cosmetic dentists in the world. He practiced cosmetic dentistry in Iowa, and in 1990 earned his accreditation with the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. He is now president of Infinity Dental Web, a company in Mesa, Arizona that does advanced internet marketing for dentists.
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