Deep Bleaching with Cavities?

[lemonlollies]

Hi I have 2 very small cavities on my lower front teeth, by the gumline. They are about 1mm square and less than 1mm deep, and light brown in colour. My current dentist has been 'watching' them for about 9 months now, and during that period I've been using a prescription fluoride toothpaste. I also have very faint areas of demineralisation on my front teeth (little white/brown spots) and I have heard that the first approach to minimising the appearance of these spots is through whitening.

I would like to add that I had no cavities up to the age of 23 and only in the last couple years have I developed any problems, my dental hygeine went down due to a great amount of stress I was dealing with but now my oral hygeine is great, and has been since the beginning of this year. I realise I'm not the perfect candidate for whitening but my appearance is important to me and to my career. Anyone looking at my smile would not see any problems (except myself and dentist!) I don't have nasty rotten teeth by any stretch and I do not want to resort to veneers. So my question is this - do I get the cavities filled before having them whitened if I plan on getting them filled again shortly after? The cost is not too much of an issue, but I don't want to do something unneccesary. I have no sensitivity in these areas to hot or cold, and I have used whitening strips on my teeth with no sensitivity issues.

I am changing to a cosmetic dentist who also provides microabrasion, and does very good white fillings, although I don't want to pay for my fillings twice over. I'd rather stay with my NHS dentist for the first set of fillings if this is going to be the case!

Any advice would be welcomed

Lucy

[Dr Mohsen J. Esfahani]

If you do need fillings and plan to have teeth whitening afterwards, you could opt to have whiter shade white fillings in anticipation of your tooth colour becoming whiter once you do have teeth whitening carried out. If the fillings are very small, it will not make a huge difference if the shade is not 100% right.