After you get your teeth whitened, they can become dehydrated. This is unhealthy and can make your teeth absorb color from foods, ruining whatever improvement your whitening treatment did.
After teeth whitening, it is common for teeth to feel dry and sensitive.
To help rehydrate your teeth and reduce sensitivity, you can try the following:
- Drink plenty of water to help keep your mouth hydrated.
- Avoid consuming staining agents, such as coffee, tea, red wine, and tobacco, for at least a day after the treatment.
- Use toothpaste for sensitive teeth and gently brush your teeth to help soothe discomfort.
- Avoid acidic or sugary foods and drinks, which irritate sensitive teeth.
- Consider using a fluoride mouthwash or rinse to help strengthen your tooth enamel and reduce sensitivity.
Following these steps can help rehydrate your teeth and reduce sensitivity after teeth whitening. If your teeth continue to feel uncomfortable or sensitive, it is important to contact your dentist for further evaluation and treatment.
However, there are ways to rehydrate your teeth fast, and you can avoid certain foods until they are rehydrated. Dehydration usually happens after in-office dental treatments. While getting your teeth treated at the dentist rather than home is more effective, it is also more likely to dehydrate your teeth.
Why Do Teeth Get Stained and Dehydrated?
Contrary to what you might think, your teeth can absorb liquids. Coffee, tea, wine, and many other fluids can penetrate below the surface of your enamel. Your teeth can absorb liquids like a sponge, making staining possible and allowing whitening treatments to work.
Like your skin, your teeth have pores. Hydrogen peroxide is a common whitening ingredient not only because it can remove stains but because it can help widen the pores.
The peroxide opens the pores, breaks down the stains by a chemical reaction, and flows out again, leaving your teeth whiter. However, this dehydrates your teeth. Tooth dehydration is not limited to the surface – the inside of the tooth can become dehydrated, which can cause problems.
The peroxide raises the temperature inside your tooth, which dries it out. Peroxide also causes water to flow through your teeth by opening the pores.
While your teeth are dehydrated, they will absorb liquid like a dry sponge, making your teeth particularly vulnerable to staining. Drinking coffee, red wine, or anything else that can cause stains shortly after whitening is a bad idea.
Dehydration can also make your teeth way too sensitive. Normally, your teeth can protect their nerves from drastic temperature changes. However, dehydration makes the nerves more vulnerable so a cold drink can cause pain.
How Long Does it Take for Your Teeth to Rehydrate?
After any dehydrating dental treatment, it takes two days to a week for your teeth to fully rehydrate. You must be very careful for at least a day or two after your whitening treatment, as you can immediately re-strain your teeth.
How to Rehydrate Teeth After Whitening
The simplest way is to drink enough water. You don’t have to drink much of it daily, but stay hydrated. If you aren’t drinking enough, you will produce less saliva, and your teeth won’t rehydrate for a long time. Your teeth also get vitamins and minerals through your saliva.
Again, drinking a lot of water doesn’t work. Drinking enough to stay hydrated works; drinking much more than that won’t help. Sloshing water against your teeth won’t work either and might prevent your teeth from rehydrating.
Simply keeping your mouth full of saliva is the best way to rehydrate your teeth. There is no special trick to it – don’t do anything that dries your mouth out. Smoking, intense exercise, sweating a lot, not drinking enough, and drinking anything dehydrating will dry your mouth.
Tooth dehydration sometimes occurs for reasons other than whitening treatments. If you become dehydrated while asleep, you might wake up with lighter-colored spots on your teeth. These spots are there because some parts of your teeth are dehydrated. Chronic tooth dehydration can lead to cavities.
Drinking enough water is good for your health in many ways. The human body is made mostly of water, and you need a lot of it daily for your body to work properly.
Many people are frequently dehydrated because they drink sugar, caffeine, and alcohol dehydrate them. Don’t have a soft drink when you’re thirsty – drink water instead.
